Hello, fellow gurdy-players. I'm re-joining the list after a long period of inactivity, which is not to say I haven't been playing music--just haven't been playing gurdy for several years. I have a Hungarian tekero that's about 15 years old, walnut body, 3 strings, with peg for a fourth (although I hate to think how loud it would be with 4 strings; 3 is plenty).
Being presently music director (which is a fancy way of saying I do most of the arranging and repertoire-finding and transcribing, people-herding and logistical stuff that keeps bands together) of two bands, I play Hungarian music on the gurdy, sometimes with other instruments in the band. There used to be a very lively Hungarian folk scene here in the Washington DC area, although it has been rather quiet for a couple of years. When not playing gurdy, I play and sing tamburica music from (former) Yugoslavia, lots of Romanian and Yiddish, Greek, Russian, and mainly Central European traditional stuff on acoustic instruments. My wife plays cimbalom (Tsambal) and there are plenty of good folk musicians in the area to keep us from getting bored. Glad to be back in touch with hand-cranked music. Craig Packard Kensington MD
