Crossroads Music presents:
METROFOLK
Traditional and modern music from Hungary and Romania
Saturday, November 22 at 7:30 pm (free beginners' dance lesson at 6:30)
Calvary Church, 48th St. and Baltimore Ave. in West Philadelphia
http://www.crossroadsconcerts.org or 215-729-1028
The MetroFolk Band, is one of New York City’s preeminent Central
European traditional bands, with a repertoire including both
traditional and more modern Hungarian, Romanian, Roma (Gypsy) and
Jewish music from the Carpathian Basin, covering the traditional as
well as the more modern repertoire. For this concert, core members
Aron Sekely (3-string viola or kontra), Jake Shulman-Ment (violin),
and Raul Rothblatt (bass and cello) will be joined by vocalist Kata
Harsaczki, kontra player Laszlo Hajdu-Németh, and virtuoso Romani
musicians Alexandru Ciurcui (violin) and Iuliu Gheti (bass/accordion)
from the Transylvanian village of Soporul de Cimpie.
Violinist Jake Shulman-Ment is among the leaders of the new generation
of Klezmer and Eastern European folk music performers. He has co-
founded, performed, and recorded extensively throughout the United
States with groups including Romashka, MetróFolk, the Klezminors, the
Village Klezmer Quintet, and Art Bailey’s Orkestra Popilar as well as
luminaries like David Krakauer, Frank London, Duncan Sheik, Alicia
Svigals, Deborah Strauss, Jeff Warschauer, Adrienne Cooper, Margot
Leverett and the Klezmer Mountain Boys, Fleytmuzik, Életfa Hungarian
Folk Band, and many others. His wide range of styles includes klezmer,
classical, Romanian, Hungarian, Gypsy, and Greek. Jake teaches at New
York’s esteemed Henry Street Settlement and the Yiddish folk arts
program KlezKamp. An avid traveler, he has collected, studied,
performed, and documented traditional folk music in Hungary, Romania,
and Greece.
Folk dance and folk music have been present in violinist Aron
Szekely’s life since the day he was born: his father, Levente Szekely
had been one of the most prominent folk violinists in Hungary and his
mother, Hedi Sztano, is an ethnographer and a film director who was a
solo dancer for the prestigious Budapest Ensemble and the Hungarian
National Folk Dance Ensemble.
Although he started dancing in Hungary in the teenage division of the
Bartok Ensemble, Aron ironically only fell in deep love with Hungarian
folk culture after he came to New York at 17 years of age. A dancer
for the Manhattan-based Ritka Magyar Hungarian Folk Dance Ensemble for
three years, he has taught Hungarian dance in several Folk-Dance
Houses (Tanchaz) and workshops in the northeastern US. Since February
2003, he currently dances and teaches in the Csurdongolo Folk Dance
Ensemble in New Brunswick, NJ and coordinates the Talpra Magyar
Hungarian Folk Dance Group, a chamber ensemble dedicated to teaching
and performing authentic Hungarian dances from the Carpathian Basin.
Raul Rothblatt was born in San Francisco, where he first gained a
taste of Hungarian culture through his grandmother and mother,
Holocaust survivors from Budapest. He graduated from University of
California at Berkeley, and studied classical composition at the Liszt
Academy of Music in Budapest before completing a Master’s Degree in
Musical Theater Composition at New York University. As a composer,
performer and music director, Raul has brought his knowledge of
Hungarian folk to the greater New York arts community. As a
bandleader, he combines Hungarian folk with West African classical
music in his band Dallam-Doug ou. In 2003, he co-founded Jumbie
Records which promotes innovative/traditional music from West Africa,
Hungary and beyond.
Kata Harsaczki was born in Eger, Hungary, where she grew up surrounded
by music; her mother had been a big fan of Hungarian folk music and
encouraged her daughter to find interest in the culture of her
ancestors. At 18, she began singing at concerts and performances with
vocal and instrumental groups like the Gajdos Ensemble and Maria
Maczko and winning awards in various singing competitions. In 1999,
she worked with Pal Dsupin, an artist, bagpiper and instrument maker
on a recording for the Tanchaztalalkozo (Hungarian Folkdance
Gathering) series documenting the winners of the yearly Tanchaz
festival, showcasing some of the best folk music from Eastern Europe.
Five years ago, Kata moved to New Jersey, where she became lead
vocalist of the Hungarian group Életfa.
Alexandru Ciurcui is the director and first violinist of Taraf de
Soporul de Cimpie, a superb Romani ensemble from the village of
Soporul de Cimpie in the low hills of central Transylvania. Along with
accordion player Iuliu Gheti, he has spent much of 2008 working in the
Washington, DC area. When their schedule permits, they perform with
MetróFolk.
SOUND SAMPLES AND MORE INFORMATION
http://www.crossroadsconcerts.org
TICKET PRICING
Standard price: $15
Special Supporters: $20
Discount price: $10 (for students, seniors, or if you can’t afford to
come otherwise)
Children under 12: $5
Crossroads events are priced on a sliding scale. We are a not-for-
profit organization and want as many people as possible to be able to
come. If you’re unable to come otherwise, please pay the discount
price, and, if you can afford it, please consider paying the supporter
price so we can continue this policy.
----
You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the
list named "UnivCity-Announce." To unsubscribe or for archive information,
see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>.
You may post announcements to this list, but this list attempts to
prevent discussion. Please use univcity to discuss messages on this
list. Subscribers of univcity receive all mail to this list.
