Balkancisco US premiere &
Balkan Brass parade with fanfare zambaleta
Audience Pulse
"It was a fun snapshot of the Bay Area Balkan scene right before the pandemic! Lots of great music and honest interviews through a unique lens!"
"Balkancisco is a fascinating window into the San Francisco Balkan music scene, and really communicates the shared love of Balkan music, dance, folk culture, and community that is so prevalent in the Bay Area."
"Amazing view at various musically and culturally diverse communities in San Francisco and the Bay Area and at the Balkan music scène in the area"
"Upbeat! It’s a coming back home story and it definitely made me feel at home. Kudos."
"Full of heart, soul, and rhythm"
"It made me wanna dance! It made me feel the deep love people have for this community."
active Bands
Édessa - Balkan border music
For many years one of the Bay Area’s premier Balkan dance bands, Édessa is comprised of musicians who have devoted decades to the study and performance of the rich cultural expressions of the southern Balkans. They play with a deep understanding of the connection between dance and music. Using both traditional and modern instruments, they perform in a variety of styles, featuring long sets that interweave melodies, improvisation and a beat with dancers in mind. The music comes from Albania, Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Armenia, and Turkey, and Balkan Roma (Gypsy). The group and its members have long participated in and taught at Balkan camps across the country, and Édessa was the first band to take Balkan music to Japan.
George Chittenden – clarinet, gaida (bagpipe), zurna (shawm), and guitar
Lise Liepman – santouri (hammered dulcimer) and accordion
Ari Langer – violin
Paul Brown – bass
Sean Tergis – percussion
istanbul connection
What happens when you mix Latin rhythms with Balkan beats and infuse it with a Bay Area twist? You get the hottest dance party in Alameda!
With their complex, fiery rhythms, driving tempos and expressive vocals, the Istanbul Connection delivers an exhilarating evening of sonic expression and cross-cultural musical connections to keep you on your feet and dancing to the beat.
Bringing together some of the finest Balkan and Latin musicians in the Bay Area, Istanbul Connection combines the invigorating rhythms of rumba and cumbia with electrifying Balkan brass, alluring Turkish maqam and fiery flamenco in an unforgettable evening of music and dance you won’t want to miss!
Istanbul Connection is a collective of musicians from the Bay Area that came together in 2015 when 13 members of popular Balkan and Latin bands were drawn to visit Istanbul. Focused on building cultural bridges and expanding their sound, these dedicated musicians traveled over 7,000 miles to represent the Bay Area music scene. Since their impressive start, the band has become known as a supergroup of rhythm and has consistently sold out their performances.
janam
Janam ( My Soul ) blends Balkan, Near Eastern and American roots music, creating rapturous acoustic textures, whirling rhythms and stunning vocal harmonies. Led by Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble veteran Juliana Graffagna, Janam unites some of the Bay Area's most imaginative and devoted players of Balkan and Near Eastern music, who weave together Eastern exoticism, gritty Appalachian folk melodies and their own inspired compositions.
Juliana Graffagna – vocals and accordion
Shira Kammen – violin and vocals
Gari Hegedus – oud, mandocello, saz, and violin
Tom Farris – laouto guitar and percussion
Dan Auvil – percussion
kitka
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Kitka is an American women’s vocal arts ensemble inspired by traditional songs and vocal techniques from Eastern Europe and Eurasia. Founded in 1979 as an offshoot of the Westwind International Folk Ensemble, Kitka began as a grassroots group of amateur singers from diverse ethnic and musical backgrounds who shared a passion for the stunning dissonances, asymmetric rhythms, intricate ornamentation, and resonant strength of traditional Eastern European women’s vocal music. Since its informal beginnings, the group has evolved into an award-winning professional touring ensemble known for its artistry, versatility, and mastery of the demanding techniques of regional vocal styling, as well as for its innovative explorations in new music for female voices.
balkan ensemble meraklii
Bay Area-based Balkan Ensemble Merkalii & Rumen Sali Shopov pick you up and spin you around with their energetic Balkan and Romani dance tunes.
Rumen Sali Shopov – tapan and vocals
Lidka Ilieva – vocals
David Solnit – clarinet
Mike Margulis – trumpet
Sharon Grodin – accordion
lars and in charge
LARS AND IN CHARGE plays high-energy dance music from the Balkans and Near East. Lars Tergis leads the charge on violin with driving, gritty interpretations of Turkish Roman and Greek dance tunes, and original compositions.
Lars Tergis – violin
Gregory Masaki Jenkins – clarinet
Chris Reid – rhythm guitar
Joe Rosato Jr. – upright bass
Faisal Zedan – percussion
Sean Tergis – percussion
dodona
Dipping in the deep well of music from Albania and Epirus in Greece, Dodona moves between the mournful to the celebratory. The members of this new group have a specific goal, to bring out their love for the melodies of this small region. With a repertoire that goes from plaintive, to trance inducing, to driving, Dodona is one of the few groups in the Bay Area specifically focused on the Albanian and Epirus diaspora. So whether you love a good tsamiko, or the familiarity of a syrtos, or even if you just love to dance with wild abandon this unique band is sure to deliver.
Calvin Lai – clarinet
Gregory Masaki Jenkins – vocals and clarinet
Kent Kissinger – guitar
Jenette Sellin – accordion
Genevieve Krause – vocals
Sean Tergis – percussion
metanastys
Wildly tender, well-intentioned - disruptive songs from the Balkans, centering around Greece and Turkey by some immigrants. neither uncanny nor too comfy.
Jarolim Gayri (Ali Yağız Şen) – bouzouki, guitar, and vocals
Zina Pozen – accordion and vocals
Marco Ghezzo – violin
Jonathan Kipp – percussion
Kali orkestar
Kali Orkestar, a vibrant ensemble specializing in Romani (Gypsy) Brass music from across the Balkans. Lifelong friends Tano Brock and Benji Rifati will take you on a musical journey through Greece, Turkey, Macedonia, and beyond, showcasing a diverse range of melodies and styles taught to them by masters of the craft.
ŠPAGÂ
ŠPAGÂ! plays exciting and virtuosic gypsy music from Romania, Transylvania, and central Europe!
Andrew Cohen (accordion) and Marco Ghezzo (violin/brač) have put in their time to travel to the source of Lautari and Transylvanian folklore traditions. They have both spent years of their lives apprenticing with master musicians from Romania and Transylvanian Romania+Hungary, and practicing the art/traditions they have become intimately privy to and are bearers of. They are the rising stars in their genre on the West Coast and Bay Area in specific.
Andrew Cohen – accordion
Marco Ghezzo – violin/brač
Zirzuvi
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an undefinable color! that's what Zirzuvi means in Ladino. Playing Sephardic, Middle Eastern, and Turkish music, Zirzuví's music is meant to bridge traditions and invent new relationships
to music and culture while bringing people together to simply have fun.
Dror Sinai – percussion and vocals
Jamie Barsimantov – oud, clarinet, and vocals
Shireen Nabatian – violin, vocals
Megan Clemens – vocals and percussion
Mathew Harmon – bouzouki
Anne Cleveland – flute
Avi Sinai – percussion and vocals
Oriah Barsimantov – accordion
Duygu & friends
"Duygu & Friends" is a dynamic ensemble celebrating Turkish and Mediterranean folk music. With its evolving lineup and creative collaborations, the group brings fresh energy to traditional sounds. "Duygu & Friends" continues to evolve, featuring Peter Bonos on oud and accompanied on different occasions by local stars Zina Pozen and Ilya Kreymer on accordion; Marco Ghezzo, Leah Sirkin, and Oliver Levi on violin; Daniel Goldberg on saxophone; Joey Friedman on clarinet; Javi Jiménez on guitar; Faisal Zedan, Sean Tergis, Luis Jiménez, Aharon Wheels Bosta, and Aaron Goldstein on percussions; and Melike Şengül as the belly dancer.
fanfare zambaleta
Fanfare Zambaleta (roughly meaning crazy street party with brass) is an eight piece Balkan Brass band specializing in spirited music of the Serbian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Greek and especially the Romani people. Combining a love of the classic brass bands of the past with the modern sounds coming out of the Balkans, Fanfare Zambaleta brings an irresistible blend of old and new to get you dancing! They've learned from some of the greats including Demiran Ćerimović, Džambo Aguševi Orkestar and Nizo Alimov (of Kočani Orkestar) and are now embarking on a new journey to write original tunes inspired by their deep love of the music.
Gregory Masaki Jenkins – alto saxophone and clarinet
Joey Friedman – alto saxophone
Noah Levitt and Max Miller-Loran – trumpet
Peter Bonos and Adam Waite – mid horns
Evan Stuart – sousaphone
Ivan Velev – percussion and vocals
inspector gadje
With up to 14 musicians (12 horns and 2 percussionists), Bay Area-San Francisco-based Inspector Gadje brings a big sound to the beautiful and bumpin’ brass band music of the Balkans of south-eastern Europe. Hearing Inspector Gadje is love at first listen. The driving, tight groove of low brass and drums with soaring melodies from trumpets, saxophones, and clarinet incite joy and dance from the very first downbeat. Inspector Gadje ignites the dance floor and makes the party wherever they play, be it clubs (including notable venues such as the MGM Arena, Fox Theater, Palace Of Fine Arts, The Independent, Ashkenaz, Café du Nord, The New Parish, Rickshaw Stop, and Yoshi’s to name a few) weddings, parties, and street festivals.
Noah Levitt – trumpet
Danny Cao – trumpet
Will Magid – trumpet
Shane Cox – trumpet
Morgan Nilsen – clarinet
Teddy Raven – alto saxophone
Mike Perlmutter – alto saxophone
Ofir Uziel – accordion
Paul Marini – baritone horn
Jeff Giaquinto – baritone horn
Greg Stevens – baritone horn
Joshua Sirotiak – sousaphone
Sean Tergis – percussion
Marco Peris – percussion
kugelplex
Kugelplex is the West Coast's rockin’est purveyor of klezmer and old-world music. Formed in 2001, the group plays wild, soulful dance music at concerts, festivals, and Jewish lifecycle events throughout the United States. They have performed with Joan Baez, the Oakland Symphony, the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, Frank London, Linda Tillery, Jewlia Eisenberg, Nils Frykdahl, Kitka, Rumen Shopov, and other greats.
Kugelplex has received awards from the Zellerbach Family Foundation and San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music and has been the klezmer band-in-residence with the Oakland Symphony for over a decade.
Jason Ditzian – clarinet and manager
Dan Cantrell – accordion, piano, saw, vocals, and musical director
Lila Sklar – violin and vocals
Michael Pinkham – percussion
Max Baloian – guitar and sound tech
Eric Perney – upright bass
Jewlia Eisenberg – lay cantor and vocals
orchestra euphonos
Orchestra Euphonos is a Bay Area-based eastern european folk and klezmer band led by trumpeter Peter Bonos. This six-member band formed in 2013. The band studies music by ear, learning melodies in the Ashkenazi traditions of North Eastern Europe with a distinctly modern sensibility. A strong rhythmic brass band feel paired with a joyful and bittersweet melodic sensibility.
saul goodman's klezmer band
Klezmer music for weddings, bar and bat mitzvah parties, and all manner of concerts and celebrations around the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond!
Mike Perlmutter – clarinet and alto sax
Nicole Bloom – clarinet
Ilana Sherer – violin
Josh Wirtschafter – violin
Shulamit Wise Fairman – vocals
Diane Wirtschafter – vocals
Sharon Grodin – accordion
Ron Cohen – trumpet
Dev Noily – trumpet
Michael Saxe-Taller – baritone horn
Jonathan Ruchlis – alto saxophone
Noah Youngs – tenor saxophone
Solomon Alber – tenor saxophone and flute
Greg Stephens – trombone
Johnny Blood – helicon
Steve Brown – bass
Jonathan Kipp – tapan
true life trio
True Life Trio’s music is all about harmony. The fiery voices of these three women spin and interweave, traveling from Ukrainian village tunes, to Greek polyphony to Louisiana two-steps. Bulgaria to the Bayou. On paper, it’s an unlikely combination but in person, it feels just right.
Like the rugged mountains, tangled love and legends about which they sing, TLT shows are full of stories and passion. Interspersed with gorgeous vocal performances are tales of their travels and song collecting that bring immediacy to each tune and envelop their audiences in a knowing, warm embrace. You don’t have to speak all of the myriad languages in which TLT sings to be transported to other worlds with them–they bring you right along.
Leslie Bonnett – voice, fiddle, and percussion
Briget Boyle – voice, guitar, and percussion
Juliana Graffagna – voice, accordion, and percussion
alaturca connection
Turkish music band led by Nurdan Civi. Creating a bridge between modern and traditional by arranging Turkish folk and art songs with a modern touch.
taksim big band
La zuli
La Zuli combines the virtuosic talents of violinist Briana Di Mara and guitarist Anis Sehiri. Together they weave fresh original melodies and danceable rhythms influenced by music everywhere from Spain to North Africa to the Balkans and beyond. They use live looping to create many layers of unique sound. With lush harmonies and improvisations combining with powerful bass and drums, the music is uplifting and inspiring. They perform for all types of events as a duo, trio or quartet.
Anis Sehiri – guitar
Briana Di Mara – violin
Da! Mozhem
Da! Mozhem plays and sings high-energy pan-Balkan music for the joy of dancing. D!M is a group of friends who have been playing together for well over a decade. The group has veterans from many excellent folklore bands such as the People’s International Silver String Macedonian Band, Born to Drone, Westwind, Sviraci, and the Slavonian Traveling Band. The band plays with emphasis on Bulgarian, Macedonian, and ex-Yugoslav traditions. Several members frequently travel to the Balkans to learn more about the folkloric music of the region. The group plays on traditional instruments unique to the region as well as modern instruments.
balkan bump
Balkan Bump’s music fuses heavy electronic production with global music influences including traditional Balkan brass melodies, Middle Eastern sounds and American hip hop. The Balkan Bump live show highlights Magid’s expertise as an orchestrator, ranging in size from a solo performer to a 12-piece band featuring a menagerie of global instruments including sitar, saz, oud, clarinet and trumpet. The live performance’s popularity has brought the project to global renown with performances at the world’s biggest music stages including Coachella, Bonnaroo and Lightning In A Bottle, as well as beloved jazz, blues and world music festivals including Harvest Music Festival and CA WorldFest, and numerous appearances at Colorado’s famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre.
archive
AGAPI Mou
Agapi Mou, quite simply, is a group of four musicians drawn together by their common love of Greek traditional music. They chose the name “Agapi Mou” (meaning “my love” in Greek) to symbolize the love they feel for the music and the passion with which they play it. Formed three years ago, in Berkeley, CA, and led by the young half-Japanese duo of Aya Davidson and Gregory Masaki Jenkins, the group assembles many decades worth of experience in Greek musical genres (odd, yes, but true).
Using violin, voice, clarinet, Greek lute (laouto), and percussion, the group takes you on a listening tour of the surprisingly diverse regional styles found in Greek music. Stops on the itinerary include the islands of Crete, Rhodes, Amorgos, Ikaria, Mytillini, as well as the mainland regions of Thrace, Macedonia, Epirus, and the Peloponnese. And lastly, because love and songs respect no boundaries, don’t be surprised by a cross-border stopover in Albania, Turkey, or perhaps Armenia.
Aya Davidson – violin and vocals
Gregory Masaki Jenkins – clarinet and vocals
Alan Davidson – laouto
Sean Tergis – percussion
http://agapimoumusic.com
http://agapimou.bandcamp.com
http://www.youtube.com/ayagreg
disciples of marcos
The Disciples of Markos play Rebetika music from the hashish dens of the 1930’s GREEK UNDERWORLD. The music was a mixture of Greek folk music and the Turkish music brought to Greece by thousands of immigrants from Turkey in the 1920’s. In the ghettos of Athens and Piraeus a new style began to emerge, it was the music of dopers, thieves, whores, beatniks, well dressed outsiders and all sorts of shady characters. This heavy, low down music told the stories of the hardscrabble underworld Rebetika life of knife fights, drug busts, love and longing.
The Disciples play in the style of Markos Vamvakaris, the most famous singer, songwriter and the heaviest, most stoned-out bouzouki player of the 1930’s. While bouzouki is the main instrument in a rebetika ensemble, the Disciples like to include other instruments that were used in the 1930’s; accordion, violin, santouri, baglama, tzouras, even the classic clinking of the ouzo glasses.
The Disciples are located in the San Francisco Bay Area where they hold the distinction of being the longest-running rebetiko band in America.
The Disciples of Markos are proud members of The Radical Movement for Rebetiko Dechiotification and Bouzouki
Detetrachordization (http://www.rebetiko.org/).
Gregory Masaki Jenkins – vocals and baglama
Dmitri Mavra – bouzouki
Jenette Sellin – guitar and sandouri
mwe
Based in San Francisco, MWE puts a modern and eclectic twist on Turkish and Balkan folk music. MWE plays traditional and original songs and it’s about the closest to heavy metal one can get without electricity. MWE’s shows are loud, wild, and raucous affairs designed to draw the entire audience onto its feet by the end of the first song.
Paul Bertin – alto saxophone
Gregory Masaki Jenkins – clarinet
Calvin Lai – zurna
Morgan Nilsen – clarinet
Sean Tergis – davul, darbuka, daf, and riqq
stellamara
Internationally acclaimed world music ensemble Stellamara premieres electro-acoustic sets emphasizing their signature passionate rhythms and eastern melodies, along with dramatic orchestral sections, otherworldly ambiance, and deep bass grooves.
Evolving for over a decade of recording and performing, Stellamara unites world-renowned musicians from diverse cultural backgrounds in a shared devotion to folk and classical music rooted in Near Eastern, Eastern European, Medieval European, Arabic, and Persian traditions. Stellamara is regarded as being at the forefront of contemporary world music, giving new life and a fresh, modern expression to the beautiful and mysterious qualities of traditional modal music.
Stellamara is currently performing as an electro-acoustic trio, featuring vocalist and producer Sonja Drakulich, multi instrumentalist and producer Miles Jay and multi instrumentalist Evan Fraser. Stellamara also continues to perform as a full acoustic based ensemble, featuring multi-instrumentalist Gari Hegedus, and including guest musicians: percussionists Evan Fraser, Sean Tergis, and Faisal Zedan, violinist Briana Di Mara, and accordionist Dan Cantrell and cellist Rufus Cappadocia.
cabin 19 trio
2020-2022
Cabin 19 consists of three Balkan Camp enthusiasts collaborating to bring you dance favorites from Eastern Europe. The band was born during the pandemic and the band members are based in the SF Bay Area, where they play in various other Balkan and Middle Eastern music ensembles as well.
Asaf Ophir – clarinet and saxophone
Balder ten Cate – cimbalom and guitar
Zina Pozen – accordion
Balkalicious fire drive
With searing instrumentals and fierce, sultry vocals soaring over hard-hitting grooves, the Bay Area's Rockin' Balkan band, Balkalicious Fire Drive moves you with the raw and intoxicating energy, sound and spirit of the Balkans! The group is passionate about honouring traditional musical roots, particularly those of Greek, Balkan Rom, and Macedonian music, while infusing their sound with more modern sensibilities.
The members of BFD bring with them extensive and vibrant histories immersed in the world music scene.
Leslie Bonnett – vocals and violin
Shea A.J. Comfort – clarinet
Haig Kassabian – drums
Stu Brotman – bass
Jarolim Gayri (Ali Yağız Şen) – guitar and vocals
Levona
The Levoná Ensemble combines Flamenco, Arabic, Jewish, and other musical traditions, and weaves them together with stories, both ancient and new. Five master musicians create a rich tapestry that is at once a taste of the orient, and a new creation all on its own - the kind of energy that only comes when distant cultures overlap, and celebrate their differences.
Levoná began as the band for the highly acclaimed Bay Area musical “Love Sick”, winning the Theatre Bay Area Award for Best Ensemble along with the cast in 2017.
Asaf Ophir – frula, clarinet, vocals and ney
David McLean – guitar
Faisal Zedan – percussion
Josh Mellinger – percussion
Patrick Kelly – bass
Radio istanbul
Radio Istanbul is a Bay Area Turkish folk band led by Haluk Kecelioglu.
Haluk Kecelioglu – violin, oud and vocals
Gregory Masaki Jenkins – clarinet
Schuyler Karr – upright bass
Sean Tergis – percussion
Faisal Zedan – percussion
nakarat
2019-2024
Nakarat is a San Francisco-based duo performing a vibrant, emotional melange of folk songs in Turkish, Ladino, Greek, Griko, and Italian. A Mediterranean breeze with spicy nomadic tunes from the region.
Duygu Gün – guitar and vocals
Jonathan Kipp – accordion and vocals
Brass Menažeri Balkan Brass Band
2000-2013
The Brass Menažeri ("Menagerie") was the San Francisco Bay Area's Balkan Romani ("Gypsy") powerhouse Brass Band. For 9 years they cascaded through the music of the Serbian, Macedonian, Greek & Rajasthani Roma with wild rhythms, soulful vocals & hot improvisations. Their energy was infectious—toes tap, bodies slam, sweat flies as vital energy radiates from the dance floor. The Brass Menažeri was a shining example of traditional Balkan repertoire combined with new sensibilities, innovative arrangements & original compositions at the hands & lips of American devotees.