The Center for Traditional Music & Dance, World Music Institute and NY Gypsy Festival: The Black Sea Roma Festival Featuring Mahala Rai Banda, Selim Sesler, The NY Gypsy All-Stars, Tescoi Banda and The Yuri Yunakov Ensemble

Making its US debut, the wild, twelve-member Roma (Gypsy) band Mahala Rai Banda is comprised of the crème de la crème of musicians from the famed Clejani and Zece Prajini Romanian villages, home of Taraf de Haidouks and Fanfare Ciocarlia respectively. Combining power and finesse, groove and virtuosity, the group’s music is where Balkan brass meets sizzling strings for up-tempo, catchy melodies propelled along by funky brass riffs, accordion and cimbalom.

The great Turkish Rom (Gypsy) clarinetist Selim Sesler, “The Coltrane of the Clarinet” (Guardian) is famed for his masterful improvisations, funk-driven wedding songs and dance melodies and will be joined on stage by the NY Gypsy All-Stars.

Tescoi Banda, a raucous family fiddle band making its US debut, provides a rollicking ride through the Carpathians. Stars of the recent film The Last Kolomeyka, Tescoi serves up a multi-ethnic mix of spinning dance tunes, magical improvisations and haunting shepherds’ laments.

Ranging from the intensely personal sound of a Gypsy sax solo to the dizzying polyrhythmic beat of Bulgarian wedding music, the Yuri Yunakov Ensemble is one of the leading bands on the world music scene.

Come early and participate in dance workshops before the show:

1:30 - The Bulgarian Roma Workshop led by Steve Kotansky

2:15 - The Turkish Roman Workshop led by Jessaiah Zure

Presented in association with Center for Traditional Music and Dance, World Music Institute and NY Gypsy Festival with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York and the Trust for Mutual Understanding