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Dinos Demakos - vocals, percussion, baglama

Dmitri Mavra - bouzouki 

Julay Broukounas - guitar, vocals

Kosmos Gervisis - accordion, violin, baglama

Pavlakis Wernick – baglama, bouzouki 

The Disciples of Markos are one of the few bands today that play classic Rebetika, a style of music that developed in the underworld of 1930s Greece. The music was born in the ghettos of Athens from the mixture of Greek and Turkish folk styles when thousands of immigrants came from Turkey in the 1920s. It was the music of dopers, thieves, prostitutes, beatniks, dandies, and all sorts of shady characters. This heavy, low-down music told the stories of the hardscrabble underworld life of knife fights, drug busts, love and longing.

The Disciples of Markos were founded in 2005 with the goal of exploring the music of Markos Vamvakaris, the most famous singer, songwriter, and the heaviest, most stoned-out bouzouki player of the 1930s. In addition to the songs of Markos Vamvakaris, the Disciples play songs by many of his cohorts and peers; the great Tstisanis, Delias, Batis, and others. While bouzouki is the main instrument in a Rebetika ensemble, the Disciples like to include other instruments from the classic era; accordion, violin, baglama, tzouras, even the classic clinking of the ouzo glasses . 

The band consists of veterans of the Bay Area music scene well-versed in Balkan music, as well as rock, jazz, bluegrass, cajun and more. The Disciples of Markos are currently the house band at the Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal, a monthly music series  which takes place on the 3rd Thursday of each month (2nd Fridays starting in 2014) at the Starry Plough in Berkeley.

Janam features:

Juliana Graffagna ~ vocals, percussion

Lila Sklar ~ violin, vocals

Tom Farris ~ laouto, guitar, accordion

Gari Hegedus ~ oud, saz, mandocello, violin

Dan Auvil ~ percussion, vocals

www.JanamBand.com

Janam creates a compelling, eclectic mix of Balkan, Romani, Sephardic and American roots music, plus inspired originals. These sultry rhythms and soul-stirring melodies deliver a dance- and trance-inducing groove that carries the listener from the shores of the Black Sea to the foothills of the Appalachians.

Founded by extraordinary vocalist and former music director of Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble, Juliana Graffagna, Janam features several of the Bay Area’s most innovative interpreters of Southern Balkan and Middle Eastern traditional music.

Janam’s collective experience includes literally decades of national and international touring, participation in local super groups Brass Menažeri, Stellamara, Edessa, and Gamelan X, and performances with Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, Madonna, Ivan Milev, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

“An innovative ensemble that explores a dizzying range of styles, from Appalachia and Asia Minor to Eastern Europe. The quintet plays swirling, hard-driving music that always seems to end up in unexpected places.”  SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

“This fine group goes on a world tour of Eastern Europe…with no cultural jet lag.”

SANTA BARBARA INDEPENDENT

“They’re a band to watch, with some sterling musicianship and a real sense of fervor about them.” SING OUT!

Mavrothi T. Kontanis - oud & voice

Mavrothi Kontanis is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, composer and teacher born and raised in the US, but with roots in Halkidiki, Greece. Mavrothi's main instrument is the oud, and he has studied and performed with many of the world's top players, including Münir N. Beken, Emin Gündüz, John Berberian, Kyriakos Kalaitzides, Yurdal Tokcan, Joseph and James Tawadros and Ara Dinkjian, among others. His passion for performing is matched by his love of teaching and composing music. By keeping an open mind and drawing from his diverse experiences as both a Greek and an American, Mavrothi creates music that is both Eastern and Western, old and new. Mavrothi has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and the Middle East, can be heard on numerous recordings and movie soundtracks, and is the leader and founding member of the Maeandros Ensemble.

While on tour in the west coast, Mavrothi is joined by two  friends/musicians who have been part of the Bay Area Greek/Middle Eastern music scene.

Gregory Masaki Jenkins ~ clarinet

Ahmad Yousefbeigi ~ percussion

REVIEWS

VILLAGE VOICE – “...Mavrothi Kontanis and his terrific quintet (featuring Greek clarinet star Lefteris Bournias) breath new life into the Smyrneika cabaret sound and bluesier rebetika standards of pre-war Greece. Emotional yet virtuosic, Kontanis and company unwind their sensuous dance tunes and nostalgic laments with vigor and deliberation, reimagining a world in which Greek, Turkish, and Armenian styles blended together.”

NEO MAGAZINE – “Led by the brilliant oud (lute) player/vocalist Mavrothi Kontanis, the ensemble recreates the music of the 1920s -1940s, specializing in Smyrneika and early Rembetika ("Greek blues")...”

The Maeandros Ensemble specializes in traditional folk, urban and classical music of Greece and the Near East, weaving together a distinctive sound of Turkish, Armenian, Persian, Arabic, Jewish, Gypsy and Assyrian cultural influences. The result is an effortless blend of rich and varied traditions, a musical travelogue of the region. Founded by oud player, singer and songwriter Mavrothi Kontanis, the group’s repertoire includes songs representing historic significance and contemporary appeal.

VERETSKI PASS MUSIC FROM THE CARPATHIAN BOW

Cookie Segelstein - Violin, Viola

Joshua Horowitz – Cimbalom, Chromatic Button Accordion, Piano

Stuart Brotman - Bass, Basy, Tilinca, Baraban

www.veretskipass.com

In Eastern Europe, the roots of World Music go back centuries. Jews and

Moslems, Magyars, Rumanians, Ukrainians and Roma played music together in an atmosphere of sharing, in a multicultural area where professional musicians had to know as many musical styles as the diverse languages of the people with whom they lived and worked. Across the Veretski Pass, the mountain pass in theCarpathians through which Magyar tribes into crossed into the Carpathian basin in 895 AD, and through which the emigrating Jews first settled in Transcarpathia, the musical traditions were as varied as the people who lived there.

Taking it’s name from this cultural hotbed, Veretski Pass offers a unique and exciting combination of virtuosic musicianship and raw energy that has excited concertgoers across the world. With colorful instrumentation, unique arrangements and compositions, Veretski Pass plays "Old Country" music; music with origins in the Ottoman Empire, once fabled as the borderlands of the East and the West. In a true collage of Carpathian, Jewish, Rumanian and Ottoman styles, typical suites contain dances from Moldavia and Bessarabia; Jewish melodies from Poland and Rumania, Hutzul wedding music from Carpathian-Ruthenia, and haunting Rebetic aires from Smyrna, seamlessly integrated with original compositions. Much of this rare music has been gleaned from field recordings gathered by the musicians in numerous trips throughout Europe, as well as from family members.

Often touring in Europe, they have twice been chosen as ambassadors

representing traditional Jewish Instrumental Music of Eastern Europe for the German World Exhibition of Klezmer History (Klezmerwelten) and have headlined the Jewish Music Festival of the University of London. They recently performed at the prestigious Concertgebouw Concert Hall in Amsterdam to a sold out audience with a standing ovation, and their CDs have repeatedly been on the 10-best recordings lists of journalists. Cookie’s unique violin style was featured for a Jewish wedding scene on HBO’s “Sex and the City” and Josh and Stu’s compositions provided the music for Jes Benstock's award-winning film “The Holocaust Tourist."

Veretski Pass be premiering its new magical folk opera,

Lilith, the Night Demon, based on the Medieval “alternate” Jewish story of creation. The fully composed work is in collaboration with the San Francisco Choral Artists and will premiere May 1,3 and 4 in the Bay area.

www.liliththenightdemon.com

http://www.sfca.org

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Lily Storm - Vocals
Dan Cantrell - Accordion

www.songbat.com

Lily Storm is a singer specializing in traditional music, with particular experience in Eastern European styles. She has studied with many traditional singers (Donka Koleva, Kremena Stancheva, Merita Halili and others)  She has traveled extensively, living for some months in Hungary and Greece and visiting Russia, Georgia, Turkey, Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Montenegro, Croatia and India. She also makes use of archival recordings to study ancient styles preserved into the early 20th century. In 2009 Lily released a debut solo album called If I had a key to the dawn: Love Songs and Laments from Eastern Europe, and is currently recording a collection of traditional lullabies from all corners of Europe. she sang with the Bay Area vocal ensemble Kitka for 5 years. As part of Kitka,she recorded as a soloist (The Vine, Wintersongs), collaborated in concert with ensembles including Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares and others. 

Words of Praise:
"A stark, stunning record, unsurprising upon learning that Storm sang with vocal troupe Kitka for a half-decade, whose albums never disappoint. Here she takes on Greece, Aremenia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and more on their own terms, creating a stunning tapestry of sounds backed up by an elegant selection of instrumentalists.” -- Derek Beres, Huffington Post

"Storm knows her material ... and sings with reverence, real skill, and true emotion. She's most certainly a class act, not appropriating the songs, but disseminating them to a wider audience.” -- Chris Nickson, All Music Guide

"this is someone who feels the music at a cellular level, and performs it with exquisite beauty.... Storm's voice and the songs are what this is about, and on the basis of this, she has a very grand future.” -- Sing Out

(lily's on the right!)

3 Leg Torso formed in 1996 as violin, cello and accordion trio with the mission of creating original modern chamber music for their unique instrumentation. Over the following years, the ensemble has expanded both it's musical mission and it's size to become a quintet that now performs original compositions based on an eclectic synthesis of chamber music, tango, klezmer, latin, and Roma (Gypsy) music.

As principal composers, founding members Béla R. Balogh (violin and trumpet) and Courtney Von Drehle (accordion) provide the core of 3 Leg Torso's sound. They are joined by veteran percussionist/mallet player Gary Irvine, the consummate mallets/percussion of T.J. Arko, and the gentleman of the acoustic bass, Mike Murphy.

The ensemble's history began with street performances, which they titled "Meestering", and has led to their releasing three award winning instrumental albums (3 Leg Torso, Astor in Paris, and Animals & Cannibals), East Coast and West Coast tours, performances with symphony orchestras and a profile on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered".

The cinematic nature of their music has led to work with many film makers, including Oscar nominated documentary artist Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me), two short films with Teller (Penn & Teller) two films by Academy Award winning animator Joan Gratz The Dowager's Feast and The Dowager's Idyll, scoring With Hope and Help, a UNICEF funded documentary about living with AIDS in Thailand. One of the ensemble's pieces has been used as theme music for a Bosnian television series, and the group's music was also featured in the 2012 National Geographic special Preparing for the Apocalypse.

In 2003, accordionist Von Drehle was awarded a fellowship at the Sundance Film Composer's Lab, and in 2010, his work on the Oscar nominated documentary

The Final Inch, was nominated for an Emmy.

3 Leg Torso has a full concert set of arrangements for symphony orchestra which has brought them together for sold out performances with the Central Oregon Symphony, Pacific Crest Wind Symphony, Portland Festival Symphony, and the Metropolitan Youth Symphony. Composers Balogh and Von Drehle were commissioned to write a full-length piece, Sinfonia Misterioso, to celebrate the Metropolitan Youth Symphony's 35th anniversary gala concert.

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Photo: Faisal Zedan by Raymond Van Tassel