THE RETURN OF the best performers of Eastern European music. Take the most virtuosic soloists you've EVER heard playing Eastern European music: a gypsy violin, flutes and panpipes, and a cimbalom (chromatic hammer dulcimer). Put them together with a driving bass player, and a soulful singer, under the direction of the finest accordion player, and meld them into a tightly disciplined ensemble, and you've got as good a notion of Harmonia as you can imagine without actually hearing them. Ask the folks who heard them when they were last in town, and you'll hear raves. Ask the folks who really know this music, and you'll hear awe for their virtuosic genius.HARMONIA presents the traditional folk music of Eastern Europe, ranging from the Danube to the Carpathians. Its repertoire reflects the cultures of this region: Hungarian, Slovak, Ukrainian, Romanian, Croatian and Gypsy. Performing on authentic folk instruments, and styled after turn of the century East-European Gypsy bands, Harmonia?s music is drawn from both the urban and rural traditions of Eastern Europe. The ensemble's performances evoke the full range of human emotions; interspersing brilliant pyrotechnical virtuosity with soulful melancholy and nostalgic yearning. THE MUSICIANS come from varied East-European backgrounds; in Harmonia they have found a common musical language. Whether playing at ethnic weddings, celebrations, or in smoky caf?s, this ensemble's members stay close to their roots. Harmonia's music brings to the concert stage the vitality of these traditional settings. VIOLINIST and tamburica player Marko Dreher is the son of a traditional Croatian folk musician. Ukrainian Alexander Fedoriouk is a master of the cimbalom.. Fellow Ukrainian folk flutist Andrei Pidkivka blows sounds you'd never thought possible from the sopilka and the nai. Singer Beata Begeniova is Carpatho-Rusyn from Slovakia. Founder, organizer, and accordionist Walt Mahovlich comes from Cleveland, Ohio, the progeny of Croatian paternal grandparents and Hungarian maternal grandparents. Only bassist Adam Good had to step outside his heritage to acquire his expertise. Obscenely talented.
--Charlie Baum
