Friday, August 9
The Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal at the Starry Plough Presents
Briana Di Mara and Friends (11 pm)
Lars and In Charge (10 pm)
Balkanton 340 (9 pm)

Doors at 8:00pm; Show at 9:00pm.
Admission: $12. Ages 21+ after 10 pm
The Starry Plough Pub, 3101 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA

Briana Di Mara and Friends

Violinist and composer Briana Di Mara will be weaving together traditional tunes and unique original Balkan inspired melodies from her recent album, “Haven”. Joining her are stellar musicians Gari Hegedus (Saz,mandocello), Calvin Lai (clarinet) and Sean Tergis (percussion). Come prepared to dance!

Lars and In Charge plays high energy fiddle tunes from Turkey, Greece and beyond.

Lars Tergis leads the charge on violin with original compositions and driving, gritty interpretations of the classics. Chris Reid adds a touch of ‘West’ with percussive chordal accompaniment on acoustic guitar while Sean Tergis keeps the beat popping on drums.

Balkanton 340 brings you the unique traditional sounds of the folk instruments gaida, gadulka, kaval and tupan played by the Bay Area’s most exciting veterans of Bulgarian music. Band members include Hector Bezanis on Gaida and Dena Bjornlie on Gadulka.

The Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal presents a new rotation of bands the Starry Plough Pub on the second Friday of every month. Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal is a concert series featuring the other-worldy talent of musicians from the Bay Area and beyond performing Eastern European folk music. A hub in the Bay Area Balkan music scene, the bacchanal provides a platform for a community of performers, folk dancers, regular attendants and new friends to revel together every month since 2011.

Friday, June 21
Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal at the Starry Plough Pub presents
Fanfare Zambaleta and Melez Band.

Local Balkan Brass favorites Fanfare Zambaleta is excited to host the exciting new Melez Band from the Pacific Northwest in a celebration of the younger generation of the American Balkan scene.

$12 advance/$12-15 sliding scale at the door

Melez Band is a four-piece, Seattle based band that plays Macedonian style Roma Pop.

Eleni Govetas – Saxophone
Benji Rifati – Trumpet
Mik Bewsky – Electric Guitar
Bobby Govetas – Goč (Drum)

Fanfare Zambaleta is a Balkan style brass band that takes inspiration and influences from the Romani, Serbian, Macedonian, Greek, and Bulgarian cultures and is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Friday, June 14 at The Starry Plough Pub
3101 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA

Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal Presents
Blato Zlato (10:30 pm)
Helios (9 pm)

The Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal presents a new rotation of bands the Starry Plough Pub on the second Friday of every month. Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal is a concert series featuring the other-worldy talent of musicians from the Bay Area and beyond performing Eastern European folk music. A hub in the Bay Area Balkan music scene, the bacchanal provides a platform for a community of performers, folk dancers, regular attendants and new friends to revel together every month since 2011.

Helios

Friday, May 10 at The Starry Plough Pub
3101 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA

Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal Presents
Alex Hand Band (11 pm)
Trio Iveria (10 pm)
Saul Goodman’s Klezmer Band (9 pm)

The Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal presents a new rotation of bands the Starry Plough Pub on the second Friday of every month. Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal is a concert series featuring the other-worldy talent of musicians from the Bay Area and beyond performing Eastern European folk music. A hub in the Bay Area Balkan music scene, the bacchanal provides a platform for a community of performers, folk dancers, regular attendants and new friends to revel together every month since 2011.

Alex Hand Band

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Alex Hand graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno’s jazz program in 2011 with a bachelor’s in guitar performance. After touring the country and beyond with west coast bands from Portland and Los Angeles, including LA-based French swing singer, Jessica Fichot, Alex has been living in the San Francisco area for five years teaching and performing. The Alex Hand Band released their debut album, Traders of the Lost Arts, in 2018 of traditional dance music from Eastern Europe arranged for a guitar-led jazz ensemble. Alex has performed for the Midwest Gypsy Swing festival, and Montreal’s Francofolies festival. AHB is working on their second album of Eastern European folk jazz, due in summer 2019, and will feature Chris Trinidad on bass and Isaac Schwartz on drums. Be sure to catch their last Bay Area performance before Alex moves to Texas for grad school in June!

Trio Iveria

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Discover Georgia—music is my life, is a cultural program presented by “Iveria”, a small collective of well-known Georgian performers: Irakli Rusia (Iveria), Zaza Korinteli (Zumba) and Giorgi Kikvidze.

The group’s intention is to popularize Georgian culture and art in the United States and become a cultural bridge between Georgia and the United States. In Georgia, the special love to the land and harvest is preserved by generations and is expressed through ancient customs, architecture, fine and folk art, poetry, folk singing called polyphony and unique dance tradition.

Saul Goodman’s Klezmer Band

Saul Goodman’s Klezmer Band comes from a musical tradition tracing back to the old world shtetl of Szrensk. Incorporating post-immigrant sounds rooted in klezmer, Saul Goodman’s music moves the spirit and the dance. It’s always a simcha with Saul!

We’ll be debuting some new compositions, as well as some old gems dusted off from Beregovski and Kostakowski collections. And we’ll feature special guest percussionists on xylophone and drum kit.

Mike Perlmutter – clarinet
Dave Rosenfeld – mandolin, violin, percussion
Ilana Sherer – violin
Dmitri Gaskin – accordion
Eric Perney – bass
Eddie Pollard – drums
Jonathan Simon – xylophone

Friday, April 12, 2019
The Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal Presents
Dan Cantrell Quartet (11 pm)
Lars and In Charge (10 pm)
Staro Vino (9 pm)

The Starry Plough Pub
3101 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA

The Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal presents a new rotation of bands the Starry Plough Pub on the second Friday of every month. Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal is a concert series featuring the other-worldy talent of musicians from the Bay Area and beyond performing Eastern European folk music. A hub in the Bay Area Balkan music scene, the bacchanal provides a platform for a community of performers, folk dancers, regular attendants and new friends to revel together every month since 2011.

Dan Cantrell Quartet (11 pm)

Dan Cantrell (accordion), Greg Jenkins (sax & clarinet), Josh Mellinger (percussion), and Travis Hendrix (bass).

Dan Cantrell is an Emmy-award winning composer and multi-instrumentalist who has emerged as one of the most virtuosic and well-known American accordionists. Dan is appreciated by audiences and collaborators his love for the idiosyncratic and flawed beauty found in live acoustic performance and his exploration of haunting and mysterious ambient sound textures.
 Gregory Masaki Jenkins is a San Francisco Bay Area born and raised professional musician and educator who is known for his skill and passion for the music of the Balkans on clarinet, alto saxophone, and voice.
Travis Hendrix spends his time composing and performing music, in jazz and Balkan folk ensembles on clarinet and bass.
Josh Mellinger is a multi-instrumental professional percussionist based in the San Francisco Bay Area and educated at Calarts and actively performs middle eastern, indian, african and gamelan  traditional styles of percussion.

Lars and In Charge (10 pm)

Lars and In Charge plays high energy fiddle tunes from Turkey, Greece and beyond. Lars Tergis leads the charge on violin with original compositions and driving, gritty interpretations of the classics. Chris Reid adds a touch of ‘West’ with percussive chordal accompaniment on acoustic guitar while Faisal Zedan keeps the beat popping on derbekki, riq and cajon.

Staro Vino (9 pm)

Staro Vino is balkan folkdance band specializing in the vintage repertoire of Bulgaria, Greece, and Macedonia.  Staro Vino is Mark Jenkins (percussion and vocals), Andrew Cohen (accordion), Greg Masaki Jenkins (clarinet and vocals), and Peter Bonos (trumpet).

The Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal Presents Orchestra Euphonos with Ionela Guzic (Romania) and Kef (on tour from Eugene, Oregon) for an EXTRA bacchanal in March.

Friday, March 29
The Starry Plough Pub
3101 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA
Doors at 8:00pm; Show at 9:00pm. Admission: $12-15 at the door. Kitchen closes at 10:00 pm (ages 21+ thereafter)

Joined by folk singer Ionela Guzic, Orchestra Euphonos presents a special program of traditional Romanian music featuring vocalist Ionela Guzic trumpeter and bandleader Peter Bonos, Balder ten Cate on cimbalom, accordionist Zina Pozen, clarinetist Asaf Ophir, drummer Ivan Velev, violinst Matthew Stein, guitarist Yağız Şen & bassist Leo Suarez.

Ionela Guzic is a talented young singer and a rising star in the world of Romanian traditional music. She has performed with many iconic musicians from Romania (e.g., Ansamblu Doina Gorjului, Ionica Minune, Cristinel Turturica) and Moldova (e.g,. Lautarii din Chisinau, Fratii Stefanet). Ionela was born in Targu Jiu (Romania), and graduated from the Music Department in Craiova. She has received numerous awards at national and international folk music competitions. In 2015, Ionela published “Spune-mi mamă ce e doru”, an album of songs that represent the beauty of the folklore from the Gorj region where she grew up. The album was received with widespread acclaim, was featured on many radio and television stations in Romania, and helped launch Ionela’s international career, including tours in the United States. Ionela’s second album is set to be released in August 2019.

Orchestra Euphonos is a Bay Area-based Eastern European folk and klezmer band, performing traditional music from Moldova and Romania. Their performances are joyous occasions filled with wild takes on old favorites, group improvisations and more than a few opportunities to dance. Ionela first met with Orchestra Euphonos in early 2018, when she was visiting California to perform for the Romanian community.

Kef is Eugene’s own Balkan dance band. Focusing on music from Bulgaria and Macedonia, their repertoire is equally suitable for a folk dance or a late night party. With two trumpets in tight harmony, they cover the sound of Romani (“gypsy”) and Macedonian Greek brass bands on the one hand, while on the mellower side their accordion, cello and guitar players can create a relaxed texture beneath beautiful vocal melodies, all with the solid driving pulse of a drummer adept in the many and varied rhythms of Balkan music.

Read more about Kef

Friday, March 8, 2019
The Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal Presents
Fanfare Zambaleta (10:15 pm)
Balkanton 340 (9 pm)

The Starry Plough Pub
3101 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA

Continue reading →

Friday, February 8, 2019
The Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal presents Alaturca Connection and Giorgos Frantzeskakis and Giorgos Stratakis

Starry Plough Pub
3101 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA

The Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal presents a new rotation of bands the Starry Plough Pub on the second Friday of every month. Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal is a concert series featuring the other-worldy talent of musicians from the Bay Area and beyond performing Eastern European folk music. A hub in the Bay Area Balkan music scene, the bacchanal provides a platform for a community of performers, folk dancers, regular attendants and new friends to revel together every month since 2011.

Alaturca Connection (9 pm)

Alaturca Connection is a Turkish music band  formed by Bay Area’s widely acclaimed musicians. Each band member brings musical depth and years of experience in playing a broad repertoire of classical, folkloric and contemporary Turkish, Balkan and Roman songs. They perform regularly at community events, weddings, and shows at various San Francisco venues. The band has also been an active supporter of social projects including underprivileged girls’ education and organizes an annual event called Gelecege Sarkilar (Songs for the Future) on March 2, 2019 to support the cause.

Giorgos Frantzeskakis and Giorgos Stratakis (10:30 pm)

Boasting supreme musical talent and intuition, harmonizing voices, and upbeat tempo. The young duo of Giorgos Frantzeskakis (violin) and Giorgos Stratakis (Cretan laouto) has become growingly popular throughout the island of Crete, and especially within their native area of Hania (Western Crete).

Friday, January 11, 2019
The Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal presents
Agapi Mou
Arabic Contemporary Music Group
The Tzereme Crew

Starry Plough Pub
3101 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA

Faisal Zedan

Agapi Mou

Continue reading →

Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal
At the Starry Plough Pub presents…

The Keepers (11 pm)
Alex Hand Band (10 pm)
Baymele (9 pm)

Friday, December 14
The Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA

Doors at 8:00pm; Show at 9:00pm.
$10 presale tickets are available online
$12-15 sliding scale at the door
Kitchen closes at 10:00 pm (ages 21+ thereafter)
Facebook Event

The Keepers start with a bedrock of traditional Arabic beats by brother Faisal Zedan, add a layer of impeccable accordion by Dan Cantrell, and finish it off with a harmonious frenzy of horns by Joey and Calvin Lai.

With a setlist that ranges from Bulgarian wedding tunes to hot club jazz, the Alex Hand Band mines the common ground between swing and Eastern European folk dance music–the soundtrack of Western music moving across Balkan borders and being changed by European village music. Alex Hand is a guitarist, currently based in the San Francisco area. Alex’s musical journey has taken him from classic rock and punk to classical guitar, jazz and the Django Reinhardt tradition.
Bay Area klezmer trio Baymele (“little tree” in Yiddish) brings together fiddler Matthew Stein, cellist Misha Khalikulov, and accordionist Dmitri Gaskin. Cultivating and celebrating Ashkenazi Jewish musical identity, their repertoire includes Jewish and co-territorial tunes from Romania, Poland, and Ukraine, Yiddish folk song, Jewish art music, and new compositions and improvisation.