| |
|
|
| The Xylem Folkestra
Project |
Composer, violinist, and producer Kaila Flexer, together with internationally-known
musicians Nicolai Prisacar (accordion), Michele
Simon (tupan, Bulgarian
bass drum/vocals) and Gari Hegedus (oud, saz, tambura, lauto), and
Lisa Liepman, are collaborating with outstanding young musicians
at The Crowden School on The Xylem Folkestra Project. The
collaborators have created a body of new music that incorporates
the meters of Balkan folk music with forward looking classical and
contemporary classical devices. The project will culminate with concerts
comprised of two sets of music: one set for a listening audience,
and a second set for Balkan folk dancing with audience participation.
This project uses the botanical word “xylem,” meaning “plant
tissue that carries water and dissolved nutrients from the roots
through the stems to the leaves.” This is a metaphor for folk
music—a living, integrated, developing idiom that carries culture
between communities and generations. While creating innovative new
music with strong folk roots, the collaborator’s process and
performance brings together classical and folk music communities
for listening and audience participation.
Beginning in September, 2005, Flexer and folk musicians Prisacar,
Simon, and Hegedus joined Crowden music faculty violinist Lisa
Grodin and clarinetist Ken
Durling to begin work with the entire Crowden
student body (76 students) during designated Special Projects school
periods. The students were grouped according to their skill level
and their own interest in instrumental or vocal music. They have
learned a body of traditional Balkan folk songs entirely by ear and
have worked on the distinctive ornamentation, phrasing, bowing, and
vocal techniques that characterize this music. The students
will perform with Balkan specialists and faculty in a private concert
for their school on February 16th.
In addition, a group of thirteen highly-motivated students (The
Xylem Folkestra) have been meeting weekly with Flexer to develop
a body of both traditional Balkan and original material by Flexer.
In Flexer’s experience, classically-trained young adults are
the perfect candidates to play this hybrid music, as they are capable
of adopting new playing styles more easily that their adult counterparts
can.
The Crowden School is an accredited 4th-8th grade school serving
70-80 students per year. Founded in Berkeley, California in
1983, Crowden teaches stringed instrument technique, ensemble, orchestra,
music history, music theory, and composition, as well as academic
subjects. Crowden musicians are rigorously selected and trained.
Many graduates have gone on to distinguished musical careers in performance
and composition. The Crowden School and Kaila Flexer co-produced
two successful folk music events at the school in 2003 and 2004.
The creativity and excitement generated within the school and throughout
the community by these events inspired the idea for this collaborative
project. One of Crowden’s goals is to inspire its students’ interest
and ability to participate in musical collaboration; the Xylem
Folkestra certainly has fulfilled this ideal.
Public performances of the Xylem Folkestra will take place
on February 12th at the Swedish American Hall in San Francisco and
on February 17th at the First Unitarian Church of Oakland. Please
go to www.kailaflexer.com
or www.crowden.org for
full details.
Performances will include an optional Balkan dance lesson with folk
dancer Lise Liepman for both audience members and performers. A “listening
set” of traditional Balkan songs and Flexer’s original
compositions will follow. After intermission, the audience will be
invited to dance to traditional Balkan and original Balkan-inspired works.
KAILA FLEXER
Great-granddaughter of Polish Klezmer musicians, violinist Kaila
Flexer has been recording, performing, and producing events in
the Bay Area for the past 20 years. She is best known for her productions
of the Bay Area's annual Jewish music festival Klezmer Mania!,
a much-loved annual Bay Area event for over 10 years (1989-2002).
As a bandleader, she has been at the helm of new folk music ensembles Kaila
Flexer's Fieldharmonik, Next Village, and Third
Ear—all of which played Flexer's original compositions.
Before forming these groups, Flexer performed with such diverse
musical ensembles as Club Foot Orchestra, the Cuban band Tumbao
y Cuerdas, The Bay Area Jazz Composer's Orchestra,
and Klezmer bands Hotzeplotz and the Klezmer Maniax.
She has toured Germany with violinist Hollis Taylor, recorded with
Laurie Lewis, and toured the U.S. and the Virgin Islands.
As a composer Flexer has created her own personal folk music, borrowing
from Klezmer, classical, Balkan, Latin, and jazz. Her compositions
reflect the deep respect she has for these styles while showcasing
her ability to forge new and expansive musical landscapes.
Kaila is Artistic Director of Worldview Cultural Performances, a
non-profit arts organization of which Klezmer Mania! is
a project. In 1989, Kaila Flexer and Mike Marshall founded Klezmer
Mania! which became a beloved Bay Area tradition. Worldview
received grants from the Zellerbach Family Fund, the Fleishhacker
Foundation, the Koret Foundation, the Walter and Elise Haas Fund,
and the Bernard Osher Foundation. Flexer has also produced two events
called Bridges. The first was a concert of Jewish, Arabic,
and Persian music in response to the Gulf War; the second, a benefit
concert for the Middle East Children's Alliance, featured Afghan,
Jewish, and American music in response to the Afghan war. She has
produced as many special events for the Freight and Salvage Coffee
House in Berkeley. Kaila lives in Oakland with her husband, string
wizard Mike Marshall, and their daughter Lucy.
Recordings
· Next Village, Kaila Flexer & Third
Ear (Compass Music, 1999)
· Listen, Kaila Flexer & Third
Ear (Compass Music, 1995)
NICOLAI PRISACAR (accordion/piano)
Virtuoso accordionist/pianist Nicolai Prisacar emigrated to the U.S.
in 1995. Originally from Kishinev, Moldova, Prisacar has a Masters
of Arts degree from the Kishinev Conservatory of Music where he
specialized in Education, Conducting, and Performance. He
subsequently spent almost 30 years touring the world with the Moldovan
State Folk Dance Ensemble Orchestra, Jok, which consisted
of 80 dancers and 25 musicians. For the last ten of these years
he served as musical director and conductor. This award-winning
ensemble traveled to major stages in Europe, Africa, Asia, North
and South America, Australia and New Zealand. In 1982, he was honored
with Moldova's Artist Emeritus award. Nicolai recently performed
the Budashkin Concerto for accordion with the California Wind
Orchestra. He teaches piano and accordion and performs with
the Sacramento Ballet, The Reno Sierra Nevada Balalaika
Society, the North End All Stars Project (Canada),
klezmer band Finjan, and many other groups. After
taking up residence in U.S., he received a California K-12 and
Adult Single Subject Teaching Credential in Music. In addition,
he has received the Nevada K-12 and Adult Teaching License. He
worked as accordionist and collaborator with Kaila Flexer for five
years in the groups Next Village and Kaila Flexer’s
Fieldharmonik, during which time the ensemble performed internationally
and locally at venues such as Zellerbach Hall and Stern Grove,
as well as performing many outreach concerts in Bay Area schools.
In addition to being a consummate musician, Nicolai is wonderful
with children and brings an infectious sense of joy and humor.
MICHELE SIMON vocals, percussion
Michele Simon has been involved with Balkan folk music for over thirty
years. After training and careers as both a modern dancer and an
actress, she has been a vocalist and drummer with a number of Balkan
music groups over the last 16 years, including KITKA Women's
Vocal Ensemble, and the dance bands Anoush, Brass
Menagerie, Orkestar Sali and Zabava! Izvorno.
She has studied with numerous native-born musicians, and has appeared
on recordings and stages across America and in Bulgaria, as well
as on Bulgarian National TV. Michele teaches private students and
workshops throughout California, sharing her interest in the challenge
that Balkan singing presents for American voices. For the last
5 years she has taught the popular "Balkan Vocal Technique" class
at Eastern European Folk Life Community's (EEFC) Balkan Music and
Dance Camp in Mendocino, which focuses on placement, ornaments,
pronunciation, and a practical approach to achieving a more-Balkan
singing style.
GARI HEGEDUS oud, saz, tambura, lauto
Gari Hegedus plays almost anything with a string: Greek lauto, oud,
saz, Bulgarian tambura, and many others. He currently plays with
world music group Stellamara, Rom Music Ensemble Orkesta
Sali, Middle Eastern trio Fringe with Tobias Roberson,
and the Jewish women's chorus Ya Elah headed by Bon Singer.
He has toured with the Mevlevi Dervish (Sufi) Order of America and
continues to participate in Turkish ceremonial and devotional gatherings
around the country. Gari is a sought-after recording and performing
artist. His repertoire and playing styles reach outward from Turkey
and Greece into the Arab lands, Iran and India. Gari had devoted
a decade of his life to the violin before learning of his ancestral
Hungarian name, Hegedus, which means “violinist.”
|