BERKELEY, CA – Kombos Collective announced its newest arranging and recording project called Vardari, which premieres on Saturday, May 31 at the Berkeley Finnish Hall, 1970 Chestnut Street in Berkeley, with live music and a folk dance lesson. Vardari is an exploration of shared Balkan melodies, celebrating the interconnected musical traditions of the Balkan region with a focus on the Hellenic world. The pieces will feature original arrangements for a world fusion ensemble, exploring Balkan music through nine different languages and reflecting the region’s diverse cultural history. In support of this project, Vardari has been awarded grants from the Fleishhacker Foundation, InterMusic SF, and the Elios Charitable Foundation.
Kombos Collective will also perform at the Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal on Saturday, August 16 at Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley, and plans to self-release a full-length album titled Vardari: Shared Balkan Melodies on Friday, September 5.
Kombos director Ellie Falaris Ganelin is the catalyst behind this project, researching repertoire, arranging the scores, playing flute, and singing in a number of languages. She has collected song ideas from her own research and crowd-sourced repertoire and lyrics through the international network of the East European Folklife Center, a Berkeley-based organization that offers education in folk music and dance traditions of the region. A Greek speaker herself, she has worked with native speakers of other languages to coach her on the pronunciation of lyrics. In any one song, 2-5 languages will be sung, including Albanian, Armenian, BCS (Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian), Bulgarian, Greek, Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), N. Macedonian, Romanian, and Turkish.
Background
Ganelin is of mixed Balkan heritage, having carried on the Greek language from her father and Balkan folk dances from her Croatian-American mother. Her paternal great-grandparents hailed from the former Ottoman city of Monastiri (modern-day Bitola, N. Macedonia) and spoke five languages. During the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, and Bulgaria gained territory and independence from the Ottoman Empire and subsequently fought amongst themselves. Like many families, Ganelin’s ancestors ended up on different sides of the newly formed borders.
The name Vardari comes from the Vardar or Vardaris River, which has inspired Balkan songs in different languages and is a source of both sustenance and inspiration. The river — like the music — transcends borders.
“So much of my music career the last 14 years has been about celebrating my Hellenic heritage through music,” said Ganelin. “I’ve learned over time that the folk and urban folk music traditions of Greece and more broadly, the former Ottoman lands of Southeastern Europe and Anatolia, don’t always neatly fit within national borders. Melodies end up being quite portable: at first, because of commerce and traveling musicians, and later on, because of the emergence of recorded music and of course, the internet. The songs I’ve curated could be considered historical greatest hits, melodies that are so magnetic that people adapt and translate them in their respective languages. Vardari confirms what people of this region know in their hearts. The backbone of our collective musical traditions use the same underlying modes: an undercurrent that makes these musics more interconnected than different.”
The artists performing are Ellie Falaris Ganelin on vocals, flute and arrangements; Christina Walton on violin and backing vocals; J. Maddox on guitar, Joe Belson on bass, and Sage Baggott on drums and percussion.
Upcoming Dates
Vardari Premiere, Saturday, May 31, at Berkeley Finnish Hall, 1970 Chestnut Street in Berkeley, California. Doors open 6:30 PM, folk dance lesson with Janetta Redžić 7 PM, and live music 7:30 PM.
Tickets sliding scale: $25-10
Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal, Saturday, August 16 at Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley, 8 PM (set time TBA), $20 general/$15 students.
Album Release on Friday, September 5, album officially released on CD, Bandcamp, and streaming platforms.
View the latest details on the Vardari page: https://kombosmusic.com/vardari/.
Learn more: https://kombosmusic.com/.
