HERDELJEZI is a traditional Romani (Gypsy) neighborhood celebration announcing the end of the cold indoor season and the beginning of the warmer season of movement and outdoor life. Survival from the winter and the seasonal renewal of life is celebrated at Herdeljezi through the sharing of music, dance, food and community.

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Featured Artists and Participants

Kočani Orkestar

Kočani Orkestar named after the Macedonian town of their origin, is a part of the Romani Balkan brass band tradition. The 11 band members hail from the towns surrounding Ko ani in Eastern Macedonia, a hotbed of brass musicians. Almost every family has several musicians and the repertoire is learned orally and traditionally from father to son at home in the male line; young boys can be heard continuously practicing in the Romani neighborhoods. This is a living tradition that recently has found resonance with non-Romani audiences. The musicians still play in their local areas for weddings, circumcisions, baptisms, graduations and other life cycle and calendrical events. The musicians speak several languages (Macedonian, Romani, and Turkish) and have a huge dance and song repertoire that is tailored to the tastes of their clients, who hail from varied ethnic groups. Ork. Kočani has garnered huge praise since their 1997 album "L'Orient est rouge", their triumphant performance in Emir Kosturica's 1988 film "Time of the Gypsies," and their more recent album "The Ravished Bride." They have regularly toured Western Europe and more recently Australia and Japan. They actively collaborate with the Romanian Romani string band Taraf de Haidouks and recorded the albums "Band of Gypsies 1 and 2" with them on the Belgian label Crammed Disks. Kočani's music is a blend of driving Romani "čoček" dance tunes and melismatic ballads. Balkan Romani brass music features a combination of eastern and western influences. Musicians display superb technique, dazzling speeds, and soulful improvisations; the vocalist is a master of intricate ornamentation and melodic innovation. The band's trademark energetic thundering style has become very popular among youth audiences as well as punk and rock artists. They have also had tracks remixed/reinterpreted by prominent performers in the fields of world music, electronic music, and rock music, all of which helped them gain a wider audience, as did the inclusion of one of their tracks on the soundtrack to the movie Borat. This is their first tour to North America.

GALBENO BAND

"Authentic Roma (Gypsy) band from San Francisco Bay Area. Founded by Roma musicians, who traveled far and wide, carrying their passion for traditional Roma music. Landing in San Francisco, they gathered around this passion and formed Galbeno Band.
Galbeno Band has been performing at private and Balkan music events around Bay Area. Live performances burst with energy, create fun atmosphere for any occasion!
Helena - vocals, Dušan - violin, Ofir - accordion, Marco - tapan"

INSPECTOR GADJE   inspectorgadje.com

Raymond van Tassel

Inspector Gadje brings a big sound to the beautiful and bumpin' brass band music of the Balkans. Formed by students of Rom master Rumen "Sali" Shopov, the band draws on talents known to Bay Area audiences from such bands as the Brass Liberation Orchestra, Zoyres Eastern European Wild Ferment, and the Gomorran Social Aid & Pleasure Club. Inspector Gadje is an acoustic dance machine that makes the party move!
Petra Gates, truba; Noah Levitt, trumpet; Morgan Nilsen, clarinet; Ofir Uziel, alto saxophone; Paul Bertin, alto saxophone; Mike Perlmutter, alto saxophone/clarinet; Greg Michalec, baritone saxophone Jeff Giaquinto, trombone; Paul Marini, baritone horn Andrew Cohen, sousaphone; Sean Tergis, percussion, Marco Peris, percussion.

IPPOLITA FRANCIOSI   ippolitafranciosi.net

She has been a photographer since 1993, and has studied under Mauro Galligani. She photographed for the daily "L'Unitŕ" of Bologna and Ferrara, and as a freelance, published work in various newspapers and publications. For several years, she has been merging photography with historic memory and gender themes. She worked on a collection of different partisan women from the Resistance in Italy, portraying them while they told their experience from the viewpoints of gender and generation. The second project, "Re-Sisters" extends this concept to new types of resistance women around the world: Vandana Shiva for India, Malai Joia for Afghanistan, Aminata Traore for Mali, and Madres de Plaza de Majo for Argentina. In 2007, Ippolita went to report on the life of Saharawi women-refugees and activists on the border between Algeria and Mauritania - the work was shown in several exhibitions in Italian cities. In 2010, she researched and collected oral history from white witches in Tuscany, where their ancient wisdom and ritual magic meets and clashes with other historical, religious, and traditional beliefs. For the past two years she has been working with the Voice of Roma in Kosovo, creating photo labs, and reporting on the ethnic hostility that is directed against the Roma population

CAROL SILVERMAN

Raymond van Tassel

Carol Silverman is Professor of Cultural Anthropology and Folklore at the University of Oregon. She has done research with Roma for over 30 years in Balkans, Western Europe and the US. Her work explores the intersection of politics, music, human rights, gender, and state policy with a focus on issues of representation. She is also a performer and teacher of Romani vocal music. Her book Romani Routes: Cultural Politics and Balkan Music in Diaspora (Oxford University Press, 2012) explores how "Gypsy" music is used both an exotic commodity in the world music market and a sign of multiculturalism in cosmopolitan contexts. Her recent research, supported by the Guggenheim foundation, is on the globalization of "Gypsy" music.

JULIA PECAK - catering

Julia's cooking style is based on seasonal, natural, and fresh ingredients, combining traditional Roma flavors, with spices and aromas from around the world. A Hungarian-born Roma, she was chef and owner of former San Francisco restaurant "Bistro E Europe with Roma (Gypsy) Flavor".

SANI RIFATI

President and co-founder of Voice of Roma and of the California Herdeljezi Festival. Is an exuberant and exhilarating dance instructor. He has taught at Kolo Festival in SF, the Chicago Spring Dance Festival, Mainewoods Camp, Portland Maine, Balkanalia, Portland Oregon, Folkball, Madison Wisconsin, and at Balkan music and dance camps in the U.S. as well as at schools and folk dance events throughout the Bay Area.