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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, among others.
Performing on authentic folk instruments, and styled after turn of
the century East-European Gypsy bandas, 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 cafés, this ensemble's members stay close to their
roots. Harmonia's music brings to the concert stage the vitality of these
traditional settings.
WALT MAHOVLICH
:
Accordion, Clarinet, Frula and Vocals.
Walt Mahovlich has been playing Eastern European music for over 25 years.
He grew up listening to theCroatian and Hungarian music of his family. He
got his start playing Croatian and Macedonian weddings at the age of 19,
and spent much of his youth playing with traditional village musicians.
He's played extensively at traditional events for East European immigrant
communities throughout the United States and Canada as well as in frequent
concert tours of Europe. He was a featured artist at the 1974 Smotra Foklora in
Zagreb, Croatia, the Smithsonian's 1976 Festival of American Folklife,
Jimmy Carter's Inaugural, the Rededication of Ellis Island and the
Bicentennial Celebration of the Constitution in Philadelphia. Among the
diverse groups he's performed with are Merak, Sevdah, Brave Old World.
and Slavic Soul Party. From 1994 to 1997 Walt toured internationally with
Budowitz. Walt made his off-Broadway debut in Tony Kushner's adaptation of
the S. Ansky classic, A Dybbuk, performing at New York's Public Theater.
Walt's been a faculty member at the Balkan Arts Music Camp as well as
director of the Cleveland Tamburitzans. Walt researched and produced album,
Nova Domovina: Balkan Slavic Music from the Industrial Midwest which won
the U. N. award for ethnomusicology.
Walt appears on two recent CDs:
on the Koch International label and
Klezmer Music: A Marriage of Heaven and Earth on Ellipsis Arts.
ALEXANDER FEDORIOUK: Cimbalom and Nai.
Alexander Fedoriouk began playing the cimbalom at the age of 7
in his home-town of Kolomyia, Ukraine. Growing up in the Carpathian mountains,
he played at weddings in mountain villages in Ukraine and and Moldavia.
He studied music at the Kolomyia Music School, Chernivsty Musical College
and received his Bachelor's degree in music from The Kiev State Conservatory.
He has performed as a soloist with The Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra,
Troisty Muzyky Folk Ensemble, The Manhattan School of Music Symphony
Orchestra, The Duquesne University Tamburitzans and Cheres. He appeared
in the Ukrainian musical movies, Pisne Kalynova and Namysto Dlia Berehyni.
He received awards at the national competition on folk instruments in 1987
and 1991 in Ukraine, and in Nebraska in 1997.
Since he has been in the United States he has been featured as a soloist on
a number of recordings: Cheres: From the Mountains to the Steppes on
B Sharp Records, Unblocked, Ellipsis Records, The World in Our Backyard
on Chubby Dragon, and Klezsqueese on the Bon Air label.
He has recorded with Nigel Pulsford of Bush and performed in Carnegie Hall
with John Cale of the Velvet Undeground.
MARKO DREHER: Violin, Kontra, Tamburica.
The son of a traditional Croatian folk musician Marko Dreher has grown up steeped
in the musical traditions of Eastern-Europe. He began sitting in with his father's
band at the age of four and has been playing tamburica professionally since he was
seven. At twelve he entered the music program at Southern Illinois University.
Marko has won numerous awards for his violin and viola performance. He has been
a soloist with many orchestras in the US and in Europe and was recently featured
as a soloist with I Solisti Di Zagreb. He performs on tamburica regularly with
the Jerry Grcevich Tamburica Orkestar and Grlica. He continues to play violin
with his father's tamburica orchestra, Cigani. In Croatia he recorded with
Šarmeri. In 1998 Marko was the youngest recipient of the Tamburitza Association
of America's Founder's Award. Marko currently studies violin and viola with
Roland and Almita Vamos at Oberlin Conservatory.
ANDREI PIDIVKA: Panflute (Nai), Sopilka (folk flute).
A native of Ukraine, Andrei Pidkivka graduated from the Lviv
Conservatory, with a degree in both folk and classical music. By the time he
was 18 he was already principle flutist for the Ukrainian folk ensemble, Unist,
he has since then performed with several professional ensembles including the
Lviv Philharmonic State Symphony Orchestra, Virnist. His talents have
brought him to Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic and the United States.
Since coming to the United States, he has played extensively for Ukrainian
immigrant communities. Currently Andrei is pursuing his graduate studies
in flute performance at Youngstown State University.
JOZSEF VARGA: Bass.
Born in Oradea Mare, Romania (Nagyvárad in Hungarian),
Jozsef Varga learned to play traditional music from his grandfather,
a violinist, and his father, a gypsy violinist and well know band leader.
In his youth he performed at celebrations for the Hungarian, Romanian and
Jewish communities in Oradea and neighboring towns in Transylvania.
Jozsef graduated from the prestigious Conservatory Gheorghe Dima in Cluj
(Kolozsvar). For many years he was principal string bass player with the
Filarmonica de Stat in Oradea and with the Oradea Opera. With the Filarmonica
he performed extensively across Europe. In addition to his classical
performing, Jozsef played traditional music extensively throughout Romania.
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Marko Dreher of Harmonia
FROM THE PRESS:
"The evening's theme was introduced by the Harmonia ensemble,
which brought haunting resonance to music from a region that
has suffered intolerable atrocities in recent months. The songs
and instrumental pieces for violin, accordion and vocalist
overflowed with bittersweet sentiments and proud, folkloric gestures.
The musicians captured the heartfelt emotions with the directness of
cabaret players performing for a select audience." -- DONALD ROSENBERG,
August 6, 1999 Cleveland Plain Dealer
"Harmonia - a Cleveland band composed of musicians from Romania,
Croatia, Ukraine and the United States - is out to prove that there's
more going on in the area of Central and Eastern European music than polka."
"There's a great richness of musical forms between the Carpathians and the
Danube and in the Balkan regions - the csardas, halgato, kolomyjka, doina,
hora and invirtita, for example.... "
"...the songs on the CD are traditional, but Harmonia members
are not content to merely interpret older material.
Fedoriouk has been writing original pieces for the band,
most recently a composition entitled "Geamparale".
It employs the 7/16 meter of a Romanian dance on top
of which Fedoriouk has written an original melody and
orchestrated it for six instruments. Now he's working
on a piece that has a Balkan flavor, based on a particular
scale, that will feature improvisation by several instruments.
"I want to expand research in the old traditional music, but
also to push the boundaries with new compositions and new arrangements",
said Fedoriouk. He also plans to do more improvising with the group. " -- HARVEY PEKAR,
Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 23, 1999
"The music of Harmonia is highly emotional, but not sappy. ...tells a story with
notes instead of words. One can almost feel the air and forests and villages
of the Carpathian mountains when hearing the musicians play." -- MICHAEL DREXLER
"Driving, urban roots folk music.." -- THE KNITTING FACTORY
"...passionate Hungarian folk music played by Harmonia... Greatly enhancing
the performance was the lively music provided by Harmonia... lusty gypsy music played
by Harmonia,..outstanding. " -- WILMA SALISBURY, Cleveland Plain Dealer
"Harmonia...hypnotized the crowd with their dizzying violin solos and soulful ballads."
-- SCOTT LARSON
"Luckily, the day was saved by Harmonia...a fantastic group
of instrumental musicians...Harmonia lived up to its name and played a set
of beautiful and aesthetic pieces..." -- THE OBSERVER
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