Söndörgő isn’t your average Balkan group. Instead of using brass or fiddles, this Hungarian ensemble is a tamburitza band: it’s built around the tambura, a small string instrument reminiscent of the mandolin. Add wind instruments and accordion, and you have the...
Showcases
Nora Jane Struthers & the Party Line
* 2014 Lotus Dickey Artist * This high-energy Nashville-based quintet performs Struthers’ original story-songs with tight three-part harmonies, fiddle, claw-hammer banjo, acoustic guitar, bass, and drums. Struthers led her band to a blue ribbon at the 2010 Telluride...
Tsuumi Sound System
Fans of the Finnish band Frigg will see some familiar faces in the line-up for the Tsuumi Sound System. TSS begins with Nordic string traditions and adds brass, percussion, and keyboards to create a fuller, even more powerful sound: driving Finnish fiddle music with a...
Derek Gripper
Derek Gripper has earned worldwide acclaim for interpreting complex, beautiful kora compositions on the classical guitar; he has performed works by Toumani Diabaté, Ballaké Sissoko, Ali Farka Touré, and others. Always on the move to develop new directions for the...
Kaia
* Kat Domingo Memorial Artist * Kaia performs jazz, spirituals, original compositions, improvisations, and songs from many cultural traditions around the globe. From haunting ballads to bawdy drinking songs, this Bloomington-based vocal ensemble explores aspects of...
FullSet
FullSet is Michael Harrison (fiddle), Martino Vacca (uillean pipes), Janine Redmond (button accordion), Eamonn Moloney (bodhrán), Andy Meaney (guitar), and Katie Else (vocals). The centuries-long tradition of Irish music is alive and well in this young Limerick-based...
Las Cafeteras
Formed in East Los Angeles to document neighborhood history through music, Las Cafeteras has been praised as a “uniquely Angeleno mishmash of punk, hip-hop, beat music, cumbia, and rock” by the LA Times. With the son jarocho tradition of Veracruz at its core – think...
Vanesa Aibar & Company
Vanesa Aibar is an award-winning choreographer and dancer of flamenco, the classic musical tradition of southern Spain. A native of Villanueva del Arzobispo in Jaén, she has studied and performed with companies across Spain, including the Nuevo Ballet Español and...
Aurelio
Born on Honduras’ Caribbean coast, Aurelio Martinez grew up steeped in the traditions of the Garifuna people, descendants of shipwrecked slaves who intermarried with locals on the island of St. Vincent and were deported to the Central American coast in the late...
Banda Magda
Banda Magda brings chic, lively style to the notion of “world music,” along with playful gestures and a splash of retro humor. Led by Greek-born Magda Giannikou – a singer, accordionist, and award-winning film scorer – the band moves fluidly from samba to Greek dance...