Strings of the Black Sea at New York World Festival 2010

Music Around the Black Sea festival opens Sunday, September 19 with Strings of the Black Sea: A Celebration of Lutes and Fiddles from Bulgaria, Ukraine, Crimea and Turkey, showcasing instruments like those included in the Metropolitan Museum’s permanent musical instrument collection.

Featured are violinist Nariman Asanov, a leading exponent of the musical tradition of the Crimean Tatars, who is joined by Patrick Farrell on accordion; Beth Bahia Cohen, a Turkish yayli tanbur (bowed long-necked lute) player who has performed with masters of bowed instruments from the Balkans and the Middle East; Ahmet Erdogdular, Turkish tanbur (plucked long-necked lute) player and singer who is one of the most important musicians of the new generation in Turkish classical music; Nikolay Kolev, a virtuoso gadulka (pear-shaped fiddle) player hailing from the village of Karavelovo in the Rose Valley of Bulgaria; Julian Kytasty, one of the world’s premier bandura (Ukrainian lute-harp) players; and the extraordinary Christos Tiktapanidis, one of the few musicians in the US who plays the Pontic Greek lyra.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, Grace Rainey Rogers Aud., 5th Ave at 82nd St, NYC
Co-presented with the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Information: WMI: (212) 545-7536, http://www.worldmusicinstitute.org
CTMD: (212) 571-1555, http://www.ctmd.org