Following a two-year-long hiatus, Bryant Park Picnic Performances in New York will present its famous Accordion Festival on September 16, 2022, with bands spotlighting masterful free reed instrument players from cultures around the world.
The festival will include full sets from the Heart of Afghanistan project featuring Afghani music icon Ahmad Fanoos and his sons, who recently relocated to the United States from Afghanistan; two Ukrainian ensembles drawing musical inspiration from their home country, the traditional Ukrainian Village Voices and the more experimental Balaklava Blues; and the Mexican Independence Day premiere of Cinco12: The Music of Selena.
The Heart of Afghanistan
The Heart of Afghanistan features four brilliant Afghan musicians: famed singer and Afghan TV star Ahmad Fanoos on vocals & harmonium, his sons Elham Fanoos on piano and Mehran Fanoos on violin, and Hamid Habibzada on tabla. Unable to perform inside Afghanistan today, where the Taliban has banned all music, the group, recently reunited, carries the flame of Afghanistan’s rich and complex musical heritage, from its pre-Islamic Buddhist period to the modern era. Included in the program will be traditional ghazals based on the Sufi-inspired poetry of Rumi (who was born in Afghanistan), Afghan folk music, and the iconic hits of legendary singer Ahmad Zahir, first recorded in the 60s and 70s and still wildly popular today.
Ukrainian Village Voices
Ukrainian Village Voices (UVV) is a New York City-based collective of Ukrainian and non-Ukrainian singers, whose mission is to preserve and revive the polyphonic singing style of Ukraine’s villages. Since 2013, the ensemble has performed for various audiences in the United States and Canada, in venues ranging from folk music festivals to museums, theaters, libraries to street, radio and webcast concerts. UVV has been featured at Brooklyn Folk Festival, Zlatne Uste Golden Festival, Roots n’ Ruckus Fest, Saint George Ukrainian Festival, Brooklyn International Music Fest, Yonkers Ukrainian Heritage Festival, and the Ivan Honchar Museum in Kyiv.
Balaklava Blues
Balaklava Blues was formed by Mark and Marichka Marczyk, creators of the multi-award winning guerrilla-folk-opera Counting Sheep and leaders of the Lemon Bucket Orkestra, Canada’s notorious 12 piece Balkan party music band.
Falling somewhere between a traditional song cycle and a full-blown techno show, the duo fuses Ukrainian polyphony and other folk traditions with EDM, trap, dubstep, and more as a launching pad to explore the seemingly never-ending blues that have long emanated from the Ukrainian steppe.
The two met there during the 2014 revolution of dignity and ever since, have dedicated their creative energy to telling the stories of their home country to the world. Their 2015 play Counting Sheep garnered major critical acclaim, winning several awards at the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe – including a Fringe First award and Amnesty International’s Freedom of Speech award. It has since had multiple successful runs in The US, UK and Germany.
Balaklava Blues music is a reclamation of the violence perpetrated on their home country. Through their music, they redesign and remix physical and psychological oppression and question how and why it continues to inform who we are and what we can become.
Cinco12: The Music of Selena
Cinco12: The Music of Selena is a project that honors the music of the late and beloved Selena Quintanilla Perez, bringing to life many of Selena’s best known songs of love and longing. Just as the “Queen of Tejano” transcended racial, cultural, and linguistic lines, this diverse Brooklyn-based band does the same, made up of well-versed musicians who typically play in the world music (Latin, Balkan, Brazilian, Klezmer), rock, and classical scenes.
Featuring: Jenny Luna (vocals), Skye Steele (violin, background vocals), Barrie McClain (background vocals), Joshua Camp (keyboards, accordion), Viva DeConcini (guitar), Michael Winograd (clarinet, sax), Mike LaValle (bass), Neil Ochoa (percussion) and Ashley Baier (drums).
Location and subway directions: Bryant Park is situated behind the New York Public Library in midtown Manhattan, between 40th and 42nd Streets & Fifth and Sixth Avenues. Take the B, D, F, or M train to 42nd Street/Bryant Park; or, take the 7 train to 5th Avenue.
More information at bryantpark.org
Author: World Music Central News Room
World music news from the editors at World Music Central