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BUFFALO on the DANUBE at TIMBER RIDGE

The beautiful River Danube rolls through the heart of Europe, touching many traditions as it flows. Buffalo on the Danube presents some of the finest bearers of Europe’s folk music and dance traditions in a laid-back program emphasizing personalized teaching, and room for jam sessions and other serendipity. We offer dance, instrumental and singing workshops all day and great evening dance parties and concerts featuring live Balkan and Scandinavian music. Music workshop participants will have an opportunity to perform. The program starts with dinner on Friday and ends Monday afternoon. We welcome beginners and families with children of all ages!

TIMBER RIDGE CAMP is located in High View, WV, about two hours west of Washington, DC (about ten miles south of Buffalo Gap Camp). Situated on a beautiful property nestled in the heart of the Shenandoah Mountains, on the banks of the Cacapon River, the camp has many improvements over our former home, including a wide variety of comfortable housing options, a spacious, well-equipped dining hall and an attentive and friendly staff. The camp features two dance halls with wood floors. Camp facilities for the whole family include an Olympic- size swimming pool, canoeing on the river, tennis courts and lots more. Campers must bring their own bedding and towels. See photos of this great facility at http://www.trcamps.com/group-rental/facilities.html

DANCE INSTRUCTORS

TOM BOZIGIAN (Armenian dance) Tom Bozigian is an internationally recognized dance instructor. He unites the elements of professional dancer - choreographer, linguist, musician - to support his far-reaching research on the subject of Armenian dance ethnography. Tom is particularly sought out for his extensive knowledge of dances from the pre-1915 period and has presented his material to institutes and ensembles throughout Armenia. Tom also leads a folklore orchestra, which has produced numerous recordings and regularly records with the Armenian State Television Ensemble for Folk Instruments. He is an accomplished percussionist. Each year, Tom travels to Armenia to continue teaching and research, working with various institutions and dance specialists such as Artashes Karapetyan of the Mankavarzhakan Institute for Dance as well as with folk musicians.

ROO LESTER & LARRY HARDING (Scandinavian dance) Roo and Larry return once again to present their perennially favorite mix of Swedish and Norwegian dances. Roo obtained her Masters degree in Dance from UCLA and has since traveled extensively in Norway and Sweden studying dance. Roo and Larry have taught at Scandia Camp Mendocino, Scandinavian Week at Buffalo Gap, and at many other camps and workshops throughout the U.S. and Scandinavia. They have a delightful teaching style.

DANIELA IVANOVA (Bulgarian and other Balkan dance) is an accomplished, professional folk dance teacher and performer and a scholar of South Slavic folk dance culture. Daniela graduated from the Institute of Music and Choreography in Sofia and Sofia University with MA degrees in Philosophy, Literature and Cultural Studies. This broad educational background gives her the unique opportunity to combine theory and practice, research, teaching and performance in her very extensive works. She headed several award-winning folk ensembles in Bulgaria, Banat, Besarabia and Serbia and has conducted field work not only in Bulgaria but in Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia as well. Her large and diverse repertoire and her charm make her a dream teacher. She will also conduct a Balkan culture session.

KOSTANA (Turkish Romani social dance) specializes in Turkish Oriental and Romani (Gypsy) dance. She has studied with renowned Romani dancers in Turkey and the US. She also trains and performs with the Kardelen Turkish Folkdancers in DC. Kostana has graced the stages of the ODE TO PEACE Festival, the World Culture Open, the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage & Smithsonian Folklife Festival in DC. She teaches Romani dance in the DC area. In her workshops she will teach basic steps and gestures used by men and women in Turkish Romani social dancing.

CONCERTS AND LIVE DANCE MUSIC

VESELBA (meaning "merriment" or "hijinks") consists of three highly acclaimed musicians: Bruce Sagan (gudulka), Chris Rietz (kaval, tambura), and Nan Nelson (tambura, bass, vocals) They are joined for this weekend by special guests Tzvety Dosseva Weiner (vocals), Stoyan Kostov (tambura) and Bryndyn Weiner (tupan), Formed in 1998 to play music from Bulgaria on native instruments, they have since branched out into other areas such as Greece, Romania, and Scandinavia. (See bios for Bruce, Tzvety and Stoyan in the section for Music Classes.)

LORETTA KELLEY is acknowledged as the foremost American-born Hardanger fiddle player. She studied Hardanger fiddle (hardingfele in Norwegian) during 1979-80 at the folk high school in Western Telemark and was a member of the local fiddlers' group. She has since returned to Norway many times for extended visits to learn from some of Norway's best fiddlers. She has played in many competitions there, including Norway's most prestigious national competition, the Landskappleik. Loretta is a regular featured fiddler at Scandia D.C. events. Her recording, Amerikaspel, is the gold standard for lovers of Norwegian dance music, and she was nominated for a Grammy award, along with Andrea Hoag and Charlie Pilzer, for her latest recording, Hambo in the Snow. She will play for Scandinavian sets, along with Bruce Sagan, at the parties and lead a Scandinavian ensemble class.

JOHN VARTAN and TOM BOZIGIAN will play live Armenian music at the parties with the student ensemble class: see their bios!

MUSIC CLASSES Participants provide their own instruments. If you need an instrument or have an instrument
to share, please let us know. Check our webpage for updated instructional info.

INSTRUMENTAL AND SINGING INSTRUCTORS

BRUCE SAGAN (Bulgarian ensemble, Swedish fiddle)
Bruce has been playing and teaching music from the Balkans since the late 70s. He has studied gudulka with some of its top players and lived in Bulgaria to absorb more about the instrument. He was invited to play at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington DC and has played for dances, workshops, and concerts in the United States, Europe, and Australia. He is currently living in the Washington, DC, area and has joined the band "Lyuti Chushki."
Bruce also plays Scandinavian music on fiddle, Norwegian hardingfele, Swedish nyckelharpa (keyed fiddle), and tussefloyte (recorder). He has visited Scandinavia numerous times to work with fiddlers and collect material. Bruce's first album, Spelstundarna, has won critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. In a review of his second CD, With Friends, the premier Swedish folkmusic magazine Spelmannen said that he played "som en inföding," i.e., "like a native." - high praise in a country where it is often felt that you should only play tunes from your own village.

BRAD “SIDQI” SIDWELL (Dumbek) was a member of BAMCO, a Balkan music group, for 18 years. Recently, he founded Grup Nazar, which focuses mostly on Turkish Romani (gypsy) music. Sidqi teaches darabuka for Balkan, Greek, Turkish and Arabic music. He has taught at Studio Artemis, Rakkasah East, Baltimore Bellypalooza, and Folktours Music and Dance camp. He directs the darabuka program at Sahara Dance in Washington, DC. His dumbek class will be open to all skill levels.

JOHN VARTAN (Armenian ensemble) is an artist of uncommon skill who specializes in the performance of  seventeen middle-eastern musical instruments, including the oud, tahr, kememche, saz, sring, zurna, doudouk, and kaval. He collected most of these while traveling in the Middle East, Armenia, Greece, Turkey, and Morocco and now possesses one of the largest collections of musical instruments of this kind in the world.  John sings along with, and plays Armenian folkloric music on each instrument.  He has made seven albums and has recorded on more than thirty other professional recordings. John received his doctorate from New York University in 1984 and teaches at Kean University. To his many credits are a lesson book for the doudouk and an instructional video for the oud. 

STOYAN KOSTOV (Bulgarian tambura) is a regular guest with DC-based Lyuti Chushki. He graduated from the folk music school in Kotel and the Plovdiv Academy of Music and Dance. He performed with Ensemble Trakiya in Plovdiv, Harmanliska Troika, and the Ograzhden Ensemble and Vaptsarov Folk Ensemble in Sandanski.

VLADO MOLLOV (accordion) Born to a family of wedding musicians, Vladimir was inspired by the sounds of the accordion from early childhood. Even at age 18 months he "played" his little accordion alongside his father at a wedding. At age seven he began accordion lessons with the nationally recognized pedagogue Nadejda Nicheva in Kazanluk, Bulgaria. Later he studied with other nationally- and internationally-acclaimed accordion artists. As a young teen he was taking home top prizes from world-class accordion competitions, and earning praise for his virtuosic performances. At 13 he participated in an accordion competition in Vladivostok, Russia, and placed fourth. At 15 he placed first in the International Competition for Accordion and Guitar in Asenovgrad, Bulgaria; received fourth place in the World Accordion Competition in Castelfidardo, Italy; and placed second in the national accordion competition in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, where he received a special award for virtuosic performance of folk music. During his senior year in high school he received a first award in the national competition for variety music and jazz on accordion in Novi Pazar, Bulgaria. From 2002 to 2004 he was a member of the Duquesne University Tamburitzans and he performed over 350 shows with the ensemble. Vladimir is currently working on composing, arranging and recording a solo accordion album featuring folklore, jazz and some new experimental fusion styles. Visit Vlado's MySpace page to learn more and hear music samples. http://www.myspace.com/vladimirmollov

TZVETY DOSSEVA WEINER (Bulgarian singing) was born and raised in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, in a family steeped in Bulgarian folk music. At the age of 5, Tzvety started taking classes in theory of music, solfege, and piano — all mandatory subjects for those who sought to become professional musicians. Later, Tzvety enrolled in folk singing classes in preparation for the famous Shiroka Lûka folk music school in Bulgaria. In 1998, Tzvety moved to the US to complete a college degree in Computer Science. Luckily, a traditional Bulgarian band, Lyuti Chushki, was actively performing in the DC area and she joined the band as the lead vocalist. Tzvety has also performed with Macedonian music band Luk Na Glavata and with Slaveya, the D.C. based women's traditional Balkan music choir.

CHRIS REITZ (kaval) has been an ardent player of the Bulgarian kaval for more than 20 years, and continues to be a serious student of the grand Thracian style. He also plays mandocello, Bulgarian tambura, lute, and laouto (Greek lute). He has frequently been on the staff of the EEFC Balkan Camps as an instructor for kaval and Bulgarian tambura and director of an ensemble of Bulgarian folk instruments.

JULIA BORLAND (Swedish singing) lived in Sweden for 19 years, playing with 3 different fiddler's clubs and traveling to different parts of Sweden to learn the music. Two years of folk music for violin and folk music pedagogy at Malung's folk college in Sweden has given her a sense of joy in playing that she imparts to young students in Sweden and in Washington D.C.

BALKAN BAZAAR For your shopping pleasure, Suze and Richie’s wonderful traveling bazaar features a dazzling assortment of eclectic ethnic music- and dance-related items.

REGISTRATION
Registration fee includes meals, snacks, cabin or tent space, use of camp facilities, and admission to all events.
............................Until 7/15 ........After 7/15 ..........After 8/20
Adults ........................$345 .................$360 ...................$380
Teens 13-15 ..............$230 .................$255 ...................$275
Children 5-12 ............$150 .................$175 ...................$185
Children under 5 are free
CALL FOR PART-TIME RATES

Refund requests received by August 28 will be honored (minus a $5 processing fee) - No refunds after August 28

WORK EXCHANGE SCHOLARSHIPS
A limited number of scholarships is available for participants willing to work during the weekend on various tasks. To apply, send your registration form and $200 with a short letter telling why you want or need a scholarship. Applications, along with a check for the scholarship fee, are due by August 1.

MORE INFORMATION
Jamie/Betsy Platt 301.717.4641 or 301-466-3018
dancingplanet@erols.com

World Music and Dance Institute is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization presenting and promoting traditional music and dance from around the world.