About this Event
After a long pause, we invite you to celebrate Spring Bulgarian-style with a dance party, featuring live music by Orkestar Bez Ime, Mila Vocal Ensemble and Makam Baklava, hosted by the Bulgarian School of Minnesota – “Saints Cyril and Methodius”! What started as a small underground gathering of Balkan music-obsessed fans and the local Bulgarian community has grown into a massive Balkan dance party featuring music from Bulgaria, Macedonia, and surrounding areas.
Martenitsa is a musical celebration of the coming of spring and the holiday of Baba Marta (baba meaning “grandma,” and Marta a derivative of the word for “March”) Traditional folklore depicts Baba Marta as a temperamental old woman whose moods are as changeable as March weather. On March 1st, it is customary to exchange and wear Martenitsa—tokens of good health, luck and vitality. Wearing the red and white yarns of the Martenitsa symbolizes the hope that Baba Marta will smile and grant us an early spring. As we Minnesotans know, the end of winter can never come soon enough.
Full dining will be available via our Uptown Lobby restaurant.
Parking is available across the street at
About the musicians:
OBI (Orkestar Bez Ime, meaning “orchestra without a name” in Bulgarian), was formed
in 2002 to recreate the sounds of the village with a presentation as festive as the music
itself. Focusing on Eastern Europe and music of the Rom (“Gypsy”) people, OBI’s
repertoire reaches from Albania to Ukraine, with plenty of stops in between. Orkestar
Bez Ime is a winner of the 2011-2012 McKnight Artist Fellowships for Performing
Musicians administered by MacPhail Center for Music and a recipient of a 2012
Minnesota Emerging Composers Award from the American Composers Forum.
Twin Cities-based Mila Vocal Ensemble nourishes the human spirit with songs and stories of
everyday life, collected from the folk traditions of Eastern Europe and Russia. With powerful
voices, meticulous precision, and breathtaking harmonies, Mila evokes a primal response that is
at once transporting and relevant.
Makam Baklava is a Minnesota-based Turkish and Balkan band, playing truly sweet songs --
like their namesake -- from that region. With a rotating cast of musicians (bass, cello, clarinet,
guitar, oud, percussion, saz, violin, and vocals) Makam Baklava performs Azeri, Bulgarian,
Macedonian, and Turkish folk and art songs.
OBI
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Granada Theater, 3022 Hennepin Ave S , Minneapolis, United States
USD 0.00 to USD 61.59
