BALKANIZE! IS RICHMOND, VA'S ONLY OLD WORLD TURKO-BALKAN FOLK MUSIC ENSEMBLE.
We play acoustic folk dance and belly dance music from Albania, Armenia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Macedonia, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Syria & Turkey using a combination of Western & traditional Eastern European folk instruments.

We are currently auditioning for additional MALE and FEMALE VOCALISTS.

A lot of passion for & a little bit of knowledge of traditional Balkan, Turkish and Near Eastern folk music are non-negotiable requirements!

We are looking for women with strong singing voices, creativity, maturity, responsibility, independence, open-mindedness (especially with regard to the Macedonian Question), a desire to put in a little hard work, & a willingness to sing in many different languages. Knowledge of basic music theory and / or an ability to play a musical instrument are great but certainly not requirements.

BALKANIZE! rehearses for several hours every Sunday at 1pm. We tend to do live performances every ten weeks or so, and we are currently recording and mixing our first CD.

If you are interested or need more information, please contact Geoff at balkanize@verizon.net. Also, please visit our web sites at www.balkanize.net and www.myspace.com/balkanize for a better idea of what we're all about.

For those of you who know her but may not have heard the sad news, Laurie Hribal, our good friend, BALKANIZE!'s violinist / vocalist, and a very dear, deep soul, finally lost her fight with cancer yesterday morning, Sunday, April 5th, 2009, in the home of her daughter Roxanne in Ann Arbor, MI.

I have no words right now. All I can say is that Laurie's boyfriend Louis, her son Jamie and her daughter Roxanne, her sisters, her parents, her grandchildren, her friends, her fellow dancers in the Richmond International Folk Dance Club and in Shari's Intermediate Belly Dancing class, her colleagues and clients in the Richmond holistic healing community and her bandmates in BALKANIZE! all are glad that her suffering has ended but still miss her.

There will be a memorial service this weekend, most likely on Saturday. I will post details as soon as I get them.

I would very much appreciate it if anybody who feels comfortable doing so could post a line or two about Laurie, about a meaningful or funny shared moment with her ... anything to better remember her by. Thanks.

Just wanted everybody in the Richmond area to know that I am now offering musical instruction in beginner and intermediate level Turkish-, Arabic- and Balkan-style darbuka.

Lessons will include:

proper body position
holding the drum and proper form
buying and appraising new and used drums
relaxation and breathing
time signature, meter, tempo and rhythm
different styles of Middle Eastern drumming
mastering the DUM, TEK and KA strokes
technique-building drills
good practice skills
intermediate ornaments such as shaves, flams and sliding strokes
single-stroke rolls
Turkish split-finger rolls
Persian riz rolls
Arabic-style rolls
triplets
paradiddles
Balkan pulse-based meters
customizing basic Middle Eastern rhythms
odd meter time signatures (including Turkish Roman 9/8 rhythms)
drumming for a percussion ensemble
drumming as part of a full musical ensemble
drumming for belly dancers
participating in drum circles
other Middle Eastern percussion instrumentation (riqq, frame drum, davul)

I offer reasonable private and small group rates.

I have been playing and performing Middle Eastern percussion music since 2000, and I am a licensed teacher with the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Department of Education. I can also help beginning students find and buy a new drum, and I can rent them a drum, sell them a drum, or allow them to rent-to-own a drum. All I ask of any potential students is that they have access to a drum and that they put as much energy into learning as I promise to put into teaching!

Please contact me at stupidroom@verizon.net for more information.

Finally, be the first in your village to own one of these new BALKANIZE! t-shirts. Choose from two original designs, four colors and four sizes.

The BALKANIZE! Turko-Balkan Folk Music shirt is available in three colors, Red, Terra Cotta and Camel (all are pictured in my Tribe profile photo gallery). Red is available in SMALL, MEDIUM, LARGE, and EXTRA LARGE, while Terra Cotta and Camel are available in MEDIUM, LARGE, and EXTRA LARGE.

The BALKANIZE! Liberation Army shirt (pictured above) is available in Black, in SMALL, MEDIUM, LARGE, and EXTRA LARGE

Each shirt is high quality 100% cotton, printed by a local and self-employed silk screen artist here in Richmond, VA.

Shirts are $10 per shirt, plus $2.50 shipping and handling for the first shirt and 50 cents for each additional one. Please contact us at balkanize@verizon.net for mail order instructions. All proceeds will go toward getting BALKANIZE! into the recording studio. We have enough repertoire for two CDs, and we're anxious to record.