Mahala Rai Banda represents Romania in Stockholm


The Stockholm Cultural Festival is a grand-scale event, which takes place in the Swedish capital between August 10 and 15 and brings together, every year, Swedish and international artists. This is Romania’s second participation in the event and it will be represented by the Mahala Rai Banda ensemble, performing traditional Balkan music. The Mahala Rai Banda concert is scheduled for August 13 and is organized by the Romanian Cultural Institute in Stockholm in collaboration with Södra Teatern. Under the already traditional heading of The Gypsy Queens & Kings the open-air stage in front of the Opera will host the likes of the Mahala Rai Banda, Florentina Sandu, Aurelia Sandu and Tantica Ionira (Romania), Esma Redzepova (Macedonia), Jony Iliev (Bulgaria), Lijljana Buttler (Serbia) and Kaloome (France). The event will be preceded by a concert which the Swedish Balkan music band Süperstar Orkestar will offer in front of the ICR Stockholm building in the Old City, a concert which places the Institute on the map of the Festival. The Stockholm Cultural Festival features a series of concerts, theatrical, circus and vaudeville performances, art installations and creative workshops which will be held on especially-set up stages and in various other venues throughout the city.


The first participation of the Romanian Cultural Institute-Stockholm in the festival dates from 2006 and featured the Taraf de Haidouks, in collaboration with the selfsame Södra Teatern. The Gypsy Queens & Kings is one of the most keenly-awaited sections in this year’s programme. The Mahala Rai Banda ensemble is well-known to the Swedish public following a tour organized by ICR Stockholm and Södra Teatern in the autumn of 2008.


Mahala Rai Band is made up of instrumentalists representing several generations, who, playing the accordion, violin and blowing instruments, combine extremely diverse Balkan musical traditions. The band is often present on stages in Europe, as well as Japan, the US, Canada and Brazil.


Irish music festival based on lyrics from Sapanta Merry Cemetery


Next week the village Sapanta, in Maramures, will host an original festival of Irish music based on epitaphs-lyrics from the Merry Cemetery. The first Romanian-Irish festival, titled “The Long Way to the Merry Cemetery”, will run between August 12 and 15, and brings face to face the two cultures. The idea for such a festival started shaping two years ago, when the composer Shaun Davey received a scholarship to study the two cultures, Agerpres informs. Starting from the “Sapanta” concept, the artist composed a musical suite in which he combined traditional components from both areas with elements of classical music, using, as lyrics, epitaphs on the graves in the Merry Cemetery. Shaun Davey’s music will be performed, during the event, by 160 musicians – the men’s choir of the Faculty of Theology in Sibiu, a mixed choir from Maramures, a Romanian chamber orchestra and Irish instrumentalists. The artist Grigore Lese will also take part in the event. The latter will ensure, alongside Shaun Davey, the artistic direction of the festival. Guests in the event include: the Iza Group, Aromanii Faseroti, Rapsozii Gorjului, the Bukovina Brass Band, Mambo Syria, an Ukrainian group, a boy singer from Apuseni Mountains, Rita Connolly, Liam O’Flynn, Seamus Begley, John Brian Masterson, Ian Roderick Mcvey, David Simon Brophy, Neil Martin, Gerry O’Beirne, Noel Eccles, Alyth Catriona McCormack. During the festival, pottery workshops will be on offer, under the guidance of master craftsman Brunar Tanase and his family, wood-carving workshops, hosted by master Stefan and carving master Pupaza, as well as weaving workshops, Maramures dances and traditional music performed by Aromanii Faseroti.

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