You don’t want to miss Goddess of Arno Balkan Band’s 27th Annual Fall Balkan Dance Party THIS Saturday, December 13th from 7-9pm! It will take place at Nahalat Shalom, 3606 Rio Grande Blvd. NW, ABQ, NM. Suggested donation of $20 per person at the door - no one turned away for lack of funds! The band will be set up “village style” - playing acoustically in a circle in the middle of the room and dancers around them. Come on over and dance, schmooze, listen to great unique traditional music & have a great time! More info/ contact: cohenedmunds@netzero.net https://www.facebook.com/GoddessofArno/
Goddess of Arno’s musicians are: Beth Cohen - violin, tambura & vocals; Barbara Friedman - electric bass, tambura & vocals; Leanne Mennin - percussion (tupan, dajde, riq, doumbek, spoons) & vocals; Randy Edmunds - guitar, tambura & vocals; Mary Masuk - percussion (tupan, dajde, riq, doumbek, spoons, cymbal).
Pioneers of the world music scene in Albuquerque, New Mexico, members of GODDESS OF ARNO band have been performing, teaching & studying traditional Balkan & East European folk music together for over 40 years. This New Mexico Mic-Award winning ensemble accompanies dramatic solo and powerful multi-part vocals with traditional ethnic string and percussion instruments as well as violin, guitar, and electric bass. Goddess of Arno’s repertoire includes instrumentals and traditional songs from Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey & Hungary -many in the language and styling of the Rom people. Goddess of Arno’s musicians love the rhythms and scales, which the southern Balkans absorbed from the Ottoman Empire. The virtuosity of the Balkan and Roma musicians is the source of inspiration and study for the band’s improvisations, phrasing, arrangements and ornamentation.
Goddess of Arno (quartet) originally formed as accompaniment to the popular women's Balkan chorus Svirka (1979-2002) and grew into the present ensemble that is known for exciting dance parties and concerts. Goddess of Arno performs throughout the southwest and has opened for, produced and performed in concerts and workshops with internationally acclaimed Balkan and Roma musicians & scholars such as the late Esma Redzhepova, Yuri Yunakov, Dhakha Brakha, Sani Rifati (Dancer & Voice of Roma director), Kabile & Bulgarika Bulgarian Ensembles, as well as professors of ethno-musicology Carol Silverman and Sonya Tamar Seeman.
In 2002, the original quartet of Goddess of Arno (Leanne Mennin, Barbara Basinger, Barbara Friedman, & Beth Cohen) released the NMMic-Award-Winning CD: Balkan Dance Party!! (CDbaby, Amazon, Applemusic, Spotify, Pandora). Track #2 “La Romyasa” was used in the soundtrack for the locally produced indie film “Warrior Woman.”
In addition to hosting 2 annual dance parties, Goddess of Arno performs as a featured ensemble at performance venues, festivals, schools and celebrations throughout the Southwest.