REEESNe | Romani Culture and History

Luce Hall, Room 202

34 Hillhouse Ave., New Haven, CT

Free and open to the public (non-Yale attendees should arrive 15 minutes early)

The Italian word “Zingaresca” means “in a Gypsy style." Formed in 2006, ZINGARESCA ENSEMBLE is a product of collaboration between the celebrated Romani (“Gypsy”) virtuoso Vadim Kolpakov, the pioneer in the revival of the seven-string guitar Oleg Timofeyev, the Juilliard-trained baritone Anton Belov, and Alina Nazarevich, a prominent singer/dancer from Kyiv, Ukraine and the founder of the Roma ensemble. In their lectures, they work to raise awareness of the origin, history, and musical traditions of the Romani people (formerly referred to as the "Gypsies"), presenting the latest theories on the timeline of the Romani migrations from North-Western India, their hardships in the diaspora, and the contemporary human rights issues in Eastern and Western Europe. They also introduce students to a variety of musical styles in Romani music, from Russia and Ukraine to Spain and Romania, and provide the necessary information about the genres and styles in the music of Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews of Eastern Europe in order to contextualize Zingaresca's broader repertoire.