Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal!

$20 general/$15 students. Show starts at 8 pm. Doors open at 7 pm.
All ages before 10 pm. 21+ after 10 pm. Food, beer and wine available from the bar until 10 pm.

Dodona (10 pm): Drawing from the deep well of musical traditions from Albania and the Epirus region of Greece, Dodona moves between the mournful to the celebratory. The members of this new group have a specific goal, to bring out their love for the melodies of this small region. With a repertoire that goes from plaintive, to trance inducing, to driving, Dodona is one of the few groups in the Bay Area specifically focused on the Albanian and Epirus diaspora. So whether you love a good tsamiko, or the familiarity of a syrtos, or even if you just love to dance with wild abandon this unique band is sure to deliver. Dodona’s members are Calvin Lai on clarinet, Greg Jenkins on clarinet and vocals, Jenette Selin on accordion, Kent Kessinger on guitar, Sean Tergis on drums and vocalist Genevieve Daphne.

Andrew Cohen (8 pm)

Andrew Cohen is on a mission with the accordion. After experiencing an existential crisis common among classically trained musicians, he decided to pick up the instrument and hasn’t looked back. Andrew performed constantly for years as part of the rich Bay Area Balkan music scene, learning traditional folk music from Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, and Turkey. After a time, Romanian Gypsy music, Muzica Lautareasca caught his attention. In 2019, after recording his album Californeasca featuring professional Romanian vocalist Ionela Guzic, Andrew was invited to study in Romania with master accordionist Ionica Minune, living for months with him, his wife, and their ten dogs in the village of Stefanestii-de-Jos. To date, Andrew is the first and only American musician to be given the opportunity to study with Ionica who is one of the national figures of Romania, and the experience has inspired him to bring this virtuosic and little-known music to an audience here in the US. Andrew has performed at many venues around California and the western US, and at festivals including Outside Lands and Symbiosis festival.