Fantastic Klezmer music in Brodick

The six players comprising She’koyokh, which the Guardian called, ‘the inspirational Klezmer band’ will be hitting Brodick in all their exotic glory on Saturday 19th March. They perform a dizzy mixture of Eastern European and Balkan folk music, both at international festivals and concert halls and for the tradition purpose of supplying music to dance to and rejoice with, at Jewish weddings and on the streets.

She’koyokh is at the forefront of the revival of Eastern European roots music in the UK, bringing a fresh and infectious energy to a repertoire that ranges from exhilarating Bulgarian and Turkish music to soulful Ashkenazi melodies. It has been played and danced to for countless years at celebratory events in villages in Poland, Romania and the Ukraine, and for the first time, this haunting, captivating music comes live to Arran.

She’koyokh was awarded first prize at Amsterdam’s International Jewish Music Festival competition in 2008. Their first album, Sandanski’s Chicken is released on the ARC label. Their second, Buskers’ Ballroom, launched in 2009, is dedicated to their founding member and accordionist, Jim Marcovitch, who died in 2008.

The six musicians who comprise the group are all fantastic players. The Oxford Times said of Susi Evans, ‘I have never heard any other clarinettist pull so many notes out clean and clear at such a breakneck pace, or with such infectious enthusiasm.’ Susi became inspired by klezmer and gypsy music while studying in Hungary at a clarinet summer school. Graduating from the Royal Academy of Music in 2004with a first class degree, she has travelled to Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey and the Czech Republic, and at the moment is playing regularly at the New London Theatre in the National Theatre’s production of Warhorse.

Matt Bacon, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, has been a working musician since the age of twenty, playing just about every jazz and pop style and performing all over the UK and Europe. After completing a music degree at Goldsmiths University he travelled extensively in Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Greece, Turkey and India, researching the variety of musical cultures.

Meg Hamilton is a classically trained violinist and violist. She has played with She’Koyokh since she met the band at Klezfest in 2002. Intensive studies of Greek, Turkish, Arabic and flamenco music led her to tour Europe in such venues as playing with Roma musicians in Istanbul restaurants and bazouki players on the Greek island of Hydra.

Vasilis Sarikis is a multi-percussionist, born in Athens. He is passionate about percussion instruments and rhythms from a wide variety of the world’s cultures. He currently lives in London where he works with other Eastern Mediterranean and Central Asian groups and collaborates with musicians from jazz and other backgrounds.

Cigdem Aslan sings in Turkish, Kurdish, Greek, Ladino and several other Balkan languages. She has always loved singing, as it was an integral part of her family life in Turkey. She is currently studying Music at Goldsmith’s University, and is in high demand for collaborations, European tours and cultural TV appearances with Balkan musicians.

There are several more players in this astonishing ensemble. We are not sure which six of them will be in Brodick Hall on March 19th, but it’s going to be one of those occasions when you simply want to get up and dance – and we understand, there are going to be moments when you can join in. Tickets at the door, but anyone of school age gets in free, as with all Music Society concerts. See you at 7.30!