A Benefit Concert
www.facebook.com/events/419799228209478/
Thursday, 27 August 2015
Doors open @ 7pm
Café l’Artère, 7000 Av du Parc (métro Parc)
Sliding scale: $10 to 20$ (no one turned away)
Come out to have a great time, dance, and support several Roma families in Montreal who are currently fighting deportation from Canada.
featuring:
BORIS BARTULA (Accordion/voice).
Born in Sarajevo, Boris started playing accordion at the age of 6. He graduated from the Sarajevo Academy of Classic Music (1987) where he encountered many styles of music: classical, traditional, gypsy, oriental, jazz, etc. Developing his improv skills lead him to spectacular leaps across musical borders with his instrument. Boris taught music for many years and played professionally alongside very well-known groups in the ex Yugoslavia. In Montreal since 1995, Boris founded Les Gitans de Sarajevo; he is lead singer and accordionist for the group. He composes and arranges all original songs. Well known in the Montreal scene, the group has been around for more than 15 years and has produced five albums. Boris, multilingual, regularly sings in Roma, Serbo-Croatian, French and Russian. He is an excellent animator with an enchanting stage presence. Although he has played a variety of styles throughout his career, it is in gypsy music that he finds illumination. Boris sees artistic creation as an eternal project in which the most subtle ideas can embellish an established plan and where instinct plays an important role. As a multi-talented musician, he regularly plays the Montreal musical scene (Festival MMM, Festival du monde arabe, Francofolies, Montreal Jazz Festival). Boris has also participated in several TV programmes, including: Belle & Bum – Télé Québec – 2005 – 2007; La Symphonie du Nouveau Monde – ARTV-2008; En Concert – Les Gitans de Sarajevo – TFO – 2010; Bienvenue chez les Roms – CBC Radio Canada – 2010.
www.lesgitansdesarajevo.com
YOURI SLOVAK (Violon)
DOMINIC LÉVEILLÉ (Trompette)
JULIE HOULE (Tuba)
KRISTIN MOLNAR (Violon/voix)
Born in Paris, Kristin Molnár was first taught violin by her father at the age of 4. Both parents are originally from Hungary, but her dad, a Hungarian gypsy, made her go back to her roots. She first graduated from the Franz Liszt Academy, in Budapest, had a first prize from the Conservatoire de Musique de Québec and got a Master’s in interpretation from l’Université Laval de Québec. She also had many master classes with Pierre Amoyal and Yehudi Menuhin. Her search for her Roma roots brought her to many different musical projects which brought her to Eastern European music. In Quebec, she is one of the pioneers of this genre with her band Raoul which won a Felix for best world music group in 1996. She further explored the Roma world by going to Spain. She participated in the Azafràn production in collaboration with the Ballets Flamenco Arte de España as a flamenca violinist. Kristin Molnár has appeared in many tv shows, at the radio and in movies : Dans l’univers de…Isabelle Boulay, Le petit ciel, Le Plaisir croît avec l’usage, Christiane Charette en direct, Cadillac rose, gala de l’ADISQ, gala des Gémeaux, C’est bien meilleur le matin, Indicatif présent, Y’é trop de bonheur, les Choix de Sophie. She also participated in many festivals in Quebec: the Francofolies of Montréal, Festijazz of Rimouski, Festival of Val-de-Marne and the Festival international de Jazz de Montréal.
www.kristinmolnar.com
SERGIU POPA (Accordion)
Born in 1981, in Chisinau, Moldova, Seriu completed his studies at Stefan Neaga music college as well as two years of studies at the Conservatory of Moldova before emigrating to Canada in 2002. Since a young age, he also simultaneously studied traditional folk and Roma (Gypsy) styles with his father, Ion Popa, himself a well-recognized Gypsy accordionist in Moldova. Over many years of playing alongside his father at weddings, he became familiar with Jewish, Turkish, Russian, Serbian and Bulgarian styles as well. He is quickly establishing a reputation as one of most brilliant accordionists in Canada today. He has co-founded the Sergiu Popa Ensemble with his wife (violinist Jessica Gal), a group which was discovered by Musique Multi-Montréal, a reputable world music agency, in 2006. Since then, they have performed at numerous festivals and concert series in Quebec, and were selected to receive the 2007 Radio-Canada Étoiles Galaxie award. In 2008/09, Sergiu Popa was the ‘artist-in-residence’ of the Circuit 514, a partnership between CBC Radio 2, the Place des Arts, the Conseil des Arts de Montréal, Montréal Arts Interculturels, Musique Multi-Montréal and Vision Diversité. Besides his own Ensemble, Sergiu has collaborated on a number of projects with other artists here in Montreal. Sergiu has been recorded on several film sountracks in Canada – two of which were National Film Board of Canada productions: Zéro Tolérance (Michka Saäl, 2004) and The Knights of Orlando (Jelena Popovic, 2008). Others were award-winning Quebec films La Peau Blanche (Daniel Roby, 2004) and Elle Veut le Chaos (Denis Côté, 2008), in which he appears live.
www.sergiupopa.com
Izmael Lakatos (guitar)
DJ Grenadier
DJ Mimi
and more !
Neo-Nazi movements in Europe are openly targeting Roma with the complicity of state authorities. Right-wing militias have marched in uniform through Roma areas, houses have been fire-bombed, children and adults have been killed. Authorities have conducted violent, forced expulsions. This overt violence builds on centuries of racism against Roma throughout Europe; economic and social exclusion that has locked Roma communities into poverty.
Many Roma have chosen to leave the region entirely, seeking better lives for themselves and their children in Canada. But, reminiscent of the ‘none is too many’ attitude that closed the door on Jewish refugees fleeing European Nazi movements earlier in the century, Canada has turned its back on these families. Former Immigration Minister Jason Kenney declared that Roma were “bogus refugees.” Evoking negative stereotypes, he used Roma as scapegoats to gather support for his plan to rework Canada’s refugee system in favour of a market-driven immigration. In Hungary, he launched a billboard campaign to deter Roma from coming to Canada–sparking a new wave of racism against Roma in that country. Recent studies have shown systematic discrimination against Roma families in Canada’s immigration system, and uncovered unethical and abusive treatment by many immigration lawyers towards Roma migrants.
This benefit will support the struggles of several Montreal Roma families to regularise their status in Canada.
Organized by
Romanipe, https://romanipe.wordpress.com
Solidarité sans frontières, www.solidarityacrossborders.org