World Folk Cabaret - The Cafe Antarsia Ensemble

w bonus guest artist and rhythm workshop (info below)

Cafe Antarsia: Saturday, October 25 @ 8PM

Admission: $10 or free with a 2008 Passport

Crossing Borders LIVE, WVBR's multicultural radio concert series, is pleased to present the Cafe Antarsia Ensemble, courtesy of Innova Records, in support of the release of Songs of the Table, on Saturday, October 25th 8pm, broadcast live from The Lost Dog Lounge, 106 S. Cayuga Street. The quartet is described as ".high passion world folk cabaret with streaks of Greek blues, Balkan Romani Gypsy rhythm & working-class Americana fire..." The two hour broadcast can be heard on WVBR 93.5FM, or online at www.crossingborderslive.org or www.wvbr.com. Tickets for the live audience are available at the door for $10. The concert will include a guest appearance by Israeli vocalist Shaoham Einav, who will be accompanied by the ensemble's Egyptian percussionist, Rami El-Aasser. Additionally the performance will be preceded by a Middle Eastern rhythm workshop at Toko Imports in the DeWitt Mall, taught by Mr. El-Aasser at 5:30 pm Saturday. For information about the workshop, call 277-3780.

Songs of the Table is a high passion "world folk" album inspired by Greek Rebetiko, Kritika rebel songs and Balkan Rroma/Gypsy music, rooted in the rhythms of Middle Eastern percussion and Americana folk. The CD was recorded in the summer of 2006 in the sanctuary of Pagosa Springs, Colorado, produced by Kevin Johnson after Nikos Brisco and Ruth Margraff returned from a four month Fulbright "New Opera" fellowship in Athens, Thessaloniki, Paros and Crete (Greece). The CD features exotic, handmade instruments such as French Gypsy Guitars, Greek Bouzouki, Tzouras and Baglama, Cretan Laouto, Accordion, Tabla, Riq and frame drum. Greek-Texan composer/songwriter Nikos Brisco's hauntingly urgent melodies are complemented beautifully by the panoramic poetics and portrait-driven lyrics of playwright/performer Ruth Margraff. The album's ornaments and vocals owe much to wandering the maketplaces of Sarajevo, Dubrovnik and Belgrade in the former Yugoslavia as well as to the painted darkness of New York City's downtown theaters and epic taverns all the way from Astoria, Queens to the timeless island of Crete.

The Cafe Antarsia Ensemble returns to Crossing Borders after its Ithaca spring debut and a globetrotting year of touring that has bounced between New York City, Chicago and Romania (Transylvania and Bucharest), Alexandria and Cairo, Egypt and Europe, and festivals in Greece, Hungary, Moscow, Turkey, Czech Republic, Yugoslavia, and Canada. Besides Brisco and Margraff, the quartet consists of Rami El-Aasser on Middle Eastern percussion and guitarist Ron Riley.

Rami El- Aasser (Middle Eastern percussion) will present an introductory workshop at 5:30 pm Saturday at Toko Imports in the DeWitt Mall. 277-3780. He performs regularly on riq, deff, and darbukah or Arabic tabla in various New York City ensembles, including Raquy and the Cavemen, Near East River Project, Radyo Istanbul, Egg-Shaped Prod, and Cafe Antarsia Ensemble. Although steeped in the Egyptian music of his heritage and educated as an actor, Rami was drawn to the NYC dance scene, including music from the greater Middle East, Turkey, Persia, Israel, Armenia, and Greece. Rami recently returned from a tour of Egypt, performing with Egyptian tabla master Said El Ariste in a concert on the Nile and toured the American Midwest, the Middle East with Hamish Henkish, and Ashraf Essam El Din throughout Egypt and Israel.

The Cafe Antarsia Ensemble was born of a collaborative project for opera and playwriting: the composer /librettist team of Ruth Margraff and Nikos Brisco completed a three year residency with HARP (Here Artist in Residency Program) with a sold out workshop of their Greek/Ottoman opera 'Cafe Antarsia Ensemble' in 2005, which was supported in part by the Hellenic festival/New York Public Library, A Sanctuary Theater, and Chashama Area Award (New York). Their trilogy of operatic works included Judges 19: Black Lung Exhaling, Erotokritos, and Wellspring: An American Opera Box for the Balkans. These were received throughout the east coast, the 2006 New York Gypsy Festival at Joe's Pub, Rockwood Music Hall ,Galapagos, BAM Cafe, '06 Prelude Festival/CUNY/Martin Segal in NYC, and triggered extensive touring seasons internationally.