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Harmonia to perform eastern European folk music at Coastal

March 25, 2002

Harmonia, an eastern European folk music ensemble, will perform at Coastal Carolina University on Friday, April 12 at 7:30 p.m. in The Courtyard of the Edwards Building. Admission is $10, $5 for students under the age of 18.

Harmonia is a six-member ensemble specializing in the traditional folk music of the region they call "the heart of Europe" - an area ranging from the Danube River to the Carpathian mountains. The group draws its repertoire from the rural and urban musical traditions of Hungary, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Croatia and the Gypsy culture. They play a variety of traditional folk instruments including the panflute, the gajde (goatskin bagpipe), the cimbalom (hammered dulcimer) as well as the fiddle and accordion.

Founded by accordionist/clarinetist Walt Mahovlich of Croatia, Harmonia is styled after the turn-of-the-century East European Gypsy bandas. The musicians - each a classically trained virtuoso - come from various parts of eastern Europe and are drawn together by their love for their native music. Harmonia's musicians have played at Carnegie Hall, the Smithsonian Institution's Festival of American Folklife, the Kennedy Center and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

For more information, call 349-2502.