The Drexel University Mediterranean Ensemble will partner with the Society of Ethnomusicology for a special concert of European music titled “A Mostly Balkan Party…Philly Style.” Mediterranean Ensemble director Bruce Kaminsky will encourage the audience to listen and dance to a musical tour of Greece, Albania, and Turkey as well as Ladino, Klezmer and Arabic songs. This free concert is Friday, November 18^th, at 7:30 PM in Stein Auditorium (111 Nesbitt Hall). For a sneak preview of the Mediterranean Ensemble, click

Among the artists performing with the Ensemble will be Svitanya, Philly’s female Balkan vocal ensemble, whose Balkan repertoire ranges from strong and strident field songs to traditional dance tunes to lush and emotive arrangements, and Jack Kessler, who as director and vocalist of the internationally acclaimed Middle Eastern Ensemble, Atzilut, has been called “resonant” and “amazing.” The concert will also feature Greek multi-instrumentalist Bill Koutsouros; Cretan vocalist, scholar, and Drexel’s Director of Greek Studies, Maria Hnaraki; and Drexel’s student Philhellenic performance group, The OPPA Dancers.  

Kaminsky has been bassist on more than fifty recordings, and has performed in venues as varied as a command performance at the United Nations before the signing of the Israeli/Jordanian Peace Accord, the Jewish Music Festival - Berlin, Germany, and the World Café in Philadelphia. The Society for Ethnomusicology was founded in 1955 to promote the research, study, and performance of music in all historical periods and cultural contexts. It currently has an international membership of over 1,800 individuals dedicated to the study of all forms of music from diverse humanistic and social scientific perspectives.