July 5, 2025: Romanian Play-Along with Ralph Iverson and Friends

Description

Romanian Orchestra Play-Along
with Ralph Iverson & Friends

We welcome intermediate to advanced musicians to come for an unusual and delightful day of playing in an impromptu Romanian Orchestra under the leadership of Ralph Iverson. Ralph is a longtime friend of Becky’s, who has been a steadfast supporter and participant at her Barn Dances since the mid-1980s, and Fabric of Life’s more recent Barnfest celebrations. His enthusiasm for playing and collecting of all kinds of dance music from the Balkans, including a special interest in Romanian music is contagious, and much to our benefit. We hope you will join in this rare opportunity to make some of this wonderful music together.

Sheet music will be provided, and many of the tunes will be easily accessible to intermediate players, but Ralph will also throw in a few more challenging ones to challenge advanced players as well. There is nothing that matches the power of the “big sound” that many instruments can make playing this beautiful music.

There will be a small space for informal dancing after dinner, and a chance to play some of these tunes again for those who want to stick around in the evening.

Schedule:

2:00-3:30PM: Session I

3:45-5:15PM: Session II

5:45PM: Dinner

After Dinner: More music with dancing on the fringes!

Instruments:

Strings: any bowed instrument! Fiddle, viola, cello, base, cimbalom

Reeds: clarinets, accordions, pan pipes

Woodwinds

Ralph Iverson has been playing International folk dance music since 1985, and has been a regular at the East Coast Balkan Music & Workshops. He’s been a member of many folk dance music groups, including Mandala Folk Dance Ensemble (orchestra director), Cambridge Folk Orchestra, Pinewoods Band, Pajdashi, Rakija, Zdravets, and Zornitsa. His main instruments are gadulka and violin though he also plays viola, flute, whistle, saxophone, tambura, kaval, brač, lijerica, kemenche, and other instruments. Ralph plays in the Waltham Philharmonic Orchestra, the New England Philharmonic, and the MIT Gilbert & Sullivan Players. Ralph has submitted compositions to a competition “Bulgarian New Music in 7/8,” generally winning second or third place honors, but recently submitted a winning composition for gadulka and accompaniment.

Curious about Romanian Music?

Here are a couple of videos to give you an idea of the style of music. The first is a short Romanian Folk Dance concert, the second is a longer video concert featuring three fiddles.

Check out our other 2025 Music Series events: