Department of Music Blog

William Pitt Union Assembly Room

This Concert is now FREE!

Kick off the last week of classes with the fusion sounds of Pitt’s Carpathian Music Ensemble, featuring Gypsy, Slovak, Ukrainian, Macedonian, and Klezmer music! Enjoy regional food, singing, and dancing!

Frick Fine Arts Auditorium

Tickets in advance though ProArts: general admission $8.50, students and seniors $5. Visit www.proartickets.org or call 412-394-3353. At the door: general admission $15, students and seniors $10. Pitt students: free with ID.

Adriana Helbig is pictured above (center) with the members of Pitt’s Carpathian Music Ensemble.

Assistant Professor of Music (ethnomusicology) Adriana Helbig has received a Fellowship for Fall, 2009 at the new Center for the Humanities at the University of Pittsburgh. She will use this opportunity to work on her book manuscript in progress titled Hip-Hop Revolution: Music, Race and Class in Ukraine. The book charts the growth of the popular music industry in post-socialist Ukraine, focusing in particular on the role of African migrant musicians in the development of Ukrainian hip-hop. This research has been funded by IREX, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Councils for International Education.

Along with here appointment in the Department of Music, Helbig is Affiliated Faculty with the Center for Russian and East European Studies. She holds a PhD in Ethnomusicology from Columbia University (2005) where she has also taught in the Ukrainian Studies Program. Her articles on Romani (Gypsy) music, post-socialist cultural policy, and global hip-hop have appeared in edited collections and journals such as Yearbook for Traditional Music, Current Musicology, and Anthropology of East Europe Review. Her first book, Culture and Customs of Ukraine, co-authored with Oksana Buranbaeva and Vanja Mladineo (Greenwood Press, 2008) was published in November, 2008.

Helbig joined the music faculty at the University of Pittsburgh in Fall 2008. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in ethnomusicology, popular music, and directs the Carpathian Music Ensemble.

If you traveled from Slovakia to Ghana to Indonesia you would cover some 12,000 miles and ten time zones. But this spring, Pitt’s Department of Music will bring that journey to the campus in four concerts taking place between March 27 and April 4. It all starts with Pitt’s newest musical endeavor, the Carpathian Music Ensemble directed by Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology Adriana Helbig.

Director Adriana Helbig will lead the Carpathian Ensemble in performances of Gypsy music, Klezmer, Armenian, Moldavian, Ukranian, and Macedonian music in the group’s first formal concert since being founded in the fall of 2008. The concert takes place at 8 p.m. on Friday, March 27 in Frick Fine Arts Auditorium. Tickets are available through ProArts and at the door.

Pitt’s African Music and Dance Ensemble, led by Ghanaian master drummer J.S. Kofi Gbolonyo, will present a unique exploration of African cultures and traditions on Saturday, March 28 at 8 p.m. in Bellefield Hall Auditorium. The music department’s ensemble will be joined by Pitt’s African Music and Dance Club and feature guest artists Gordon Nunn and Brett Wiewiora. Tickets are available through ProArts and at the door.

The University Gamelan Ensemble, led by Professor of Ethnomusicology Andrew Weintraub and Indra Ridwan, will complete the world music journey with performances of dance and music of Indonesia. The Gamelan will feature two guest artists — dancer Ening Rumbini and drummer Wahyu Roche. The concerts takes place on Friday, April 3rd and Saturday, April 4th in Bellefield Hall Auditorium. Both events take place at 8 p.m. Tickets are available at the door.

Check the Events Calendar for information, and don’t forget to pack extra socks.

Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology Adriana Helbig will lead Pitt’s Carpathian Music Ensemble in a performance of Gypsy, Armenian, Moldavian, Ukrainian, Macedonian, and Klezmer music at Lawrenceville’s Your Inner Vagabond on Tuesday, March 17. There’s no cover for the show (and YIV is a BYOB space… FYI). The concert starts at 8 p.m.

And don’t forget to come hear the Carpathian Music Ensemble at Pitt on March 27.

Frick Fine Arts Auditorium

Carpathian Ensemble rocks the house at Your Inner Vagabond, March 17, 2009.

Adriana Helbig, Director, and the Carpathian Ensemble perform of Gypsy, Armenian, Moldavian, Ukrainian, Macedonian, and Klezmer music.

Tickets purchased in advance through ProArts: $10 general admission, $5 student and senior admission.
www.proartstickets.org, 412-394-3353
Tickets at the door: $12/$8, Pitt students free with ID.

Check out videos of the Ensemble’s recent performances:

Opa Nina Nai - Greek

More Sokol Pie - Macedonian

Rumelai -  Gypsy

Kolomyjka- Ukrainian