We are forming a Tamburitza orchestra and kolo group in south Florida. This will be the only group of its kind in Florida and the only group in existence in the southeastern United States. Tamburitza music pronounced Tahm-boo-ree-tsa, is the name for the family of stringed folk instruments native to Croatia. While native to Croatia, the Tamburitza is also the common folk instrument throughout Vojvodina, parts of Serbia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Kolo is danced primarily by people from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and White Carniola region of Slovenia. Many variations of Kolo dances are normally performed at weddings, social, cultural, and religious ceremonies. Kolo’s may be performed in a closed circle, a single chain or in two parallel lines. Both men and women dance together, however some dances require only men to dance and some dances are only for women. The Kolo dance is accompanied by traditional instrumental music (bearing the same name), performed most often with an accordion, but also with other instruments: frula (traditional kind of a recorder) and tamburitza instruments.
We are forming a Junior group for children and young people in the age range of 7 to 21 and an adult group for people 18 and over. You are never too old to enjoy the dancing and playing. We have had members up to 92 old young. The groups will learn to play, dance and sing the songs of the regions. No musical training is necessary since we will teach everyone who wants to join how to read music and then play it on the various tamburitza instruments. The dance groups will be taught various types of dances from the regions to accompany the orchestra. Everyone will be taught to sing the songs of the regions with classes on pronunciation and meanings of the words.
We are looking for anyone of any age who would like to participate and anyone who has musical, dance or vocal training of any kind, would be of great help to us. This group is starting from scratch so we currently are looking from instruments from the region to acquire for our members, either through donation or purchase( donations would really help). The 3/4 double bass is one instrument we are currently looking for in south Florida but all types of tamburitza instruments are needed so if anyone can help us, please contact the orchestra director: Edo Sindicich at edo4cubs@aol.com.
Practices will be beginning January 14, 2018 and held every Sunday starting at 1 pm at the Croatian American Cultural Center & Social Club located at 849 SE 8th Ave, Deerfield Beach, FL 33441.There will be a small fee (less than ten dollars) per lesson to help pay the instructors and directors. The clubs has its own 2nd floor dance studio and a large hall to stage dances and concerts. For those who would like to play you will need a tamburitza instrument and we have made an arrangement with a Tamburitza maker in Pennsylvania who can provide HANDMADE new high quality instruments in the price range of $250 to $475 which is a bargain if you Google tamburitza instruments that are for sale on the internet. Since this is a brand new group unfortunately we do not have enough instruments to loan you as of yet for all the people wishing to join.
You can check out information about tamburiza music and watch and listen to music with resources at http://learningtambura.byethost6.com and www.facebook.com/Tamburitzaorchestra/
Anyone wishing to take advantage this unique and rare opportunity to continue their culture or learn folk music from these Slavic regions and would like to join can contact: Edo Sindicich at edo4cubs@aol.com or 954-294-7366 or call Dan Grgas president of the Croatian-American Cultural Club at 954-864-9966.
https://www.facebook.com/CroatianAmericanCulturalCenter