30 July, 2020
Maribor

We are pleased to announce that the Association EPEKA, Soc. Ent., has received financial support from the Municipality of Maribor for the organisation of the Voice of Roma music series in 2020. For more information, please follow our website and social networks.

As the title of the series makes quite clear, Glas Romov focuses on the musical production of the Roma minority in Slovenia as well as in other European countries. Since its foundation, the Association EPEKA, Soc. Ent., has been organising musical events by top musicians of Roma origin. Over the years, we have established a strong tradition in this field and a fairly robust audience, which we are also introducing to other musical genres by combining different types of events. Over the years, we have organised performances by some of the biggest names in contemporary Roma music, such as Esma Redzepova, Harri Stojka, the Fanfare Ciocarlia Orchestra, the Diknu Schneeberger Trio and many other individuals and ensembles. The organisation of top quality cultural events related to the creation and integration of the Roma and wider community is important from several perspectives: they are musical expressions that are attractive to both a wider and a professional audience, often combining both academic technical sophistication and self-taught spontaneity; unlike much of the media and other coverage, they portray the minority in a distinctly positive light, which is relevant both to members of the minority and to members of the majority population, who harbour certain prejudices against the minority; through the guest appearances of top musicians, there is a growing interest in musical participation in the local Roma community and thus a gradually increasing interest of young Roma in musical expression; as an association, we organise highly heterogeneous musical (and other) events, which gives us an excellent opportunity to bring together different audiences and, above all, to promote less popular musical expressions among different target groups. The series is also important because within our activities we emphasise the importance of inter-ethnic cooperation, which is critical in a period of radicalisation within the Roma community itself, as well as within some groups within far-right political movements.

With this in mind, we have conceived the Voice of the Roma series as a cross-section through the current musical work of members of the Roma community at home and abroad. Since its foundation, the Association EPEKA, Soc. Ent., has been organising concerts by top Roma ensembles, but this time we decided to conceive the practice as a series that we intend to continue in the years to come. The programme will present a wide range of musical creativity, exploring the traditions of Roma music and intertwining them with other musical expressions. In this way, we believe that we will successfully attract a broad spectrum of audiences and at the same time present the musical creativity of this heterogeneous and fragmented minority in a more than fair way.

The series is supported by the City of Maribor.