Russian folk music festival to convene

A public concert Saturday, Aug. 4, will cap an international festival of Russian folk music at UW–Madison, drawing musicians from around the world.

The festival is sponsored by the Balalaika and Domra Association of America, which includes members from Canada, Western Europe and Russia. The balalaika and domra are two traditional stringed instruments in Russia.

The Aug. 4 concert is scheduled at 7 p.m., Mills Concert Hall, 455 N. Park St. It will feature a 100-member balalaika orchestra, conducted by Victor Gorodinsky, who is music director of the UW–Madison Russian Folk Orchestra and a Slavic studies librarian at the university.

Featured soloists will be Bibs Ekkel from Britain, one of the top masters of the balalaika outside Russia, and Charley Rappaport, who has soloed on the domra with orchestras in New York, Atlanta and Houston. Also performing will be folk dancers and vocalists.

Tickets are $12 general, $10 for students and senior citizens. For ticket information, call the Vilas Hall Box Office, (608) 262-1500.

The association is a multiethnic, nonprofit association organized to perpetuate music written for the balalaika and domra. Its annual conventions have recently been held in Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Vancouver.