We are excited to announce that well-known New York City accordionist and singer Lauren Brody will be presenting a workshop at the 2014 AAA Festival in Tarrytown, NY. In her workshop, “The ‘Trill’ of Balkan Music”, Lauren will present a survey of the gorgeous, but finger-challenging ornamentation in Bulgaria, Romania and Macedonia.

Lauren Brody was born in New York City, and has been involved with music since early childhood. A classically trained pianist, she received a B.A. in music from the City University of New York, and pursued a Master’s Degree in Music before changing course to devote herself to the restoration and tuning of pianos.

Lauren first became aware of Bulgarian music as a teenager, and was so deeply impressed with what she heard that, in 1969, she made her solo first trip to Bulgaria. That initial trip sparked a life-long interest and commitment to the music and the culture, despite the fact that Lauren has no Bulgarian ancestry. In 1971, during the Communist era in Bulgaria, when visitors from the West were not welcome in the region, it is remarkable that she received a stipend from the Bulgarian government to do post-graduate study in Bulgarian folk music at the State Music Conservatory in Sofia.

It was during this period that she was first introduced to old 78 rpm recordings of Bulgarian folk music. These recordings were to become a subject of great future interest for Lauren. In 1990, Lauren returned to Bulgaria for a year, funded by a Fulbright scholarship, to do historical research and recording from original 78s from the late 1920s through the early 1940s. Because of her efforts, a substantial body of excellent old recordings were recovered, preserved and superbly re-mastered. “Song Of The Crooked Dance” (Lauren’s website bears the same name) and her 4 CD set, “Outsinging The Nightingale”, which includes eight pages of informative notes, are a heartwarming and enlightening must for anyone interested in the delightful folk music of Bulgaria.

In addition to her research activities, Lauren has been an active performer and teacher of Bulgarian folk music and singing. She appears on two CDs as vocalist and keyboard player with the Yuri Yunakov Ensemble, and has been teaching at seminars since the early 1970s. Lauren has just started a blog on Balkan accordion playing called “Lauren Brody’s Accordion Bytes”. She leads a dual life as a Klezmer musician, and has been a member of the Klezmer bands Kapelye and Mikveh, with whom she has appeared in films, recorded and toured extensively through the U.S., Canada and Europe.

Lauren can be reached at: l.brody@verizon.net