BALKAN SPIRIT ENSEMBLE ft. Tarek Yamani

The six musicians present fiery arrangements with masterful improvisations and dynamic interaction at the highest level.

Tonight's feature is none other than Tarek Yamani, one of Berlin's leading pianists and a welcome guest in our club. Born and raised in Beirut, Yamani is dedicated to exploring the relationship between Afro-American jazz and classical Arabic music, which is reflected in his second album “Lisan Al Tarab: Jazz Conceptions in Classical Arabic” and in his recently released album “Peninsular”, which fuses jazz with quarter tones and the rhythms of the Arabian Peninsula. Tarek, who won the prestigious “Thelonious Monk Int'l Jazz Composers Competition 2010” with his composition “Sama'i Yamani”, was part of three worldwide all-star concerts of the International Jazz Day and shared the stage with greats such as Wayne Shorter, Richard Bona, Zakir Hussein, Esperanza Spalding, Antonio Sanchez, Brian Blade and Vinnie Coliauta.

Katya Tasheva was part of the Bulgarian Orthodox Choir as well as the folklore choir "Bulgarian Voices Berlin" from 2006 to 2011, where she met the saxophonist Vladimir Karparov.

In 2011, with "Bulgarian Voices Berlin" and Karparov, she participated in the successful international dance/music production "Le Savali" with director Lemi Ponifasio from New Zealand and music director Fabrizio Cassol from Belgium. Her voice was heard in the dance performance "Gravity" by choreographer Ming Poon with dancers from the Dance Academy in Singapore. In 2011 she founded the vocal group for Bulgarian folk music "Peperuda", which quickly became a Berlin insider tip and accompanied various Berlin musicians, such as the bands Ofrin, Knoblauch Klezmer Band, and singer Dury de Bagh. In 2013, the improvisational project "Hakafot" by Oori Shalev with Katya Tasheva as the main vocalist, opened the Jewish Music Festival in Warsaw, Poland.

Since 2011, Katya Tasheva has been the main vocalist of two Berlin bands: "Rotfront", which as part of the "Russendisko" tradition is experiencing European-wide success with its combination of Eastern European music, rock, ska, reggae and hip hop, and "Mr. Zarko", a band with a talented international crew that gives a theatrical-improvisational touch to Balkan music. Since 2016, she has been the vocalist of the new Balkan jazz project "Balkan Spirit Ensemble.