An Evening of Music & Protest, with the Kolegi Balkan Quartet, joined by special guests from Yale’s Near Eastern & Balkan Ensemble

The program will feature Romani, Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian, Greek, and Syrian songs of protest arising out of political turmoil in the region over the past 100+ years, from uprisings in the Ottoman Empire to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Based in Hamden, Connecticut, the Kolegi quartet plays music from Southeastern Europe, from Greece to Romania, points in between, and elsewhere. The four “colleagues” are: Helen Marx, percussion; Adam Matlock, accordion and vocals; Brian Slattery, violin; and Ian MacMillen, bass guitar and vocals. Joining them for this performance are students from Ian MacMillen’s Near Eastern & Balkan Ensemble, a course offered each spring in Yale’s Department of Music.