BALKAN BASH!
Music festival returns to Park Slope
By Rose Adams This festival is pure gold!
A Balkan music
celebration will take over
Park Slope for its ninth consecutive
year, bringing upbeat tunes and
endless conga lines to Grand
Prospect Hall on Jan. 17 and 18.
The Zlatne Uste Golden Festival
will showcase dozens of groups
playing traditional tunes from
Eastern Europe and Turkey —
music that is more lively than your
average folky fare, according to the
show’s organizer.
“Lots of music from the
Balkans is upbeat. It’s not what you
associate with traditional music,”
said Matt Smith. One group, the
20-piece brass band What Cheer?
Brigade, particularly energizes the
crowd, he noted. “We typically
have crowd-surfing during their
sets.”
The festival, which starts on
Friday night and continues on
Saturday evening, will feature
solo Middle Eastern musicians,
choirs, and brass bands playing
in five different rooms of the
enormous gilded event space.
Visitors wander between the
Hall’s many rooms in search
of their favorite acts, and can
take time out to shop and nibble
on traditional Balkan treats.
Attendees can also wander up
Where all your dreams come true: The Zlatne Uste Golden Festival of Balkan bands
will return to Grand Prospect Hall on Jan. 17 and 18. Photo by Oresti Tsonopoulus
to the venue’s fifth floor, where
skilled musicians — some on the
program and others not — jam
with each other informally.
The event began 35 years ago in
Manhattan as a niche get-together
for Eastern European musicians
and dancers, but quickly grew
into a full-on Balkan bash. The
festival finally landed in Park
Slope in 2011, where it regularly
attracts upwards of 3,000 people
per year.
According to Smith, the
festival’s success comes in part
from its namesake band, Zlatne
Uste, a funky brass band that
has headlined the party since its
inception. Zlatne Uste attracted
other Eastern European music
COURIER L 38 IFE, JANUARY 10-16, 2020
groups, and now the festival has
become a regular chance for
Balkan bands to socialize and
compare notes, Smith said.
“They get to attend the party
and see other groups,” he said.
Zlatne Uste will play its
namesake festival on both
nights of the festival; playing
an unscheduled set in the main
ballroom on Jan. 17, and at 9:45
pm on Jan. 18.
Zlatne Uste Golden Festival at
Grand Prospect Hall 263 Prospect
Ave. between Fifth and Sixth
avenues in Park Slope, (718) 788–
0777, www.goldenfest.org. Jan. 17,
7 pm–12:30 am; Jan. 18, 6 pm–1:35
am. $35 on Friday ($30 students);
$55 on Saturday ($45 students).
AS GOOD AS GOLDEN
More Balkan bands to see in Brooklyn this week
Space art
Sculptures reflect search
for extraterrestrial life
By Kevin Duggan He wants to believe.
A Texan artist
will unveil a series of
delicate sculptures inspired by
the search for alien life at the
Brooklyn Public Library this
weekend. Dario Robleto, one
of the two creators behind the
library’s “Stars Down to Earth”
exhibit, on display at the Central
branch, will show off his work
and discuss the wonders of the
cosmos at an opening reception
on Jan. 13.
Robleto’s sculptures, built
from domes of clear acrylic,
hand-cut paper, and polished
sea shells, are designed as
gifts for potential visitors
from outer space. Shells have
often been presented during
first encounters between
human groups, he said, and
their curved forms feature
the universal mathematical
Fibonacci sequence.
“Shells not only have this
lineage of gift exchange, they
can also serve as the physical
embodiment of a fundamental
equation in nature,” said
Robleto. “It’s a beautiful
example of life following an
equation, that’s highly likely life
on other planets also follows.”
The sculptor recently
worked as an artist-inresidence
at the Search For
Extraterrestrial Intelligence
Institute in California and at the
Breakthrough Initiatives, and
much of his work was inspired
by watching those researchers
search for messages from faroff
planets. Some pieces came
directly out of stories he heard
at the research stations.
For example, a piece titled
“Moonflower,” was inspired by
a family photo that an Apollo
16 astronaut planted on the
moon in 1972. Robleto’s piece
imagines that photo, coated
in plastic, taking root in the
moon soil and sprouting into an
acrylic flower-like form.
“That is one of the most
humane moments of the whole
mission,” Robleto said.
Robleto said that, based on
his time with exobiologists, it
is highly likely there is some
other form of life out there in
the universe, but that intelligent
civilizations are very rare, if
they exist at all.
“The leap to intelligent life
Flying saucers: Robleto’s piece “The
Computer of Jupiter” consists of
blown acrylic domes, cut paper,
along with polished shells and sea
urchin spines.
Photo by Kevin Grady
Out of this world: Texan artist Dario
Robleto with his sculptures.
Photo by David Rossman
seems less likely, or just more
rare,” he said.
The rarity of civilization
makes life on Earth all the more
special, said Robleto, and his
talk will touch on both his art
and environmental concerns.
The exhibition also features
work from environmental
artist Mary Mattingly, whose
sculptures and photographs look
at extractive industries and the
threats they hold to biological
life. Mattingly will discuss her
work at the library’s Leonard
Branch in Williamsburg on Feb.
20.
“Stars Down To Earth” at
the Central Library 10 Grand
Army Plaza at Flatbush Avenue
in Prospect Heights, (718)
230–2100, www.bklynlibrary.
org. Opening reception Jan. 13;
6:30–9 pm. On display through
March 13. Free.
TBy Rose Adams he Golden Festival has
Balkanized!
The annual Zlatne Uste
Golden Festival has overflowed
the confines of the Grand Prospect
Hall, with a handful of Balkan
band-related events taking place
all over Brooklyn before and after
the official fest. Here are some of
the highlights:
Soul men
Dive into Slavic brass music
by dancing to nine-piece band
Slavic Soul Party, playing at
Park Slope’s Barbes bar on Jan.
14. The American-Balkan jazz
band combines klezmer music —
expressive instrumental music by
Eastern European Ashkenazi Jews
— with funk and New Orleans
jazz influences. The group has
become a staple at the Park Slope
bar, where it has recorded albums
and drawn fans of Balkan music
for more than 15 years.
Barbès 376 Ninth St. between
Sixth and Seventh avenues in
Park Slope, (347) 422–0248, www.
barbesbrooklyn.com. Jan. 14; 9
pm–midnight. $20.
Turkish delight
A Turkish band will be joined
by two new singers for a concert of
folk music and contemporary songs
at a Clinton Hill eatery on Jan.
14. Istanbul Trio, which explores
the overlap between Turkish and
Armenian, Byzantine, Jewish, and
Middle Eastern music, will play
in the American restaurant’s back
room for an hour, followed by an
hour-long open jam session.
Sisters 900 Fulton St. between
Washington and Waverly avenues
in Clinton Hill, (347) 763–2537,
www.sistersbklyn.com. Jan. 14; 8
pm–11 pm. $10.
Party all the time
If the two-day festival was
not enough for you, swing by the
Golden Fest’s unofficial after party
on Sunday! The family-friendly
party at the Jalopy Theatre, which
will feature five bands from the
festival, will raise money for the
European Folklife Center, which
hosts Balkan music and dance
workshops.
Golden Fest After Party at
Jalopy Theatre 315 Columbia
St. between Woodhall Street and
Hamilton Avenue in Red Hook,
(718) 395–3214, www.jalopytheatre.
org. Jan. 19; 5–9pm. $10 suggested
donation.
Soul music: The Slavic Soul Party band
will play at Barbes on Jan. 14, a few
days before the Golden Festival.
Photo by Caroline Ourso
/www.jalopytheatre
/www.bklynlibrary
/www.barbesbrooklyn.com
/www.barbesbrooklyn.com
/www.sistersbklyn.com
/www.goldenfest.org
/www.goldenfest.org
/www.bklynlibrary
/barbesbrooklyn.com
/www.sistersbklyn.com
/www.jalopytheatre