"Mărţişor" Multicultural Ensemble, Waterloo, Ontario

March 26, 2011, an intercontinental concert at WCI!!!

2011-03-01T09:48:00.004-05:00

"Martisor" and "Lira" orchestra from Torac, Voivodina will join their forces in this first "intercontinental" concert. The concert will be live-streamed from both venues and available to anybody that has access to Internet. You can view it at www.livestream/com/martisor and www.livestream.com/zitiste

In the program, beside the two orchestras and their vocal soloists, ARTA ( http://www.arta.ca/ ) and "Banat" ( http://www.kw-banat.org/ ) dancers, both from Kitchener, Ontario.

Date: March 26, 2011
Time: 2:00 Eastern Standard Time
Location: Waterloo Collegiate Institute, 300 Hazel St. Waterloo, Ontario
Sala scolii elementare "George Cosbuc", Torac, Serbia, 19:00

More details to come.

March 10 ,2010 fundraising

2010-02-26T09:02:00.001-05:00

WCI's Community Fundraising Dinner
Wednesday, March 10
Emmanual United Church, Waterloo

This year the Multicultural Club and the Human Rights Club are combining forces to host a community dinner to raise funds for the Brick by Brick Campaign. The goal this year is to raise $8,500 to build a school in a tsunami ravaged region of Sri Lanka. With your help, this dinner can raise over $3000!
Come out and help celebrate the immanent Spring Equinox, the arrival of March Break, and WCI's 50th Anniversary by helping another school celebrate its first. It promises to be a great evening of international cuisine donated by local restaurants and entertainment provided by members of the Multi cast and Martisor!
Tickets are $30 each, or a table of eight could cost your crew an even $200.
We are also looking for further donations of food to supplement our hearty buffet.

Martisor will participate with a suite of Romanian songs:

1. Bun ii vinul Ghiurghiuliu
2. Aseara ti-am luat basma
3. Cine iubeste si lasa
4. Dragi mi-s cantecele mele
5. Ciuleandra

This year, our orchestra has the following members:

1. Violins: Meenu Venkittarajan
David Zhang
Helen Lu
2. Clarinet: Jenn Porter
3. Piano: Sherry Dai
4. Guitar: Alex Bryant
5. Bass guitar: Matthew Frazer
6. Vocals: Maria-Carina Opris
Sasha Galkina

2009 Annual concert

2008-12-02T11:48:00.012-05:00

April 25th, 2009
7:00 PM
WCI Auditorium
300 Hazel St., Waterloo

This concert, our forth annual concert, promises to be another excellent event. Our guests, ECI Celtic Ensemble, ARTA dance group (http://arta.ca/), Fernan Enriquez, Latin American pan flute player from Toronto (http://cdbaby.com/cd/fernan), and Haft Vadi Bellydance Studio from Kitchener (http://haftvadi.com/) have all confirmed participation. This is, of course, atop of our own WCI students performing Romanian, Serbian and Russian music, and dances from China and India.

We want the auditorium to be full; therefore we lowered the ticket prices to the most affordable price so far, only $10. Plus, special family packet of 4 tickets for only $25 will be available at the door.

Program:

1. "Martisor" Orchestra and vocal group, ARTA vocal group: Romanian music

a) Hora mare din Banat
b) Dragu mi unge-am venit
c) Marie poale ciurace
d) Ce-mi vi bade tarzior
e) Hora mare Bucovineana

2. Chinese dances (Tina Li): dance of Dai nationality (Yunnan)

Dai people live in a picturesque scenery area. They consider peacock to be the most beautiful animal. Girls’ dances of Dai nationality represent the peacock drinking water in the bank and showing their sexy body.

3. Indian dances (Meenu Venkttarajan & Neha Panchal)

This dance is a combination of two ancient classical Indian dances. It is a romantic story that took place during the ancient times.

4. Modern Romanian music (Jeanny Barbulescu and Maria Opris)

5. Chinese dances (Tina Li): dance of Zang nationality (Tibetan)

Eagle is the animal that symbolizes Tibet. In the Dance of Zang nationality, people move like the eagle flies. However, at the same time, there are also some steps in the dance to show the cute side of Tibetan girls.

6. “ARTA” Romanian dances

a) Hora din Banat
b) Ardeleana

7. Chinese dances (Tina Li): dance of Uygur nationality (Sinkiang )

The girls in Sinkiang are really cute, pretty and clever. They love dancing and singing, and they attract audiences mostly using their eyes and necks. The dance is really lively showing Sinkiang girls being playful and joking around, enjoying their lives.

8. "Martisor" orchestra: music from Serbia

a) Cujes seko ( Yotza Komenov )
b) Vec odavno spremam svog mrkova ( Ion Damian )
c) Ciganka ( Ion Damian )

Intermission

1. Fernan Enriquez: Latin American pan flute

a) PAPEL DE PLATA "Silver Paper" (traditional)
b) PUERTO MONTT (Eduardo Franco)
c) LA PARTIDA "The Departure"(Victor Jara)
d) SONCOYMAN (traditional Peruvian melody)

2. “ARTA”, Romanian dances

a) Brasoveanca
b) Invartita

3. Eastwood Collegiate Institute, Celtic group

a) Celtic Voices
b) Scotland the Brave
c) Micky's Chewing Gum

4. Haft Vadi Bellydance Studio: a selection of dances to show the range of styles of Middle Eastern Dance from various regions as well as it's evolution within the American context.

They will begin with a traditional women's dance from the Persian Gulf region called Khaleegy, then move to Upper Egypt, for the Saidi style of dancing, which is the source of modern bellydance. The next dance will be a solo: modern bellydance to a pop song from Lebanon.
The last piece, using traditional sounds of Turkish music, is in the Tribal Fusion style which is a recent innovation by American bellydancers, mixing American Tribal Style dance (ATS) and other influences of Middle Eastern dance and music to create a contemporary experience. For the end all the dancers will be back in a short drum solo.

5. "Martisor" Orchestra: sing-along

a) Ryabinushka (Sasha Galkina, soloist)
b) Sanie cu zurgalai (Adriana Richard, soloist)
c) Tamo daleko
d) Kalinka ( Tom Kempton, soloist )

6. Ciuleandra

7. Encore: S-aseara ti-am luat basma

Romanian Christmas

2008-12-02T11:46:00.002-05:00

Dec 6, 2008
6:30 PM
WCI Auditorium
300 Hazel St., Waterloo

For details check arta.ca

2008/2009

2008-10-08T13:25:00.002-04:00

"Martisor" started the 2008/2009 with the following members:

Jeanny Barbulescu (piano, dancer)
Cantalare Lorna (vocal, dancer)
Yingbo Chen (violin)
Fu Connnie (piano)
Galkina Sasha (vocal, dancer)
Yue Gao (piano)
Thomas Kempton (guitar)
Kuan Liu (violin)
Marshall Abey (cello)
Dana McCool (cello, vocal)
Maria-Carina Opris (vocal)
Porter Jenn (clarinet)
Qin Betsy (cello)
Richard Adriana (vocal)
Richard Gabriel (trumpet)
Wilssie Janoah (flute)
Venkittarajan, Meenu (dancer)

Sophie Xiao (violin)

Romanian Festival, Toronto

2008-10-08T12:02:00.002-04:00

This yearly event organized by the Romanian community of Toronto will take place on Sep 27, 2008. For more info visit http://www.romanianchurchtoronto.com/sarbro08.htm

KW Multicultural Festival

2008-06-04T12:23:00.001-04:00

Join us on Sunday, June 22, 2008 for this celebration of various cultures.

http://www.kwmc.on.ca/html/festival.html

Romanian-Canadian day at the Kitchener City Hall

2008-06-04T12:19:00.001-04:00

Watch a clip from The Record at

http://news.therecord.com/videogallery/359419

Annual concert, March 1st, 2008

2008-01-30T13:47:00.002-05:00

“Mărţişor”, WCI’s Multicultural Ensemble invites you to an evening of music and dance from all over the world on Saturday, March 1st in the Waterloo Collegiate Institute auditorium.

Orchestra and singers will perform music from Romania, Macedonia, and Russia, while the dancers will bring us dances from Serbia, Germany, and Romania including some Gypsy dances. Our guests will perform dances from Columbia, China and Turkey.

Come to enjoy the music and dances of your ancestors and to learn more about the culture of other people.

The concert starts at 7:00 PM on Saturday, March 1st in the WCI’s auditorium, 300 Hazel Street, Waterloo, across from Wilfrid Laurier. Individual tickets are $15 ($10 for seniors or advance purchases) and $40 for a family. For information, see our web site, martisor.ca or call Mr. Damian at Waterloo Collegiate Institute,
(519) 884-9590

"Mărţişor" orchestra

2008-01-29T12:28:00.001-05:00

In 2005 "Mărţişor" started with an orchestra, a violin, a clarinet, and a guitar. Since than, the number of players and the variety of instruments went through, and the sound changes every year depending on what instruments we have.

At the moment we have two violins, a cello, saxophone, taragot (similar to clarinet), flute, guitar, and a piano. In the past we also had a pan flute, bass, bass guitar, and trumpet. Acoustical sound is what we strive for, and we try to use amplification as little as possible, usually only for the vocals.

Our music is traditional folk music, ranging from Russia to Macedonia.

Because of our conductors background Romanian music has always been the pillar of our concerts. Reaching far back into time, or "just" a century ago, our music touches the souls and invites the audience to sing and dance with us. Whether you are of Romanian descent or not, makes no difference. Nobody can resist the rhythm of "Ciuleandra" or the melody of "S-aseara ţi-am luat basma".

Often in our concerts we have guests performing music from other parts of the world. In 2007, for instance, we had Indian tabla and harmonium players, and also a Chinese flute player in our annual concert. In our coming March 1st concert we will have Turkish belly dancers and a Columbian dance group.

"Mărţişor" Board of Directors

2008-01-29T11:56:00.000-05:00

Mirela Banica-Stanei, chair
Radu Secasan, public relations and promotions
Ion Damian, artistic director and conductor of the orchestra and choir
Yotza Comenov, coreographer
Arnold Henkel, coreographer
Lorna Cantalare, dance liaison
Rodica Opris, member
Reshma Owal, member

What is "Mărţişor"?

2008-01-29T11:30:00.000-05:00

"Mărţişor" (pronounced mar-tse-shore) Multicultural Ensemble is a group of students from Waterloo Collegiate Institute, Ontario that performs various traditional music and dance.

It started in 2005 at the initiative of Mr. Damian, the computer engineering teacher and two students of Romanian origin, Andrei Balulescu, violin, and Mihai Nica, clarinet. They started by performing Romanian carols at the school's Christmas concert.

Today, this group performs Russian, Macedonian, Serbian, Gypsy, and of course Romanian music. The members of the group come from very diverse backgrounds, as well: Chinese, Russian, Romanian, Persian, Mexican, Kenyan, Afghanistan, etc.

The group's first major performance was at the "Music Unite" fundraiser concert for the KW Symphony orchestra. CTV and local newspapers covered our performance. Since then, full house is an expectation, and standing ovations at the end of the concert are almost regular.

In 2007 the group had its first annual concert. "Shevchenko" dance ensemble and Kevin Budd, pan flute player from Toronto were invited as guests. Almost 400 people enjoyed the evening. The OMNI TV and Jurnalul Romanesc journal covered this event on more than one occasion. Later on the "Agenda Romaneasca" newspaper started reporting on our activities.

That same year the group started its own web-site: martisor.ca where you can hear a sample of our "Music Unite" concert.

In 2008 we got our facebook page, and also a blog.