Performers and Lectors

Ida Kelarova

Ida is an established personality on the current European music scene. Ida hails from a music family. She studied cello and piano at the Janaček Music School in Brno. Ida spent a part of her life in Great Britain, Denmark and Norway, however, in 1995 she returned to the Czech Republic to continue her work, which she had started in England.

The list of her activities is really extensive. Ida is a respected and well-known singer, musician, choirmaster, music designer and producer.　Her work is based on her knowledge and experience, which she gained when working in western Europe, she gets her inspiration from her Eastern and Romany roots. She is probably best known for more than 20-years work with people and the human voice under the patronage of ISHV (International School for Human Voice), which she founded. She also directs her efforts towards helping talented Romany children and youth.

Her ability to open her heart and invest all her emotions into her voice is legendary. Her emotions and legacies enable her to also address those, who do not understand Romany lyrics, and share the feelings common to all humans.

Desiderius (Dežo) Dužda

Guitar player, vocalist, composer, one of the most significant personalities of the Romany culture.
Dežo started to play the guitar when he was four. His father, Vojtěch Bela Dužda, one of the most noted viola players, was the greatest inspiration and teacher to him. During nineties he was a founding member of the Kale music band, accompanying vocalist Věra Bílá.

He was awarded the Golden Record for 10 000 CDs sold. In 1997 Dežo started his close cooperation with Ida Kelarova, founding a band called Romano Rat (Romany blood) and an international choir called Apsora (Tear drops) and the Jazz famelija band. He has been cooperating with Ida Kelarova ever since.

Dežo is a successful music composer with extensive production, and his songs are sung all over the world. In terms of vocal production he focuses on Romany multichoirs and vocal harmonies. He passes on his art experiences: he organizes guitar workshops, focusing namely on Romany harmonic techniques, so typical for Romany music.He chairs the Miret civil association along with Ida Kelarova, aimed at supporting the art talented Romany youth.

Owing to his openness and heartiness, Dežo is not just known as an exceptional artist, but also as a popular teacher, representing the Romany culture at the professional level.　

Tomáš Kačo

Tomáš is a young talented piano player, music designer, composer and vocalist. His father encouraged him to play music since he was five. Initially Tomáš listened to Romany music, since it is his culture, and slowly, as he heard it, he started to play song melodies on the piano, and later on he was able to play entire music compositions. He was self-taught until the age of 11. However, at the age of 11, he started to take the music seriously and started to attend the Public School of Art in Jičín – studying piano. Classical music was his inspiration and motivation and he was devoted to the piano, decided to graduate the state musical college – Janačkova konzervatoř – in Ostrava, which he finally did. Currently, he is a student of AMU (Academy of Music Arts) in Prague.

Tomáš is a great musician and he is a young professional both in the representation of the Romany culture and in the Jazz music world, he is a great improviser, and the classical piano became his principal objective.

In 2006, Ida Kelarová, as the artistic chair of the public society Miret, selected Tomáš as the talent for the art workshop, held annually, devoted to working with talented Romany children and youth. This project was a breaking point for his future life.
Since the project he has been cooperating with Ida Kelarová and Desiderius Dužda, participating in various international art projects. Since Tomáš is still looking for his own path, where he would link his classical music based experience, Romany music, improvisation and jazz, in order to mix these influences in his music, “Romany Ballad” presented another challenge to him. This time Ida Kelarova invited Škampovo Quartet to cooperate on “Romany Ballad”. The idea was to record this ballad together and to provide Tomáš with the opportunity to arrange Romany songs for a quartet and to express his individual music taste.　In this project, Tomáš’ typical arrangement is for a string quartet and for his solo piano improvisation.

Tomáš‘s life motto is “love of music, music of love”.

Jan Dužda Jr.

Jan comes from a musical family. His Father Jan Dužda, singer, guitar player and member of the band Kale is the brother of Desiderius (Dežo) Dužda. Jans entire childhood was spent in a musical environment, where he drew his inspiration for his subsequent development as a musician. At an early age he founded his own band „Le Ćhavendar“. Appart from fronting the band, he also forms the main core of the writing part of the band.

Jan was given his first opportunity to record Le Čhavendars album with his newly formed band, by OS Miret and its creative directors Ida Kelarova and Desiderius Dužda, which later proved to have become a significant insipration and motivation for manz Roma youths to get involved in Music.

Jan has focused on vocal work and singing from an early age. He has managed to learn Roma multiple harmonies from his father Jan and uncle Dežo, as well as the remainder of the band Kale. Since beginning his cooperation with Ida Kelarova in assisting with vocal work at her workshops, he has quickly managed to establish himself as a professional vocal tutor. In 2008, Jan was invited to perform together with Ida Kelarova and her sister Iva Bittova as part of their Jazz Concert in Prague’s Lucerna Concert Hall, which is now available as an exclusive DVD. His continual development and high level of professionalism has led him to receive many offers of cooperation, one of which, is to be Ida Kelarova’s new CD Romská Balada, which will feature artists such as Tomáš Kačo, Desiderius Dužda and last but not least The Škampa Quartet. Jan is currently a student of The Charles University in Prague, where he is a student of Roma Studies. He has been a part of OS Miret since 2002.

Oto Bunda

Oto comes from the famous Slovak Bunda family, which is known for its traditional musicianship and work with the „cymbal“. He grew up in Košice and has dedicated his entire life to music. He is a key member of the world famous Romany Theatre „Romathan“ where he mainly works with dance and vocal expression. He has worked with Ida Kelarova and been an established member of OS Miret since 2006. When tutoring at Ida Kelarova’s workshops, he mainly focuses on dance development. His dance workshops have cemented themselves as an integral part of Ida’s summer workshops dedicated to Roma culture. His natural talent and substantial experience in vocal training has also developed Oto into a serious mentor at singing workshops and Roma youth Culture Camps.

Michal Mižigár

Michal is a student of the Business Academy in Pisek and is applying to study Roma Studies at FF UK in Prague as well as The Law Faculty in Brno.

Even at this early age, Michal has had his literary work published in “Písecké Postřehy“ (Local Magazine), „Romano Hangos“ (Brno Roma Daily). He has also received many literary achelaides including the „Milena Hubschmanová Award“ for his Roma prose. His involvement in Roma Culture has also led him put on and manage exhibitions of Roma Culture „Roma Piskotar“ (Roma in Pisek). He is currently working on a publication with the same title together with The University of České Budějovice, Mgr. David Urban and the respected PhDr. Eva Davidova. He is fluent in Romany and therfore has dedicated his life to literary Roma work. Apart from Romany, Michal is able to command the English and German languages to a high level and is a beginner in French, Hebru and Greek. His dream continues to be translating and ultimately translating the 5 Moses testaments from Hebru into Roma. In 2007 Michal was invited for his extraordinary literary talents by the OS creative director Ida Kelarova to take part in Svojanov Creative Camp for talented Roma Youth, where he not only performed, but also closely worked on the production of the documentary film „KAĽI ČERCHEŇ“ (2007, director Janek Růžička). The film depicts and presents the above-mentioned youth camp and workshops. Thanks to OS Miret, Michal was able to gain valuable experience in USA (South Dakota, Washington, Denver). From an early age, Michal has been involved in Roma related issues and has actively supported Roma youth and talents, mainly at camps and workshops for Roma children organized by Ida Kelarova and OS Miret. His primary life goal is to focus his attentions to The Romany language and studies. All of the above mentioned facts make Michal a very strong candidate for the future director of OS Miret, founded by Ida Kelarova in 1995.

Kaľi čercheň

One guitar, three extraordinary voices, harmony, power, temperament, passion and emotions. Kali Cerchen (“Black Star”) consists of three musicians/actors from the Roma theater Romathan in Kosice, Slovakia. In addition to their own music they also perform Roma traditional songs from Slovakia, Russia and other parts of Eastern Europe. Besides their artistic activities, Kali Cerchen have decided to share their Roma heritage at international workshops (Gypsy Celebration 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, Freiburg 2006 and 2007, Berlin 2006, 2008, festival Stimmen 2008, 2009, Hlasohled Prague 2009). As they are very charismatic teachers, their workshops have become very popular and are attended by students from all over the world.

Milan Godla

Milan comes from a family of musicians, and he is one of the founders of the Romathan theater. He is a singer, actor, stage manager, director, playwright and art director. His powerful voice has made him well known as an excellent interpreter of traditional Romany songs. Milan participated in several international theater projects such as “Romanovela – Love in Translation”, which was presented in a number of European countries. In 2004, he received the Kosice Mayor’s Award for his artistic endeavors. He writes lyrics not only for Kali Cerchen but also for Romathan. In addition to all this, Milan is a highly renowned Roma linguist and interpreter.

Marian Balog

Marian is the director of the Romathan theater and one of its principal actors. He has been active at the Romathan from its inception. He writes poetry, composes music, and writes and directs theatrical pieces with Milan. He also acted in several Czech and Slovak movies such as Zprava o putovani studentu Petra a Jakuba (“The Pilgrimage of Students Peter and Jacob” – 2000, directed by Drahomíra Vihanova) and appeared in several performances at the Roma theater Rota in Vienna. Together with Milan, he has received several awards from the Literary Fund of Bratislava for a variety of acting roles, scripts and directing efforts. He also received the Kosice City Award in 2007.

Jaroslav Godla

Jarko is Milan’s son, and as such he basically grew up on the stage of Romathan theater. At the age of 17 he won the prestigious competetion for young Roma talents “Romano hangoro” (Roma voice). After graduation from Conservatoire he became a valuable singer, dancer and actor in the Romathan theater.

Others

 *Karol Radič Band  *Bartoš band  *Fláre beás from Hungary

The list of performers is not complete yet, we’ll complete it gradually.