Édessa Music | Eva Salina Primack

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	Eva Salina Primack vocals Eva Salina Primack began singing Yiddish songs at the age of seven, fell in love with Balkan songs that same year, and at age 8 began attending the annual Mendocino Balkan Music and Dance workshops in Northern California. Shortly thereafter, she became deeply involved in the community of Balkanophiles all over the United States, and has never left. Eva has had the great fortune of studying with many of the Balkans' best, from Tzvetanka Varimezova to Esma Redzepova to Merita Halili. Over the last 14 years, she has also learned many things from Ruth Hunter, Donka Koleva, Christos Govetas, Tatiana Sarbinska, Milen Slavov, and others. Eva's thirst for knowledge, songs, and experiences has carried her to the Balkans twice—the first time for six weeks with Tatiana Sarbinska in 1996, and most recently in the summer of 2005, when she spent almost three months traipsing through Ukraine, Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece, studying with a young Rom girl in Istanbul, singing for reknowned Bulgarian composer Krassimir Kyurkchijski, performing at a Rom wedding in South Central Bulgaria, and dancing all night to the sweet zourna music of Christos Karakostas in Flambouro. Eva sings with the women's vocal ensemble KITKA, performs with Edessa, and teaches Balkan vocal workshops and lessons in the San Francisco Bay Area. As she develops into a performer, Eva also is passionate about teaching, seeing as oral dissemination is the key to continuing these musical traditions, both in the Balkans and in the United States. In 2003, Eva traveled to Japan with Édessa and taught and performed at the East European Music Camp in Makino. For the last seven years she has taught at many camps and festivals, including Razzmatazz! Folk Dance weekend, KOSMOS World Music and Dance Camp, Laguna Festival, Sierra Music and Arts Institute (Sweet's Mill). In the summer of 2006 she was on the staff of a Northern Harmony three-week touring camp in Vermont, and taught teenagers a whole variety of Balkan repertoire. In January of 2006 Eva returned to Los Angeles to complete her BA in Ethnomusicology. After this, who knows?