This season we will enjoy the frenzied, festive, frantic, sometimes frivolous but always fantastic music of Eastern Europe. The countries and cultures in this part of the world have proud, profound histories, their peoples having suffered for ages yet defiantly survived. From the early days of ancient Empires and “Old World” villages through the modern era when the “Cold War” was certainly “hot” if you lived within the Soviet sphere, Eastern Europeans have endured devastating battles, famine, ethnic strife and all sorts of political and personal affronts, yet continued to forge forward. Though life so often presented pain, there was always a wedding to look forward to, always a harvest to celebrate, always a song to sing or an excuse to dance. The winters may be harsh in Eastern Europe but besting the bitter cold makes the springtime sweet.

Over the course of our Eastern European season we're going to travel from western Russia around the region, from the Baltics to Belarus, Ukraine to Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, then south into Romania, the former Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. Along the way we'll meet the Roma and Jews, groups of peoples who live, or at least lived, on the margins of many Eastern European nations. We won't shy away from the harsh histories of the countries and cultures we explore. Instead we'll join Eastern Europeans in song and motion, counting and clapping and sometimes crying along, always moving ahead.