Peggy Bulger:
Welcome.  I am Peggy Bulger, Director of the American Folklife Center, here at the Library of Congress.  And on behalf of the Librarian of Congress and the Associate Librarian for Library Services, Deanna Markum, who is with us today, and also on behalf of all of our staff at the American Folklife Center, I want to welcome you to our most recent Homegrown Concert.  And many of you have been to Homegrown Concerts before.  What this is is a program of acquisitions for the American Folklife Center.  We work with state folklorists around the country to bring in the very best of traditional music and dance to represent their state.  And of course, as you know, we are a very multi-cultural nation here and so we really have the benefit of the very best of international music and dance.  

The Coolidge Auditorium where we are in has a very long and distinguished history of recording this kind of music.  Back in 1938, as a matter of fact, Alan Lomax recorded the famous jazz pianist "Jelly Roll" Morton.  He did oral histories and recordings that have just been released a couple of years ago on CD and actually won a Grammy.  Aside from that, though, we've had Mississippi John Hurt and Odetta, Pete Seeger, there's many many wonderful traditional singers who've been on this stage and we'd like to keep that tradition alive.

Now would be a good time if, those of you who have cell phones, if you could please turn those off.  Otherwise, the researchers who come in a hundred years from now and are looking at these recordings will say, "Oh, that was back in the day of cell phones and the ring tones.  Listen to that ring tone." [laughs]

We actually partner also with the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center and I don't know if any of you were there last night, but our group today was there last night and apparently it was a rousing success.  They had people up dancing in the aisles.  It's a little hard to dance in the aisles at the Coolidge Auditorium but I think you'll have a wonderful time.

I'd also like to welcome -- we have staff from the Albanian Embassy here and we have a member of the press, who is from the Albanian Press.  And so they are with us today and so we are very excited.

Another thing that we're celebrating today is the 40th anniversary of a very important organization in New York City and that's the Center for Traditional Music and Dance.  And the Center actually got its start as the Balkan Arts Center.  So, it's very fitting that to represent New York City and to represent the Center we have an incredible group and those of you may be familiar with them -- Merita Halili and The Raif Hyseni Orchestra.  They actually met in New York City even though they both came from overseas.  And so it's kind of exciting to see that kind of a synergy get together.  Merita is from Albania and Raif is from Kosova.

To introduce them and to give you a little background on what we're going to hear, I'm going to bring in the Executive Director and Founder of the Balkan Arts Center and now the Center for Traditional Music and Dance in New York City.  Please welcome Ethel Raim.  
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Ethel Raim:
First, I'd like to invite you to come a little bit closer, if you'd like.  

[laughter]

The artists would love it.  It's a great pleasure for me to introduce the artists for this afternoon's concert and I am Ethel Raim, the Artistic Director of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance in New York City and we are indeed celebrating our 40th anniversary and that's awfully exciting.  We've been working with Merita and Raif since they came to the US in 1995, presenting them at different festivals and they play, of course, regularly in the Albanian Community.  

Merita is from Tirana, the capital of Albania.  She grew up singing the lyric songs of her native region, of Central Albania, and had her nation-wide debut in the town of Gjirokaster at the age of 17, and since then went on to perform for the Radio Television Tirana and also as a soloist in the state ensemble.  She probably won her greatest recognition in 1995 when she was awarded first prize amongst 90 singers representing the Albanian Diaspora and that was a tremendous honor.  And just this year, Merita was honored by the President of Albania for her brilliant interpretation of her native region -- Central Albania -- of the songs from that region.  You will know why when she starts singing here.  

Raif Hyseni is from Kosova.  He grew up in Mitrovica where he studied accordion and played with several different groups.  And before moving to Tirana in 1992, he was well-known at Radio Television Pristina, which is the capital of Kosova.  And also played with a very well-known group, "Besnikit".  Raif is a major innovator, as you will hear this afternoon, on the accordion, and has composed numerous instrumental melodies.  As I said, they came to the US in 1995.  They make their home in Caldwell, New Jersey and play very frequently for the community, the Albanian community, at Albanian restaurants, at community celebrations, weddings, et cetera.  So, please, please give a very, very warm welcome to Merita Halili and Raif Hyseni.
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Raif Hyseni:
Thank you very much.  Thank you for coming.  First of all I want to thank American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Nancy, and Thia [spelled phonetically] for having us today, making this possible -- the concert -- for us, as well as for you.  A big applause for them, please.
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Thank you.  We just played the first three songs -- the royal songs from the Middle Central of Albania.  The very first song was [Albanian] Beautiful Flowers of Tirana.  [Albanian] means flower, [Albanian] or beautiful, and Tirana is the capital of Albania.  The song describes how beautiful the capital of Albania is, Tirana, is surrounded and having beautiful young girls and handsome boys, as well as very beautiful flowers.  That was the first song.

The second song describes love -- that man describes a love to a woman.  He says, "I like you velvet best -- don't worry about your body.  Anyway, no matter what you wear, you still look beautiful."

And the third song was from the North of Albania, from the town of Shkodra.  It says, "I went on the [unintelligible] and peeled my apple, making ready to eat it.  But, suddenly you passed by through my house so while I was peeling my apple, I cut my finger, looking at you because you were so handsome."  It's a love song.  

Now we are going to sing.  I want to take advantage, just letting you know, that we are singing Albanian music from all the ridges where Albanians lives.  They live in Balkas, like in Kosova -- Albanians who live in Macedonia, in North of Greece -- Cameria -- as well as in Montenegro.

So now we are going to sing a song [unintelligible], which is called Mihane [spelled phonetically].  Mihane is the name of the lady and she personifies a beautiful young woman.  And the guy says to her, "God, make me a bird so I can go on her shoulder and just stay on her body."  It's a lost art.  

[laughter]

But, before we move to that, we are going to sing you a song, which is from Macedonia and is a cappella.  And we'll sing together with Merita [unintelligible].  Obviously, it's a love song.  It's all about love.  Thank you very much.
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Thank you.  It was a love song, but sad one because I forgot to tell you that the lyrics of this song are like a young couple -- they were in love but meant not to be together.  So they did promise to each other, "If you get married somewhere else I will get married to somebody else.  If you have a baby son, name it by my name.  If I would have a daughter, I would name it by your name just for the sake of the love." So those were the lyrics of the song we just sung.  Thank you very much.

We will move now to a Kosova.  As I said, it's name is Mihane.  But we have to sing together.  There are some expression in Balkas which belong to all the people who lives there.  It's like Hopa, Hidae [spelled phonetically].  Can we say together Hopa and Hidae, please?  Hopa, Hidae.  Hopa Hidae.  Hopa...  it's always 7/8.  One, two, three.  One, two.  One, two -- ho-pa, hi-dae.  ho-pa.  Let's go, everybody.  hi--dae.
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Merita Halili:
Thank you for singing [unintelligible].
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Raif Hyseni:
Thank you very much.  We will move now [unintelligible] the South of Albania.  We will sing [unintelligible] song.  It's a love song but the mode is in minor.  Do not take it as a sad love song.  It's a happy song.  This is from the South and we chose the repertoire on purpose just to see the difference between the songs we just sung before this one -- which was a cappella, which are sung by Albanians who live in Macedonia -- and see the difference between Albanians who live in South of Albania -- same language, same tradition, but different mode and different structure of the music.  Please enjoy.  Thank you.
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Merita Halili:
Thank you very much.  [Albanian] Thank you for coming.
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Thank you.
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Raif Hyseni:
Thank you very much.  [Albanian] Thank you.  Because we are running out of time and we would love to play more.  But I am really sure that we will come back again [laughs].
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Obviously, this is our first time playing in the Library of Congress and we are honored to be here.  As well as we want to thank, as I said, The American Folklife Center, as well as our Manager [unintelligible] Traditional Music and Dance, Ethel Raim, who made this possible tonight.  
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So before we finish with our music, let me introduce the members of the band.  

Maksim Vathi on clarinet and saxophone from Tirana.
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[unintelligible] on bass guitar from [Albanian].
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Sebim Umer on [Albanian] tapan from Manaster, Macedonia.
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And [unintelligible] on guitar from Rashen, Albania.
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Merita Halili:
And Raif Hyseni!
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From Mitrovica, from Kosova.

Raif Hyseni:
As well as Queen of Albania [unintelligible], Merita Halili.
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Merita Halili:
Thank you very much.  [unintelligible]
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[end of transcript]