Zlatna Mountain musicians are from Vancouver, and share a love for Balkan music and dance. The name Zlatna Mountain means Gold Mountain, a term widely used by the Chinese immigrants who built the railroads in the late 19th century for the Gold Rush along the west coast of North America.
Balkan means ‘sharp mountain’ in Turkish, and it reminds us that the Balkans are deeply influenced by Turkish rhythms and scales. The Balkan countries contain a number of mountain ranges and are at the crossroads of different cultures. The Balkans is where you find various ethnic groups with a strong presence of Ottoman and Slavic cultures.
Zlatna Mountain repertoire is from Macedonia, Serbia, Kosovo, Bulgaria, and Bosnia Herzegovina. Zlatna Mountain showcases a variety of time signatures and harmonic structures. Note that the narrators of the stories are often animals and natural features. In these songs one can hear stories from a jaybird, a falcon, and a mountain. Listening to Zlatna Mountain can transport you to a fog-covered plain, a grape vineyard, a beautiful private garden, and [of course] mountains!
Zlatna Mountain musicians include: Shireen Nabatian (violin, vocals), Heidi Ravenel (vocals, percussion), Carmen Rosen (vocals), Greg Valou (guitar), Michael Louw (bass) and Kristina Zalite (tapan, vocals). We are sometimes joined by fabulous musicians such as Asos Mahmoud (daf, doumbek), Volo Bedzvin (cello), Gergo Eles (gajda), Clara Rose (violin).
Contact us at zlatnamountain@gmail.com!
Zlatna Mountain 