
IZUMRUD – Great Band with Domra, Balalaika and Accordion…
The Group IZUMRUD from Ekaterinburg in Russia is one of the most progressive band playing Russian folk instruments like domra, balalaika or the accordion bayan today.
In 2012 the band played at the Picknick Jazz Festival in Tomsk. Several pieces played at this festival are available in a long youtube video that includes interviews (in Russian language) with the band members. The second part of this video shows the performance of the American singer Mary McBride who had been invited for several concerts in Russia in 2012.
The members of IZUMRUD are:
- Michail Sidorov – balalaika, artistic leader
- Nadezhda Zhikhareva – domra
- Svetlana Solovey – domra
- Rinat Yakupov – accordion
- Konstantin Prokoshin – counter-bass
- Evgeni Khantchin – percussion
- Edward Smolenskiy-sound engineer
группа ИЗУМРУД (IZUMRUD) г. Екатеринбург
izumRUd from Ekaterinburg – concert at the Picknick Jazz Festival in Tomsk.
The videos of the past years show the many faces of Izumrud. At the jazz festival they played a more powerful style, with heavy drums and an electric bass balalaika. The group has performed together with other rock- and jazz-bands. Together with the singer Veronika Bulycheva IZUMRUD has recorded the music for the documentary “Voyage de l’Oural à Paris”. For some performances actors or dancers have been integrated in the performance. But also the band members themselves are taking part in the dance performaces, especially for the encores.
In 2011 Izumrud played a concert in Spain. The complete concert has been filmed and is available at youtube (12 videos). I have included those videos into my playlist.
IZUMRUD in Spanien (2011)
The piece with the title “Western” reminds me of the famous song “House of the rising sun”.
A piece with a great dance performance:
Czardas byMonti
Another great performance – the Czardas by Monti played on the xylophone. At the end of the performance the percussionist plays the piece again with covered eyes and a covered xylophone. Read more “IZUMRUD – Great Band with Domra, Balalaika and Accordion from Ekaterinburg (Russia)”