Cavatina Duo & Pacifica Quartet
River of Fire
 Romani Music Project

River of Fire: We are all in it, It is within us all!
The historical, political, geographical, ethnic, religious and cultural diversity of the human race tends to place us in pigeonholes, to constantly divide into "us" and "them". Prejudice, persecution, ghettoization, war and out-right ethnic cleansing leaves us alienated, disoriented, scarred, ignorant and afraid. We all have experience of confronting or being confronted by "the other" as we both contribute to and suffer from this divisiveness. The Roma people have endured extraordinary marginalization and violence throughout their history as a "exotic" people foreign to the older, native culture. Both Denis and Eugenia have talked about the negative cultural stereotypes they initially inherited regarding "the Gypsies" but how, especially through music, these boundaries can be broken down as we discover our mutual humanity. When Eugenia reacts to the passionate expression of Gypsy music, she calls it the outpouring of humanity itself, a trait, faculty and impulse we all share and viscerally relate to as humans. 

Composers Sergio Assad, Stacy Garrop, Clarice Assad, Mattew Dunn and Atanas Ourkouzounov have composed the Music for this project to be released by Cedille Records. 

Sergio Assad

Stacy Garrop

Clarice Assad

Matthew Dunn

Atanas  Ourkouzounov