Zlatne Uste's Jerry Kisslinger
New York's greatest music bash, the Zlatne Uste Golden Festival is returning to Astoria Queens, January 17-18, 2025. Over 50 ensembles particiapte on several stages and dancefloors, brass bands, polyphonic choirs...Bulgarian, Macedonian, Romani, Turkish, Serbian, Greek, Persian, Klezmer, you name it... after 39 years of this festival it has evolved to become one incredible party.
In this episode Jerry Kisslinger a founding member of Zlatne Uste and Pontic Firebird, shares some burning tracks and we dig in to the roots of this music and this wild event.
One of North America’s foremost presenters of Balkan rhythms, percussionist Jerry Kisslinger has performed at community events, concerts, and festivals for decades. On the faculty of the East European Folklife Center’s Balkan Music and Dance workshops since 1985, he teaches, in person and online for the EEFC at workshops in the US and abroad, and with private students.
Jerry is a founding member of Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band, now in its 42nd year, and currently plays with Zlatne Uste, Kavala Brass Band, Pontic Firebird, Lauren Brody, and Dimitris Stefanidis. Specilaizing in N. Macedonian dance rhythms, he was privileged to learn directly from Macedonian gajda (bagpipe) virtuoso and dance teacher Pece Atanasovski and other masters. He has played with the Yuri Yunakov Orchestra and many other top Balkan groups in the US. Jerry’s discography includes Édessa and Friends: Balkan Border Music, and Di Shikere Kapelye, with Frank London’s Klezmer Brass All Stars, as well as four recordings with Zlatne Uste and guest appearances on Raif Hyseni 24 and Dolunay’s Our House. He loves to share his energy and insight with students and is proud to be called a dancer’s drummer.
He is also the author of Jerry's Balkanography, a Substack focused on recent literature related to the Balkans in English or English translatio