Slideshow: A Roma Berklee Night

To mark International Roma Day on April 8, Berklee's Mediterranean Music Institute and the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights and Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard University joined forces to address issues facing the Roma community in Europe and to celebrate its culture.

April 21, 2016

To mark International Roma Day on April 8, Berklee's Mediterranean Music Institute and the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights and Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard University joined forces to address issues facing the Roma community in Europe and to celebrate its culture.

During the day, Harvard hosted its fourth annual Roma Conference, this year called "Responses to State Sponsored Collective Injustice," which featured panels that spoke of addressing injustice and of building a culture of peace and social justice. To cap the day's events, the MMI sponsored a concert of traditional Romani folk music at the Berklee Performance Center, during which Berklee students performed with guest artist Damian Draghici '98, a legendary Romanian pan flutist and member of the European Parliament.  

The concert was divided into two parts: In the first part, a student band performed Roma Gypsy songs composed by Romanian student Tomás Kaco followed by Gypsy songs from Spain and the Balkans arranged by Spanish student violinist Tania Mesa. In the second part of the concert, Damian Draghici performed gypsy Roma repertoire with the students.