A musical journey through Eastern Europe

In search of individuality, exchange and connection.

“Atsind” is the Yiddish word for “now” and serves as the guiding principle
for this dynamic multi-instrumental duo featuring Nicolaas Cottenie and Alina Bauer.

Using a wide variety of string, plucked and keyboard instruments, the two musicians interpret pieces from traditional Eastern European musical cultures and skilfully bring them into our ‘now’.

Their repertoire includes traditional dance music from Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Greece and Turkey, tracing the history of long-ago peoples’ movements.

The two musicians are fascinated by the fact that traditional musical styles allow us to look far back into the past and take the audience on a musical journey about the peculiarities and similarities of the different ethnic groups, which lived close together for centuries and whose togetherness and cultural exchange can also be traced in music to this day.

In their various programmes, Alina Bauer and Nicolaas Cottenie perform various violins, accordion, mandola and bass pedal and thus create a versatile musical framework for a wide variety of occasions – the classical concert evening, instructive school concerts or a musical supporting programme for private or company celebrations.

What we offer

Whether it’s concerts, school performances, or adding a lively touch to official and private parties, we are ready for any enjoyable occasion.

Alina and Nicolaas

Azind’s concerts are a small firework of timbres, different musical worlds and emotions.

Small because there are only two of them. Fireworks, because the variety in sounds through the use oft he different instruments and the smooth changes between the different genres is simply a feast for the ears of a special kind.

Short announcements, which inform about the background of the individual pieces, guide the audience through the program and enable an extraordinary concert enjoyment.


Azind

  • Nicolaas Cottenie – violin, eight-string violin, accordion and bass pedal
  • Alina Bauer – violin, brasca, mandola and bass pedal

We regularly offer workshops on klezmer music.

Two formats have been established so far

  1. For all instruments
  2. Especially for violinists/strings

 

The focus is on the following topics:

  • Learning tunes by ear and playing together
  • Focusing on ornaments and rhythmical/melodic variation
  • Accompanying using chord symbols, accompaniment patterns, specific playing techniques, groove, modes, scales
  • Analyzing and copying selected historical recordings
  • differentiating between genres such as Freylakhs, Sher, Bulgar, Khosidl, Hora, Kolomeyke…

 

Target groups
People with at least two years of experience playing their instrument, such as groups of pupils at mainstream schools, music schools or adult amateur musicians.

Narrative Concert: Klezmer Music – A Musical Example of Individuality, Exchange and Diversity

Suitable for grades 7-12

Klezmer music is the music of the Yiddish-speaking Jews, whose settlement area stretched from the Baltic to the Mediterranean until the 1940s. They lived in communities whose lives were marked by festivals and customs in which music was indispensable. And they lived together with other Christian communities that surrounded them, with whom they were always in active exchange.

Azind’s narrative concert program aims to focus on the aspects of this mutual influence: on the one hand, the individual and especially functional aspects of klezmer music within Yiddish life, and on the other hand, how the musicians integrated influences from their surroundings, be it certain pieces, playing styles, rhythms or instruments.

With the help of pictures, short explanations and lots of music, Nicolaas Cottenie and Alina Bauer perform klezmer music as well as traditional music from Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Greece.
Teachers will be provided with materials to prepare for the concert and the level of content will be adapted to the different age groups.

Alina Bauer: violin, brasca, mandola, bass pedal, narrator
Nicolaas Cottenie: violin, 8-string violin, accordion, bass pedal, narrator

Watch & listen

Calendar

7
Sep 24'
Alte Papierfabrik Greiz
2000000000
- 2200000030
26
Sep 24'
Treibhaus - Döbeln
2000000000
- 2200000030
7
Sep 24'
Neues Rathaus Dresden
1800000000
- 2000000000