OBI is proud to announce our newest member of the band: please welcome bassist Liz Draper! [cue applause] We’ve already had a chance to perform with her at Tapestry Folkdance Center in November. and she was awesome. We’re now very excited to have her join our ensemble. A bit about[…]
By now many of our hardcore fans have heard that our bassist, Matt Miller, has decided to take a break and will be leaving OBI at the end of the year. We’re sad to see him go, but we wish him all the very best as he begins a new chapter. We[…]
We’ve had quite a ride these last 6+ years curating the 3rd Thursday Balkan Party Night at the Black Dog Cafe in Lowertown St. Paul, and it’s been fun to bring our music to new audiences every month through this series. Though OBI still has a healthy plate of upcoming[…]
Last fall, our awesome fiddle player, Colleen, started a grand adventure, thanks to a Fullbright Grant that allowed her to do a year’s worth of field study in Romania of Transylvanian string players. She kept up a blog of her own with thoughts on music and identity (check it out[…]
It’s back, and it’s in St. Paul for the first time ever! Join OBI and Mila Vocal Ensemble at the Bedlam Lowertown 3/1. From our press release: Bulgarian Martenitsa Show Comes To Bedlam Lowertown March 1 Orkestar Bez Ime and Mila Vocal Ensemble Celebrate Their Annual Balkan Spring Celebration In a New, Dance-Friendly[…]
Those of you who joined us last March at The Celtic Junction might remember that we had a pretty amazing show. Not only was the house packed, but we also got to premier some new compositions thanks to a grant from the American Composers Forum. The product of that show—an[…]
OBI has recently learned that the third-party site that feeds our “SHOWS” page with event listings will be offline and out-of-business as of July 9. This means that you might not see any shows listed on that page until our developers have created a workaround, which may take some time.[…]
Through a curious technological malfunction on Hear It Local (the website OBI uses to post our shows, which are then automatically embedded on our “SHOWS” page), some of our performances—especially those more “off the grid”—can’t be entered properly into the system. The system administrators of Hear It Local have been[…]
Some of you have been waiting quite a while to hear this news: After several months of playing with our friend, Eric Ray, we’re proud to announce that he has officially joined Orkestar Bez Ime’s ranks as our accordionist! Eric has a long history with OBI that goes back to[…]
If it wasn’t for sure before, it certainly is now: Orkestar Bez Ime is officially a band of composers! Thanks to OBI receiving the peer-nominated Minnesota Emerging Composer Award from the American Composers Forum, we’re unveiling six new compositions Saturday, March 29 at Celtic Junction. You’ll hear the new folk-influenced[…]