The EEFC’s East Coast Balkan Music & Dance Workshop is held at Iroquois Springs, located near the town of Rock Hill, in the Catskill Mountains. It is an immaculately maintained, spacious site with a pleasant, open country atmosphere. It is located 90 miles NW of New York City and 80 miles NE of Scranton, PA, on NY Route 17. The camp has bunkhouse-style cabins with porches, electricity, abundant storage space, and interior bathrooms. For more privacy there is plenty of space for tents. The site has a lake, swimming pool and attractive common buildings.
The Iroquois Springs workshop runs from Saturday evening to the next Saturday morning. Classes begin Sunday morning, and are held each day through Friday. Following a review session Friday morning, participants have the option to perform in a student concert. The week closes on Friday with a Balkan-style lamb roast and the last of the week’s great evening parties. We have part-time attendance options available.
A broad array of instrumental, vocal, ensemble and dance classes at all levels are offered across five daily 75-minute class slots. See the sample daily schedule. We provide an instrument-lending program to enable new students to get started on harder-to-find village instruments. In the early evenings the program includes folklore presentations and panel discussions, group sings with musical accompaniment, and our fun, community-building fundraising auction. Live music dance parties featuring our world-class staff musicians will delight your feet in the dance hall; and the party continues late into the night in our more intimate cafe-bar and grill, the kafana, with a variety of musical sets by staff and campers, from the ecstatic to the roof-raising.
The workshop features three delicious meals a day and an evening snack, with selections to please both omnivore and vegetarian tastes.
We welcome families! The Iroquois Springs workshop features two class periods a day in children’s activities, singing for younger voices, and a youth band. Children are also welcome and encouraged to take adult classes, according to their capabilities. Find more info on Kids at Camp.
A few partial-tuition-waiver work exchanges may be available for full-week participants. Inquiries for work exchanges will be entertained only after registration has begun (see below). Please contact the Iroquois Springs Workshop Site Manager as soon as possible if you wish to be considered for a work exchange. The Site Manager will follow up on individual work exchange requests by June 15.
Workshop registration for 2024 will be open in early spring of 2024. Stay tuned! Click here for tuition information and to register. Workshop updates will be announced through our E-newsletter (sign-up if you haven’t already), the EEFC Discussion list, and on our Facebook page.
Our teaching staff is in process. Please check back often as we add names to the list! Staff and class description listings are subject to update and change.
Greek Dance
Joseph Kaloyanides Graziosi was born and raised in the greater Boston area. Of Greek and Italian ancestry, Joe was exposed at an early age to Greek music and dance through both family contacts...Read More
Balkan Dance
Steve Kotansky, known widely as a versatile dancer and teacher, has made many research trips to Bulgaria, the former Yugoslavia, Romania, Hungary, Greece, and Albania. He has been a regular on...Read More
Bulgarian Dance
Konstantin "Kotse" Marinov is from Stara Zagora, Bulgaria. From the age of 5 he performed with the Children's and Youth Ensemble "Zagorche." Kotse was born into a dancing family: he and his...Read More
Macedonian Gajda; Zurla
Emil Adamski was born in Makedonska Kamenica, a small town in Eastern Macedonia, where he performed frequently as a folk dancer and folk instrument performer at the town's annual festival. He was...Read MoreMacedonian Tambura; Macedonian Village Ensemble
Bajsa Arifovska was born in Kočani, Republic of Macedonia. She studied at the State Music School in Štip, enrolling in the Music Theory department with a second major in violin; throughout her...Read MoreHouse Bassist (non-teaching)
Paul Brown has been playing music for 44 years, studying bass and improvisation at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and oud and makam with Haig Manoukian and Necati Çelik. Comfortable in...Read MoreGreek Violin; Greek Ensemble
Beth Bahia Cohen has spent a large part of her career exploring how the violin is played in various cultures. Of Syrian Jewish and Russian Jewish heritage, she was inspired at a young age by the...Read MoreDoumbek
Percussionist Polly Tapia Ferber is a music educator, performer, and recording artist who specializes in hand percussion from the Middle East, Turkey, North Africa, the Balkans, and Spanish...Read MoreBrass Band Melody; Brass Band Ensemble
Catherine Foster has been performing music from Southeastern Europe for over 30 years and has been playing trumpet, clarinet, and saxophone with Borozan Brass Band, Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band,...Read MoreBulgarian Kaval
Valeri Georgiev is from the Bulgarian Danube town of Ruse. He studied kaval in Kotel with Stoyan Chobanov and Georgi Penev, and graduated from the Plovdiv Academy of Arts with a BA degree in...Read MoreAccordion; Albanian/Kosovar Ensemble
Raif Hyseni hails from The Republic of Kosova, which has a large Albanian majority. He grew up in the town of Mitrovicë, where he studied accordion at music school and performed in amateur...Read MoreMacedonian Kaval; Macedonian Village Ensemble
Aleksandar Jovevski graduated from the Skopje-based State Music and Ballet School "Ilija Nikolovski Luj, and received a degree in music from the University of Skopje. He is the leader of the band...Read MoreBitov/Bulgarian Village Ensemble; Balkan Music Theory
Kalin Kirilov, born in Vidin, NW Bulgaria, began singing and playing the accordion at the age of four. He studied tambura and music theory in Vidin and Pleven and graduated from the Academy of...Read MoreTapan/Daouli
Jerry Kisslinger has played tapan/daouli for Balkan and folk-dance community events, concerts, and festivals throughout the United States for many decades and has taught regularly at EEFC camps...Read More
Gadulka
Nikolay Kolev, a native of the Thracian Rose Valley village of Karavelovo, has been playing gadulka since age 10. After graduating from the National School of Folk Arts in Shiroka Lŭka, Bulgaria,...Read MoreBulgarian Tambura
Stoyan Kostov has been playing Bulgarian tambura for over 40 years. He graduated from the folk music school in Kotel and the Plovdiv Academy of Music and Dance. Stoyan performed with Ensemble...Read MoreSantouri
John "Yianni" Roussos has performed on the santouri in the northeastern U.S. since 1972. He played for many years with the Pericles Halkias Family Orchestra in New York City and more recently with...Read More
Shope Duet & Ballad Singing; Introduction to Balkan Singing
Lauren Brody is an accordionist, singer, researcher, professional piano tuner/technician and Fulbright scholar from New York City. She is a pioneer of the klezmer music revival in the United...Read MoreAlbanian Singing
Merita Halili is one of Albania’s top performers. Born in the capital city of Tiranë, Merita grew up singing the lyric songs of her native region of Central Albania. Her nationwide debut...Read More
Bosnian Singing
Mensur Hatić—teacher of voice, accordion and piano, and promoter of Balkan music—was born and raised in Brčko, in northeastern Bosnia, and has been playing piano and accordion since the age...Read MoreBulgarian Singing
Donka Koleva is a vocalist prized for her rich, clear and melodic voice. A graduate of the Folklore High School in Shiroka Luka, she worked as a soloist with the Sliven Ensemble for three years....Read MoreGreek Singing
Mavrothi Kontanis is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, composer and teacher born and raised in the U.S., with roots in Halkidiki, Greece. Mavrothi's main instrument is the oud. He has studied and...Read MoreMacedonian Singing; Turkish Singing
Brenna MacCrimmon has been learning and performing the music of Turkey and the Balkans since 1984. She has worked with Turkish and Macedonian groups in Toronto over the years and has made frequent...Read More
Children's Activities
A pianist since childhood, Jaquetta Bustion's love of music began in her earliest school experiences in Philadelphia. She has been a music educator for over twenty years. Whether in public and...Read MoreKids'/Youth Band Mlado Selo
If you are 5 or 7 or 9, or if you are a teen or young adult, or if you have ever been a part of the Čoček Nation / YAMMS / Mlado Selo EEFC camp youth ensembles, join us! If we have tunes...Read More
Children's Activities
Marlis Kraft has been involved in world music since her teens, when she started her own song collection in her native Switzerland, where she performed Balkan and Swiss music. Marlis taught music...Read More
Use this map to help you decide which cabin or cabin area to request on your registration form. Please note that the Hideaway rooms are generally reserved for staff.
Click here to download a full-size PDF of this map.
Iroquois Springs is in Rock Hill, in the southeast corner of New York State in the Catskill Mountains. The nearest large airports are those that serve New York City (we suggest JFK or Newark), or Stewart Airport in Newburgh, NY. The site is about 90 miles NW of New York City, 80 Miles NE of Scranton, PA, and 125 miles SW of Albany, NY.
There is frequent service via the Shortline Bus Co. to Monticello, NY from the Port Authority bus station in Manhattan. Monticello Terminal is about 6 miles from camp. We will do our best to arrange a ride from the station to camp, or you can take a taxi or other rideshare service yourself.
Set your GPS to: 66 Bowers Rd., Rock Hill, NY 12775.
From Manhattan, Westchester, Long Island:
Come for dinner, early evening activities, the dance party and the late-night kafana. Then spend the night and enjoy breakfast before you hit the road!
Here’s how it works:
6:30 p.m.: Arrive at our lovely Catskills site in time for a delicious dinner (see Directions tab above). Before you get in the dinner line, check in at the Front Desk in the Dance Hall/Theater and set up your bunk.
At 8:00 p.m. take in a folklore presentation, singalong, or join in our auction. Dancing to live music begins in the main hall generally around 9:00.
Our Kafana in the woods is a bar and a club, a grill and a pub, and a place where much music and merriment happens into the wee hours. Stay as long as you like!
Sleep in a bunk with the bedding you brought from home.
Roll out of bed, have breakfast by 9:30 a.m., and hit the trail by 10.
All this can be yours for just $145. Such a bargain! A cheap hotel in Monticello is about $85 and contains no options for gajda, rakija, čočeks, or ćevapčići!
Use our online form to register for the Bed & Breakfast option. See the red “Register Now” button above. Please note that all B&B registrants must follow the same procedures, timelines and protocols as all other camp registrants.
Note: The 2024 evening party and activity schedule will be published at a later date. Stay tuned!