Balkan Music &
Dance Workshops

Every summer the EEFC presents two week-long workshops. Follow the links below to read all about them!

June 28-July 5, 2025
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August 9-16, 2025
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Get the FAQs

Find out almost everything you always wanted to know about the EEFC’s in-person Balkan camps.
FAQs


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Kids at Camp!

Our in-person workshops are a great experience for families. Get the scoop to ensure everyone has a blast!


Scholarships

We award full scholarships to our in-person workshops.
Find out more

Oakland, California

Kitka presents Sevdah - Songs of the Soul from Bosnia / A Vocal Workshop with Amira

November 16, 2016 at 7:00 pm – 9:30 pm

It is not easy to find a single word in English that can fully capture the Bosnian concept of SEVDAH, although yearning perhaps comes closest. Like the Spanish concept of "duende", Sevdah carries multiple meanings - love, hopeless love, endless love, an all-consuming, feverish, unshakable lover's desire for their beloved.

More than just a song-style, Sevdah is a way of life, a narrative of longing that tells its story through passionate songs that spring straight from the soul.

Amira Medunjanin was born in Sarajevo at the time when the popularity of traditional music in the former Yugoslavia was at the high tide, and sevdah held a special place for her. The sevdalinke (sevdah songs) she learned from her mother were the most beautiful of melodies. Her fascination with the oral tradition of Bosnia and Herzegovina led her to devote herself to to exploring the expressive capacity of sevdalinke to the fullest, and in so doing she has become one of the genre's most unique and compelling voices.

First Congregational Church of Oakland
2501 Harrison Street
Oakland, California 94610