We are forming a Tamburitza orchestra and kolo group in south Florida. This will be the only group of its kind in Florida and the only group in existence in the southeastern United States. Tamburitza music pronounced Tahm-boo-ree-tsa, is the name for the family of stringed folk instruments native to Croatia. While native to Croatia, the Tamburitza is also the common folk instrument throughout Vojvodina, parts of Serbia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Kolo is danced primarily by people from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and White Carniola region of Slovenia. Many variations of Kolo dances are normally performed at weddings, social, cultural, and religious ceremonies. Kolos may be performed in a closed circle, a single chain or in two parallel lines. Both men and women dance together, however some dances require only men to dance and some dances are only for women. The Kolo dance is accompanied by traditional instrumental music (bearing the same name), performed most often with an accordion, but also with other instruments: frula (traditional kind of a recorder) and tamburitza instruments.
We are forming a Junior group for children and young people in the age range of 7 to 21 and an adult group for people 18 and over. You are never too old to enjoy the dancing and playing. We have had members up to 92 old young. The groups will learn to play, dance and sing the songs of the regions. No musical training is necessary since we will teach everyone who wants to join how to read music and then play it on the various tamburitza instruments. The dance groups will be taught various types of dances from the regions to accompany the orchestra. Everyone will be taught to sing the songs of the regions with classes on pronunciation and meanings of the words.