Meet the Board

Hannah Blair

Daly City, California
Term: 10/2022—

I came to Balkan music via shape note singing, punk and metal—I like any kind of music where the whole village gets together to make a ruckus! I was born and raised in Washington State, and the San Francisco Bay Area has been my home since 1998. I’m a visual artist, a DJ and mix-tape maker and a lover of non-commercial radio. I make a music education podcast called Every Record Ever Recorded, and I’m a member of Polynya, a tiny choir which sings folk music from Eastern Europe and beyond.

I first attended Mendocino camp in 2015 and have been a member of the Program Committee since 2017. I am equally proud of my service on the Mendo bath crew! Volunteering has been part of my EEFC experience from the very beginning, and one of my favorite things about our community is the cooperative spirit. I’m honored to serve the community that has given me so much joy!

Lou Carrig

New Orleans, Louisiana
Chair of Program Committee.
Term: 5/2025-

I came to Balkan music by way of Klezmer and Yiddish traditions, and eventually tumbled headlong into the wider world of Eastern European folk. I first attended the Mendocino workshop in 2012 and promptly fell down the Bulgarian rabbithole—and haven’t come up for air since. Since then, I’ve returned to Mendo in 2019 and 2023, and also made it to Iroquois Springs in 2016.

Outside of camp, I’ve spent the past fifteen years studying voice and accordion in Eastern Europe, primarily in Bulgaria. Most recently, I completed a Fulbright year (2023–2024), studying folk singing and ethnomusicology at AMTII-Plovdiv and conducting fieldwork in the Rhodope Mountains, focused on na visoko traditions in Dolen and Satovcha. I also explored the role of medicinal plants in folk songs, connecting my parallel work as a clinical herbalist.

I hold a degree in music performance from the University of New Orleans, where I studied choral conducting and accordion under Bosnian artist Merima Ključo. I’m the founder and director of Trendafilka, a New Orleans-based polyphonic vocal ensemble, and a co-founder of Blato Zlato, a Balkan folk band that performed internationally from 2014–2024. I also play trumpet in Wit’s End Brass Band, a cumbia-inflected street band.

I’ve spent much of my career in grassroots arts, music, and community health, often wearing many hats in small, mission-driven organizations. I thrive where passion fuels process and am honored to bring that mindset to the EEFC board. These camps quite literally changed the course of my life, and I’m excited to help ensure they continue to spark transformation for others.

Brad Emmett

Alexandria, Virginia
Chair of Development and Technology Committees.
Term: 10/2023—

I’m originally from South Florida, but currently live just outside of Washington, DC, in Alexandria, VA. I was brought into the community by Jen Shearer, who invited my wife and me to our first East Coast camp in 2016. It was apparent by the end of that first camp that this would be something I’d be a part of for a long time. I’ve been to every East Coast camp since and have enjoyed every minute of it.

As we all know, the EEFC community is a special one. From my very first camp, I felt welcome and encouraged right away. Since then I’ve made meaningful connections within the community and developed some dear friendships. It’s been an honor to study from from the renowned teachers at camp who always create a safe environment to try something new; my understanding of music has increased dramatically since my first camp. Many of the dances still elude me, but I enjoy picking up a little more each year.

I attended the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami and graduated with a double major in Commercial Music Composition/Production and Music Business. I have worked at the United States Copyright Office as a Copyright Examiner for the past 17 years, where I have learned an extensive amount about copyright and copyright registration. I currently work on the Office’s Motion Picture Team examining movies, TV shows, video games and other video content. Outside of work and the EEFC, I perform as a solo act, with my own cover band, and as a guest in other bands.

I’m honored to be a part of the board and look forward to being able to contribute to an organization that has become very special to me.

Emily Geller

Silver Spring, Maryland
Term: 10/2026—

Katy Kondrat

Kingston, New York
Secretary, Chair of Scholarship Committee.
Term: 1/2024—

My connection to Balkan music started as a young child when my stepdad would play Bulgarian Women’s Choir in the house, and I would try to work out the voice parts by ear. My sisters and I spent time in our teen years singing in harmony together—pulling inspiration from traditional music of Appalachia, the Balkans, as well as early jazz. I currently perform as a singer with several projects in New York across several genres, including a harmony-driven vocal duo with my sister, a jazz manouche band, and a funk-inspired Balkan band, Max’s New Hat.

Most of my career has involved working with nonprofits and cooperatives, most recently in the food, farm, and food justice spaces. I’ve served on, founded and led several boards, and I love being part of the collaboration, visioning and dedicated work that make incredible events like Balkan Camp happen.

My daughter, Magnolia, and I first attended east coast Balkan camp in 2019 on a scholarship. It was such a powerful experience, we were blown away by the sense of community, the incredible musicianship among campers and staff, and the overflowing joy and inspiration. I have served on the EEFC’s scholarship committee since 2020, and am looking forward to deepening my connection to the EEFC as a board member.

Matt Moran

Brooklyn, New York
Term: 1/2022—

My first EEFC experience was east coast camp in 1997, and I’ve been coming back ever since, as a camper, teacher, and eventually also as a parent. The EEFC transformed my understanding of music and community and I’m deeply grateful for the joy, experiences, and friendship that the organization has afforded me.

I’m a musician and educator, with a masters degree in composition, playing and teaching music in the Balkan, new music, and jazz worlds. Vibraphone is my primary instrument, but that first EEFC camp revealed my enthusiasm for tapan, which became my instrument in Balkan music. I’ve had the great fortune to make music with many of the musicians in our EEFC community, and also with visiting and immigrant Balkan masters.

Music education is something I spend a lot of time thinking about, and I’ve been increasingly active in music education for incarcerated populations for over a decade. I currently co-lead Carnegie Hall’s music education program at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, and help connect the musical communities we have created both inside and outside prison.

For the past two decades I’ve led Slavic Soul Party!, a brass band that brings together American musical influences and Balkan traditions. Learning how to keep a group engaged in learning and expressing tradition and creativity, how to find funding and performance opportunities for that work, and how to create meaningful community, has been a huge part of my leadership and learning process. I hope to help make the EEFC an inspiring community for many years to come!

Hilary Musaji

Berkeley, California
President.
Term: 9/2025—

I was introduced to Balkan music and dance growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and was encouraged to attend my first Balkan Camp in 2017 by my friend and longtime West Coast camper Sandy Hollister. I love the intergenerational community of EEFC camps and events, and have delighted in bringing both my parents and children to subsequent camps. In 2025 I teamed up with EEFC Balkan Camp veteran teacher Eva Salina to re-start the children’s choir at West Coast camp—and I look forward to continuing to support families and kids at camp, ensuring this tradition’s longevity for the coming generations!

I was raised around music, attending my dad’s jazz gigs throughout the Bay Area, and I grew up playing instruments and singing in local institutions such as the Crowden youth orchestras, the Christmas Revels, and later in UC Berkeley’s student-directed madrigal a cappella group Perfect Fifth. I’ve since enjoyed singing and playing in local groups including Mozaik Voices, Polynya, Kitka’s Georgian choirs, and Zabava!. I live with my husband and two kids in Berkeley, California, and spend my time being an acupuncturist, hiking, making art, and gardening.

Rob Pleshar

Chicago, Illinois
Treasurer and Chair of Finance Committee.
Term: 10/2022—

I started coming to East Coast camp in 2006 and have been coming ever since, working the last several years as stage manager for the dance hall. My experience with Balkan music started before that, hearing tamburitza and other groups at community events growing up in the Chicago area and Hibbing, Minnesota. I started playing tuba when I was in junior high school and picked it up again after college. While in college (in 1986 or so) I found a record in the radio station record library called Golden Horns: Brass Band Music of Serbia, listened to it and instantly realized this is the stuff I’d been looking for but didn’t know existed! I started collecting and listening to as many records as I could find, expanding from brass bands to other music from the area as well. I had no idea there was even such an organization as EEFC until 2006. As soon as I found out, I signed up for camp and was hooked.

I am a librarian by trade, working at University of Chicago, and am a semi-professional tuba player. I have played in a Chicago-based Balkan-inspired brass band, Black Bear Combo, for many years, and also play jazz, polka, rock and other music. I am excited and honored to be a member of the EEFC board and I will work hard for the organization. I have learned so much, made so many friends and had so many wonderful experiences due to the EEFC, and I am happy to give back in whatever small way that I can.

Ilana Stoelting

Santa Rosa, California
Term: 10/2026—

I was born and raised in California and started dancing at an early age. With a mom and aunt who both teach folk dance, folk dancing and music became an early regular part of my life. Going to various shows, sitting and watching my mom teach and attend dance classes from the sidelines until I was confident enough to join, and listening to Balkan music are some of my earliest folklife memories. When attending undergrad at UC Davis, seeking out these experiences on my own became vital and I joined a Balkan performance dance troupe during my years there.

I started attending west coast camps such as Lark in the Morning and Razzmatazz from the early age of two, and have been attending camps ever since. In 2016 I joined the board for Mendocino Folklore Camp until the camp ended in 2019. I have been attending EEFC West Coast camp since 2018 and am extremely excited to bring my love of dance and experience in the non-profit world to this role on the EEFC Board.

When not attending camps or attending local Balkan music and dance events, I work as a Supervising Park Ranger, where I oversee a district of 25 parks and trails and the operations team that patrols and maintains them. I have a Masters in Natural Resource Management and am a practicing EMT.

Kim Wollter

Eugene, Oregon
Term: 10/2026—

My interest in Balkan music grew out of watching a campus folk dance group at Humboldt State College perform Romanian dances at a May Day festival. I was captivated by the odd (literally and figuratively) rhythms, and the dancers were having so much fun! It was 1972, and folk dancing was becoming a thing in Arcata, California, with over 100 people signing up for the beginning folk dance class in the college PE department. I connected with other enthusiasts, and we created various groups that performed Bulgarian, Macedonian, Polish, Romanian, and Hungarian dances. We made “costumes” based on what we had and photographs we found. We audaciously reached out to well-known dance teachers such as Dick Crum, Bob Leibman, and Marty Koenig, and they all graciously agreed to journey at various times to our isolated corner of the country to broaden our understanding of Balkan music and culture. As a lifelong singer, I loved trying to match the tones and vocal qualities that I heard on records (yes, vinyl). Others explored making “instruments,” such as a gaida made from a truck tire inner tube and reeds made from actual reeds from the local wetland. In 1974, some of us journeyed to Sweets Mill in central California where we connected with Mark Levy and rest of the LA-based band Pitu Guli. As the Humboldt Folkdance Factory, we decided to create our own Balkan experience back home: the Balkan Village in the Redwoods. Those weekend camps eventually morphed into the present week-long workshops. And when it became clear that our anarchistic approach to organizing our events needed more structure, the EEFC was born.

For the past 54 years, I have maintained a supporting role at Mendocino as everything from head chef to volunteer coordinator, dishwasher, and (currently) housing coordinator. My children grew up coming to camp. When not at camp, I edit scientific journals and books, sing in a masterworks choir, dance with a bhangra group, and spend as much time in the wilds as I can. I am honored to now join the EEFC board, an amazing group of people that work all year to keep our community connected and thriving.