BAAM at The Gem Presents Bondeko

Join us on May 31st at 7:00 pm for a performance from the Portland, ME-based and multicultural band, Bondeko!

Bondeko is the collaboration of migrants in Portland Maine’s community. The band’s inception dates to 2018, when French singer-songwriter Orson Horchler, decided to hire the world-class musicians he found in the city, into his construction company. Today Bondeko includes Ylli Brekofca–an Albanian accordionist and folklorist–, Namory Keita–a master traditional drummer from Guinea–, Ray Sapirstein–a Jewish Latin horn player from Texas— and Orson Horchler.

Some members share fewer than 20 words of common language. Bondeko’s sound belongs nowhere outside of Portland, Maine. Some members are actively involved in the preservation of their folk heritage: Keita is a teacher and opened a school for traditional arts in his country and Brekofca has been described as the Alan Lomax of Albania. But in Bondeko the members work interculturally, bringing their very different concepts of music, to learn and unlearn from each other and create a sound native to their community.

Bondeko’s live shows are celebrations of the joy of sharing space with people from very different cultures. They are interactive events that involve sing-alongs in 4 languages. Bondeko’s international sound is not an escape for attendees as much as a mirror for them to recognize and take pride in their own work creating a more equitable multicultural world.

In 2022, the band recorded their first album “One, Minute, Please!” in Vorë, Albania, a “reasonable accommodation” for Ylli Brekofca who immigrated to the US at 67 and has most to learn of its culture and language.

Doors at 6:00 pm

Show at 7:00 pm

Tickets are “Pay What You Can” benefiting Bethel Area Arts & Music.