[In the framework of Performing Revolution Festival]

The Hungarian Cultural Center in collaboration with the Czech Center New York, Polish Cultural Institute, Romanian Cultural Institute New York, the Consulate General of the Slovak Republic, and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

present:

Rebel Waltz: Underground Music From Behind the Iron Curtain


Rebel Waltz is a weekend-long underground music festival featuring bands that made music behind the Iron Curtain. Marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism, Rebel Waltz gives New York audiences a rare opportunity to experience the suppressed voices of a triumphant generation, including Psi Vojaci (Czech Republic), Timpuri Noi (Romania), Kontroll Csoport (Hungary), Bez ladu a skladu (Slovak Republic) and Dezerter (Poland). During the 1980s, underground music served as a form of political rebellion, carrying coded messages against oppressive regimes and their social and cultural policies. Now, the same music rings out as a celebration of a successful movement for change.

Timpuri Noi, known for its politically charged lyrics, was banned from public radio and television, becoming after 1989 one of the most successful bands. Following their NYC performance, the band will continue its first North American tour with concerts in Cleveland, OH (Nov 10), and in Toronto, Canada (Nov 12).

Rebel Waltz includes music performances at Le Poisson Rouge and a public discussion with the bands, to take place at The New School, Jazz and Contemporary Music Program. The dialogue will be moderated by Matthew Covey, and will be followed by the screening of BEATS OF FREEDOM or how to overthrow a totalitarian regime with a simple use of home-made amplifier, a documentary on Polish music of the 1980s.

This event is part of Extremely Hungary, a yearlong festival in New York City and Washington DC celebrating Hungarian art and culture. Rebel Waltz also marks the beginning of the Performing Revolution in Central and Eastern Europe Festival, a performing arts festival marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe, presented by the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in partnership with key New York City cultural organizations and academic institutions, November 2009 - March 2010.

Additional support for Rebel Waltz is provided by Trust for Mutual Understanding and the Hungarian Ministry of Education and Culture.

Timpuri Noi (Modern Times) initial line up, Razvan Moldovan, Adrian Plesca, Dan Iliescu, and Sorin Petroianu, set out to do, in the summer of 1982, the most modern Romanian music, powered by the most dangerous rock and roll. The first tunes, such as "Nepotul" (The Nephew), "Acesta e ritmul" (This is the Beat) or "Mistretul" (The Wild Boar), were somehow playful, not powerful enough in their political involvement. By the time "Perfect" and "Drumul spre lumina" (The Road to Light) reached the public, the band's materials become much too dangerous for the Romanian Communist Party's officials, getting them banned from public radio or TV stations and under the surveillance of the Romanian Secret Services.

With a band member, Razvan Moldovan, having fled to Western Europe five months before the 1989 overthrow of the communist regime in Romania, and within the murky context of the December revolution, the song “Perfect” became the most popular Romanian hit in decades. Suddenly, Timpuri Noi transformed itself from Romania’s most underground act into the country’s top mainstream band. The band continued its political engaged songwriting, releasing in the early ‘90s more songs depicting the social and economic changes in post-revolutionary Romania: "Victoria" (Victory), “N-ATO” (a word pun for NATO), and "Emigrant USA". Being in the spotlight for more than 25 years, one can safely say the band has boldly voiced out two, even three, generations of Romanian fans.

Current line up: Dan Iliescu - guitars; Adrian "Artan" Plesca - lead singer; Andrei Barbulescu - drums; Radu Florin Tuliga - vocals & DJ mixing; Victor Benjamin Rivalet - keyboards & groove box.


View a 1988 live performance of "Perfect" at Club A in Bucharest, one of the outposts of Romanian underground music in the '80s: