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BALKANIZE! formed in December of 2006, born of a chance encounter between Laurie Hribal, Patrick McGhee and Geoff Bennett Speer at a belly dance hafla at Pho 79 in Henrico County, October, 2006. Laurie brought Nancy Smith to the first formal rehearsal, and BALKANIZE! was born. Their debut live performance was at Tribal Jam 5, May 12th, 2007.
 

BALKANIZE! is currently made up of the following musicians:
















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Patrick McGhee (darbuka, violin, tar, riqq, zils, vocals)
   Patrick started playing the guitar as a teenager in 1972. Later, he bought a fiddle at a local flea-market, set it up, found a bow and went to work. He later bought a cheap mandolin and used it to transfer his guitar knowledge to the fiddle. Since then, he has also diddled with claw-hammer banjo, Appalachian lap dulcimer, hammered dulcimer, various fipple flutes, zils, various hand drums, and Scottish bagpipes.
   His mission as a Middle Eastern percussionist began when he drummed for a local belly dancer. Moving from slip jigs and reels on the Irish bodhran to lesnotos and kopanitsas on a darbuka for BALKANIZE! was a challenge that he overcame with great dignity, discipline, fortitude and gnashing of teeth.
   Patrick has had many different occupations:  rod-buster, street cleaner, musical instrument maker, coffee machine repairman, blacksmith, gunsmith, forward recon scout, machinist, CAD draftsman, millwright, marine biologist, groundskeeper, and manager of a hydro-electric generating facility.
   Patrick is a founding member of BALKANIZE!
















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Laurie Hribal (violin, vocals, percussion)
   Laurie has been playing music of one kind or another for most of her peripatetic life, starting with piano lessons at the age of eight, her first cheap guitar at 15, and the Old Time folk songs that she learned by ear on the fiddle while attending Franconia College. 
   Her exposure to Balkan and Eastern European music began with her interest in international folk dancing at 16, and she has been a longstanding member of Richmond's Festival Folk Dancers and the Richmond International Folk Dance Club for many years. She is a founding member of Dunay, a large ensemble that played Eastern European folk music for international folk dancers from 1991 until its gentle break-up in 2002.
   Laurie has been a bank teller, a dental lab technician, a craftsman, a repo driver, and has even peeled shrimp to make extra money for Christmas. She found her true calling in holistic manual therapies and opened her own wellness center in 2002.  
   Her love of music and dance now share equal time with her passion for alternative healing, playing with her grandchildren, and seeing what vegetables she can grow in her backyard.
   Laurie is a founding member of BALKANIZE!

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Geoff Bennett Speer (octave mandolin, saz, kaval, davul, darbuka, mey, accordion, cümbüş, clarinet) 

   When Geoff was young, he lived in the former Yugoslavia, where he heard the grandiose orchestrations in praise of Comrade Tito, the gypsy bands that played for dancing drunks in Skadarlija, and the manic, exotic horos and kolos that the bus drivers would blast from their cheap transistor radios. BALKANIZE! is an old, old dream come finally true. 

   Geoff composes and choreographs Middle Eastern belly dance drum solos with his wife Shari. The two have performed drum-and-dance duets many times in the Richmond area over the past few years.

   Geoff graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University. He has been a security guard, a camp counselor for at-risk youth, a special education job coach, a Richmond Police Academy recruit, an inner-city high school teacher, and a land surveyor.

   Geoff is a founding member of BALKANIZE!

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Lar Sherman (acoustic guitar, percussion, accordion)  

  At two years old, Lar was obsessed with his father's collection of jazz records; he provided the local Service Merchandise with a lot of business because his dad was always having to replace the needles on the family record player. He moved frequently between Chicago, Illinois, and Chino, California, before settling in Virginia in 2004.

   He started piano lessons at the age of seven, and he played baritone sax and tuba in high school. He has studied jazz, flamenco and classical guitar. 

   Lar graduated from DeVry University, “the McDonalds of higher education,” where he studied computer networking. He currently works as a QA Analyst “at a very large credit card company.” .

   When not rehearsing and performing with BALKANIZE!, he plays guitar and hand drums for To The Earth, a Tribal belly dance and music ensemble.   

   Lar joined BALKANIZE! in February, 2008.

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Dvora Baldwin ( vocals, percussion)  

   Don't be fooled by the sweet face: Dvora is pure evil.  Her hobbies include stealing the covers, preparing for disaster, being randomly inappropriate and changing her mind. 

   From an early age she was living wild and free.  Then, just like everyone else on the planet, she grew up to be an eclectic and unique individual.  Dvora has no first name; however, she does have a jewelry box filled with cicada exoskeletons and old keys.

   With no previous experiences to prove otherwise, Dvora decided at age 36 that she could sing.  No one has yet disabused her of this notion, but she maintains high hopes.

   Dvora has been belly dancing since 1990 and is an assistant director and founding member of Richmond’s American Tribal Style belly dance troupe To The Earth. She has earned her FatChance BellyDance ATS General Skills certification and is now working towards her Vinyasa Yoga RYT certification.

   Dvora joined BALKANIZE! in July, 2008.

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Beth Stephenson ( vocals, percussion)  

   Beth has been singing and dancing since she was in utero, and she played flute and alto sax in high school. She holds a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Theatre Performance from Virginia Commonwealth University.

   She practices yoga and dances with More or Less Morris, a local morris team. Beth and BALKANIZE! first discovered one another at a New Year's Eve performance; no one has ever waltzed as beautifully to "Tamo Daleko" as she did that night. No one ever will. 

   Besides her BFA, Beth has a Bachelors of Science in Nursing from VCU, and she is a certified massage therapist. Indecisive? Nah. Well, maybe. Beth has done many things for a living; currently, she is preparing for a career as an operating room nurse at a Level 1 trauma center. She has two (canine) kids. 

   Beth joined BALKANIZE! in May, 2008. 

 

BALKANIZE!'s previous performances include:

  • Saturday, May 12th, 2007 - Tribal Jam 5.
  • Friday, September 21st, 2007 - Richmond International Folk Dance Club gathering, Dumbarton Elementary School.
  • Friday, October 19th, 2007 - "An Evening With Friends" belly dance hafla at Pho 79.
  • Saturday, October 20th, 2007 - Tribal Jam 6. 

  • Friday, December 21st, 2007 - Winter Solstice Celebration at First Unitarian Universalist Church.

  • Monday, December 31st, 2007 - BALKANIZE! opened for Rattlemouth at their annual New Years Eve party at Art6 Gallery.

  • Friday, January 4th, 2008 - Holiday celebration with the Richmond International Folk Dance Club, Dumbarton Elementary School.

  • Monday, July 14th, 2008 - Private party with the Richmond International Folk Dance Club, Henrico County, VA. 

     

Be humble, for you are made of dung. Be noble, for you are made of stars. - Serbian proverb