The Huddled Masses Orchestra bring their twelve-member brass band to Mayo Street Arts! The group will showcase their Serbian lounge music with an invitation to the audience to dance. The first half of the evening will showcase singer Lara Rakocevic, known to many as "the Serbian Nightingale". For the second act, the Huddle Masses will feature a style known as Zabave, which refers to music intended for partying. The floor will be open and the Huddled Masses invite all who to dance! In describing this evening's intent, Rakocevic muses, “there is an old Slavic belief that a good party attracts the Slavic spirits to join in and inspire everyone to form a magical bond with the crowd.” MSA hopes to see the spirits en masse for this very special evening!

Artist Bio:

As a child in Belgrade, Serbia, Lara Rakocevic would accompany her family to a nearby “Kafana” - the local meeting place where the whole neighborhood would hang out. “A Kafana is a cross between a coffeehouse, a bistro and a large living room. First a clump of men in the back sipping Turkish coffee, then the house band showed up and wandered from table to table, blurring the lines between audience and performer. Somebody would be inspired to dance, while people sang along. Clapping along to peals of laughter. I still remember my first time there like it was yesterday.” Ms. Rakosevic still goes to the Kafana when she visits her Deda and Baka (grandfather and grandmother) and nowadays she joins in the merriment.

“I moved to Maine a few years ago and I was amazed to find a community of Serbian expats in this state. It was only last year that I met The Huddled Masses Orchestra, a bonafide brass band in the Serbian tradition. Every town in Serbia has their own brass band and trumpet players are the rock stars of folk music. We are excited to perform at Mayo Street Arts, especially since June 14th is close to solstice, peak time for the kind of three-day wedding you may have seen in the movie ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding.”