(PDF) (DOC) (JPG)March 26, 2012

Dr. Petra Gelbart

(MAHWAH, NJ) – Petra Gelbart, Czech-born Romani (Gypsy) scholar, musician and activist, who heads the Initiative for Romani Music at New York University, spoke and sang at Ramapo College of New Jersey on March 26, 2012 under the auspices of the Gross Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the Communications Arts Music Major and the Human Rights Club of Ramapo College. Dr. Marc Gidal, Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology at Ramapo College, introduced Gelbart.

In her presentation, she played recordings of her family and their circle singing songs commemorating the Nazi persecution of the Romani population of Czechoslovakia. At the request of audience members, she sang a few additional songs that she learned from her grandmother and that have not yet been recorded.

Gelbart received her Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from Harvard University with a dissertation entitled “Learning Race, Music and Nation in the Czech Republic.” Her publications include a forthcoming essay in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. She heads the Initiative for Romani Music at New York University.

As a musician, Petra Gelbart is a founding member of Via Romen. Petra combines the Romany vocal production she learned from her family with elements drawn from more improvisational and popular genres. Ac­companying herself on the guitar and accordion, she has also performed as a soloist on many stages in the USA and abroad, including Sanders Theatre in Cambridge, Boston College, and at Romany festivals in California and the Czech Republic.

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