Baroque & Folk: Purcell to Poland

Miloš Valent

Guest director & violin soloist

Slovakian violinist Miloš Valent has performed with early music ensembles Musica aeterna, Tragicomedia, Teatro Lírico orchestra, Tirami Su, Fiori Musicali, and others. In 1995 he founded his own ensemble, Solamente Naturali, the name “Simply natural” synonymous with Miloš’ artistic credo, reviving early scores with spontaneity, naturalness, and intuition within the context of a search for broader associations of music from the past with the present. His many recordings with Solamente Naturali include those of unknown music from Slovak archives.

Miloš versatility as a musician, with roots in the folk tradition and skilled in improvisation, has led to numerous crossover projects, notably with Norwegian Jazz musician Jon Balke. He also enjoys a longtime partnership with American lutenist Stephen Stubbs. He has taught at KUG Graz, Musik Högskolan in Malmö, Conservatoire de Musique in Geneva, Hochschule für Künste in Bremen, and Týn School in Prague.

Jan Rokyta

Multi-instrumental soloist

Czech musician Jan Rokyta studied cimbalom at the Conservatory of Music in Bratislava, Slovakia, and recorder at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam. He has played with, among others, the Cimbalom band Technik in Ostrava (Czech Republic), which was founded in 1958 by his father, Jan Rokyta Sr. He has been a regular guest of the OĽUN Radio Bratislava and Brno Radio Orchestra of folk instruments (BROLN). Together with his panflutist Liselotte Rokyta, he explores the folk music of Eastern Europe.

In the field of contemporary classical music Jan Rokyta has collaborated with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio Bratislava, and in the Netherlands with ASKO-Schönberg Ensemble, Nederlands Blazers Ensemble, Het Nieuw Ensemble, Concertgebouworkest, and Radio Chamber Philharmonic. He is also a frequent guest of orchestras in Germany and Austria. Jan has collaborated with Miloš Valent in concerts and recordings with Solamenti Naturali and Holland Baroque, among others.

Jan Rokyta is also an award-winning wine taster and viticulturist.

Naghmeh Farahmand

Percussionist

Naghmeh Farahmand is a Persian percussionist who comes from a musical family. She is the daughter of one of the leading percussion masters of Iran, Mahmoud Farahmand. Naghmeh grew up surrounded by music in a full house of drums.

Naghmeh showed great interest in rhythms during her childhood and started playing the tonbak when she was 6. While learning the rhythmic patterns of Persian traditional music under the supervision of her father, she was encouraged to learn a melodic instrument to gain insight into the melodic aspect of music as this would make her a better accompanist. So she started playing the santoor under the guidance of Faramarz Payvar and Pashang Kamkar. Besides learning traditional music, Naghmeh found the daf to be very powerful and spiritual and began learning Sufi and Kurdish rhythms on the daf from Bijan Kamkar and Masoud Habibi.

Naghmeh has performed in many well known Iranian traditional bands in Iran and festivals around the world in places such as Germany, Switzerland, Japan (Min On Festival), France (La fete de la music), Italy, Kuwait (Women festival), Austria, and London. She was honored to perform with Hassan Nahid, Iranian master of the ney and Hengameh Akhavan, a famous singer of traditional music for years.

In n 2010 Naghmeh moved to Canada and started working with world music, Arabian, Bulgarian, Turkish, Indian and also Jazz. She has been teaching in different music institutes for 15 years and has taught master classes and workshops around the world.

Naghmeh founded a percussion ensemble (Sharghi) while collaborating with Iran’s national TV and recorded numerous pieces and performed live for a decade. She is also skillful in playing darbuka (doumbek), dayereh, cajon, udu and drumset. She has published a book, Helheleh, that includes some pieces for the daf and is currently publishing her percussion CD, Drums&Dreams.