BARDAS trio residency

Sonya Belaya
Florian Herzog
Stephen Boegehold

For BARDAS, aural preservation of cultural heritage is both the medium for and content of their work, creating a musical story as layered as the worlds they inhabit and hail from. Seeking new in the old and old in the new, the group situates their efforts in a continuum of neverending cultural examination and communication. 

At its core, BARDAS is a collaborative, democratic unit focused on interpretations of and responses to the music of its members’ historical and cultural roots. Each member offers their particular perspective that, taken altogether, becomes part of a multiverse of concrete and abstract. Pianist and singer Sonya Belaya asks questions of herself and her lineage through songs and stories. Bassist Florian Herzog composes intricate, humorous puzzles, only to rearrange its pieces as if to further question his own answers. Drummer Stephen Boegehold often takes the bird’s eye view, curiously connecting ideas of musical and psychological actuality with those of the abstract and the spiritual. 

Improvisatory music as a medium for cultural preservation has existed for as long as the idea of culture, having been used by figures from Hildegard von Bingen to the bard singers of Europe and Russia to the inventions of blues and jazz in America. Using such a timeless medium to examine and express human kind’s paths through the ages is a process that BARDAS aims to continue. Flowing freely through influences of creative music, jazz, folk, and contemporary music, the group draws on its unique combined Russian, German, and Italian heritage to unite the continuum of past, present, and future. In a world that increasingly confronts the complex issues of a global society such as peace, shared responsibility of resources and responsibility, and cultural understanding, this type of investigative work plays a vital role in finding common ground among humanity.

ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE offers for free to musicians, artists, writers and other creative people a beautiful apartment (3 rooms, kitchen, bath, wood heating) in Poschiavo Swiss Alps (minimum stay 3 weeks). Towards the end of the stay the artists in residence have two performances – one in Poschiavo, one in Bormio or Tirano (Italy) and if desired workshops with the school kids.