by Gintarė Vasiliauskaitė

The Rakija Klezmer Orkestar is a band of five young men playing Gypsy music, music from the Balkans and Litvak klezmer. Klezmer is a genre of secular Jewish music which almost disappeared from Lithuania after World War II. Currently the young men are travelling around Lithuania looking for people who lived through the war who might be able to help in some way resurrect authentic Litvak klezmer. Here is an interview with the accordion player and creative leader of the band, Darius Bagdonavičius. He talks about touring and the difficulties encountered by the group trying to play music on the edge of vanishing, as well as plans for the future.

Full interview in Lithuanian here.