Folklore group
Talsi

      Name: Talsi
          meaning: toponym
          recommended transcription in English: Talsi
          approximate pronunciation in English: Talsi
          Listen pronunciation in AU format (12 Kb)

      Created: 22 November 1990
      Location: Talsi, Kurland
      Leader: Lija Dunska
      Number of participants: 9, of them by age:
          from 14 to 24 years: 1
          from 25 to 44 years: 4
          from 45 to 64 years: 4
      and by gender:
          males: 1
          females: 8
      Forms of activity: sing, play music, dance, play roundelays
      Musical instruments: squeeze-box, kokle (psaltery).

      Description: We began in November 1990, when they came to Zigrīda Brāle for a name-day party and everyone decided that it was necessary to sing folklore. From those seven first participants nobody has remained in the group till now - somebody is moved to the other world, somebody - to a new place. At the beginning we were singing at people's apartments, then we found for rehearsals a room in a cellar, and the people of Talsi had nicknamed us "cellarians" because of this.
    We became strongly encouraged when a commission liked us and took us to the festival Baltica-91. Since then we have participated in all Balticas.
    We sing songs of our area. We learn songs both from narrators and from materials of Academy of sciences.
    In our repertoir there are calendar and household songs, sometimes we sing also romances. Basically we act in Talsi and area, and in other places of Latvia too.
    The January of 2003 was a time of changes - Zigrida has left the ensemble. Under a management of Irisa Burlachko we have got to the festival Baltica-2003, but since the autumn the leader of the group is Lija Dunska.

      Sound sample: Aurēdama, Vēja māte (Howling, Wind's mother) (1999)
One couplet in AU format (501 Kb)
Full song in MP3 format (860 Kb)

      Address:
          in Latvian: Lija Dunska, Linduļa 4, Talsi, LV-3201, Latvija
          in English: Lija Dunska, Lindula 4, Talsi, LV-3201, Latvia
      Phone: (+371) 32-25643, 9493691

      Date of presenting the information: 19 May 1999, 15 September 2003