Sofia Vicoveanca
Sofia has been performing for 42 years. She is known by her stage name Sofia Vicoveanca in her native Romania. The name Vicoveanca contains a clue to both what she sings and the style in which she sings it: Vicov is the birth place of her mother Veronica Fusa, who taught Sofia many of her songs. Vicov lies in the heart of the Bukovina, and Sofia herself has always lived in Suceava, the largest city in the Rumanian part of Bukovina.

Bukovina is an area in Eastern Europe which during its history belonged to the Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian and Russian empires, and after that to Rumania, the Soviet Union and the Ukraine. The word Bukovina means "Land of beech trees" and by association has a music of'its own. It stands for a cultural tra dition of many centuries that was not only influenced by its various occupying powers, but also by the Jewish, Austro-German and gypsy minorities. The very different ingre dients of the Bukovina folklore merge to crea te a source of musical wealth unrivalled anywhere in the Balkans: there are the Doinas, or melancholy laments ("Singurica-s, singu- rea"), along with effervescent dance songs, ("Hal la joe la joc la joc"), tender lullabies ("Cantec de leagan") as well as the irony of satirical texts ("La femei asa el place"). And finally, when Sofia sings the extraordinarily melancholic lyrics of "Supararea, bat-o, Doamne!" over the lively and driving rhythms of a Sirba, this impresses us as a magnificent resolution of apparently irreconcilable contra dictions.

Indeed Sofia's special fascination (and her many years of popular success in Romania), may be traced back to a one particular contra diction: The tension between her folksy, earth bound and exclusively Bukovinian repertoire together with her highly sophisticated interpre tations. These are not limited to simple rendi tions of rural folk music, and have thus been made accessible to far wider audiences owing to their universal artistic appeal. It is therefore hardly surprising that the concert tours given by the "Lady with the headscarf" have taken her as far a field as Japan and the United States.

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