Zlatne Uste

Zlatne Uste (“Golden Lips”), is an internationally known group of American musicians playing brass music of the Balkans. Their repertoire includes folk melodies and modern compositions in both Slavic and Roma (Gypsy) styles from Serbia, Macedonia, and Bulgaria. There is a strong brass music tradition in the region encompassing Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia, northern Greece, and Romania, and Zlatne Uste’s instrumentation is the same as the bands in those regions. Their instruments are trubas, of the European (Czech) rotary valve flugelhorn family plus saxophone, clarinet, the bubanj (two-headed drum), and snare. They are five-time invited guests of the Guča Brass Festival (Dragačevski sabor trubača) and also the Surdulica Festival (Vlasinsko leto) both held in Serbia. They are featured in the documentary, Brasslands, a film about their 2010 trip to the 50th anniversary of the Guča festival. Zlatne Uste, formed in 1983, is based in New York City, and is the U.S.’s oldest Balkan brass band. Members include Belle Birchfield (baritone horn), Morgan Clark (baritone horn), Marian Eines (alto sax, vocals), Sarah Ferholt (trumpet), Catherine Foster (trumpet, alto sax, clarinet, vocals), Emily Geller (percussion), Michael Ginsburg (trumpet), Don Godwin (baritone horn), Tamberlaine Harris (trumpet), Emerson Hawley (tuba), Melinda Hunt (vocalist), Jerry Kisslinger (percussion), Helen Marx (percussion), Seido Salifoski (percussion), Matthew Smith (baritone horn), and Gary Zema (baritone horn).