AMP Concerts offers innovative and inspiring arts programming throughout New Mexico. A portion of all AMP ticket sales goes to fund free community concerts, workshops, school programs & artist residencies.
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Khumariyaan

July 10th

Telmary

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Ally Venable

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Flor de Toloache

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Flor de Toloache

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Oscar Butler

July 23rd

Innastate

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Green Tara Puja

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Arkansauce

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Raul Midón

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Lara Ruggles

August 21st

The WesternHers

August 23rd

Thievery Corporation

September 3rd

Tab Benoit

September 9th

Tab Benoit

September 10th

Coco Montoya

September 19th

Coco Montoya

September 20th

J2B2

September 26th

John Moreland

September 26th

Lasotras

September 27th

Shonen Knife

October 11th

Hayden Pedigo

October 22nd

Kurbasy

November 8th

Kurbasy

November 9th

Luca Stricagnoli

November 21st

Ryanhood

November 29th

Ryanhood

November 30th

Yuri Yunakov

Time: 7:30pm     Day: Saturday     Doors: 6:30pm     Ages: 21+ Ages    
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Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 day of show (including all service charges). They are also available by phone through Hold My Ticket at 505-886-1251. Ages 21 and over.

Yuri Yunakov hails from Haskovo, a city in Bulgarian Thrace, a region on the borders of Turkey and Greece with large Roma (Gypsy) and Turkish populations. Yunakov's Turkish Roma family reflected the area's strong musical heritage; his great-grandfather, grandfather and three uncles were violinists, and his father was a popular clarinet player. Yunakov displayed musical talent from an early age, learning the kaval (a shepherd's flute), then the davul (a double-headed drum), on which he accompanied his father and older brothers at weddings. In his teens, he accompanied his father on the clarinet. Yunakov also trained as a boxer and won several national titles. In the mid-1970s, after serving in the army, he returned to music and took up the saxophone.

In 1983, Yunakov became a protégé of the famous bandleader Ivan Milev, who taught him the Bulgarian repertoire. The following year, Yunakov made his debut with Milev's group, Mladost, at Stambolovo, the national festival of "wedding music." After that, he spent almost ten years in Trakija, the band led by the popular Ivo Papasov, who comes from a long line of clarinet players and is also of Turkish Roma descent.

Wedding music is an ecstatic and eclectic mix whose components include jazz, rock, Turkish and Indian sounds and Balkan village folk music. The fast-paced popular music, also characterized by virtuosic technique and daring key changes, is played for dancing, not only at weddings but also at celebrations of other key events, such as circumcisions and baptisms. Though Bulgaria's Communist government sponsored the Stambolovo festival, it was ambivalent about Roma music, and both Yunakov and Papasov were imprisoned for playing it.

Despite the repression, Yunakov, as a member of Papasov's band, played for hundreds of celebrations in Bulgaria and toured extensively in Europe and North America. Yunakov has made his home in the U.S. since 1994 and has remained in demand at home and abroad. He has also played at hundreds of weddings and family gatherings in the Bulgarian, Turkish and Macedonian Roma communities in the tri-state area around New York City.


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