Violinist, Arranger & Ethnomusicologist

Colleen Bertsch is a violinist, music arranger, and ethnomusicologist specializing in east-central European folk music. Classically trained, her earthy, passionate style is a nod to the country village musicians who have influenced her aesthetic. As a Fulbright Research Award recipient she resided in Romania performing and conducting fieldwork with traditional Transylvanian string players. She won the prestigious McKnight Fellowship for Performing Musicians as a member of Minneapolis-based Balkan party band Orkestar Bez Ime (OBI), a band she co-founded in 2002 with vocalist Natalie Nowytski and clarinetist Katrina Mundinger. Colleen also proudly claims co-founder status of the Twin Cities’ Ukrainian Village Band with drummer Stefan Iwaskewycz. Today she weaves her Transylvanian folk fiddle stylings into her performances with OBI, Szászka String Band, and Soul Trouvère, a violin and accordion duo with her husband Juan Christian Küffner, frontman of the renowned New Orleans band Zydepunks.

Listen to Colleen play a slow (akasztós) and fast (ritka) csárdás from Pălatca, Transylvania. From Szászka’s album Harmony.