Danubius: Eastern European Musical Performance at the JCCSF

Relax, take a break, get in a holiday kinda mood. Enjoy this San Francisco-based band that has been performing locally for over 20 years.

Danubius’s music has been called romantic, energizing and invigorating and can be described as a cross between folk and classical genres. The group led by Hungarian American musicians Jutka Mándoki and Barbara Deutsch, plays both Western and traditional Hungarian and Romanian musical instruments. They further embellish their unique sound by singing in the languages of Transylvania, Romania, Serbia, Russia, Macedonia, and other countries in the vicinity of the Danube River.

The second longest river in Europe, we’ll imagine travelling along the Danube with its stunning landscapes, historic castles and charming villages and we’ll get to experience why it has long been feted in musical compositions.

Nathan Ladyzhensky– violin, mandolin, dumbek, guitar, prim

Nathan describes himself as a recovering classical musician. He was a professional musician for many years, playing viola with the San Francisco Opera and Symphony, and performing with numerous Bay Area chamber music groups. Growing up in Odessa, a city on the Black Sea in the Ukraine, Nathan has always loved the sounds of the Gypsy (Roma), Romanian, and Hungarian music. After all, the Danube does fall into the Black Sea. After leaving the demands of a professional career, he now plays a variety of styles of music on a range of different instruments, does arranging, composing, and generally enjoys having a good time.

Jutka Mándoki – vocals, kontra, accordion, keyboard, guitar

Jutka was born in Budapest and grew up in the San Francisco Bay area’s East Bay. She is trained and credentialed in classical piano performance (MM in Music) and was introduced to Eastern European music via dance.
Jutka speaks Hungarian fluently and sings in Hungarian and Romanian. She has studied Eastern European vocal styling with members of Kitka. You may also remember her as the former co-owner of The Hungarian Sausage Factory and Bistro in San Francisco.

Barbara Deutsch – clarinet, soprano sax, fluier, vocals

Trained in classical clarinet at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Barbara switched gears and received her BA in Ethnomusicology from UCLA.
Over the years she’s studied with renowned clarinet teachers Ivo Papasov, Sami Zakirovski, Selim Seslar, Sergiu Balutel, and Ismail Lumanovski. With various folk-dance ensembles, Barbara has toured the US and Europe and has performed as a concert hall soloist.
As clarinetist for Kárpátok, a Hungarian dance troupe, Barbara started (and still does) play soprano sax as a modern substitute for tárogató. She also plays klarino, Greek clarinet. She was Music Director of Westwind International Folk Ensemble from 2002 until it ended in 2011 and also serves as Danubius’ Manager.

Douglas Mandell – string bass, acoustic guitar, cornet, vocals

Douglas studied music from his early youth through college. As his parents were teachers in the local folk-dance community, he grew up listening to Eastern European folk music, which he is now at home with.
More recently, Douglas has played bass with house bands at the San Francisco Tamburitza and Kolo Festivals, and at the Mendocino Folklore Camp. He has been the tenor section leader, soloist and instrumentalist at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Belevedere for many years and has been performing in light opera productions with Lamplighters Music Theater, as well as playing electric bass and singing in a rock band.