Black Rooster Kapelye: Latvian and Jewish Folk: A Baltic Dance Party and Concert
Thu, Nov 19
|Kulturkirche Nikodemus
Latvian and Jewish folk, psychedelic and danceable: Black Rooster Kapelye in concert, then a dance party with instruction by the band. 19 Nov, KulturKirche Nikodemus. door 19:00, concert 20:00, free entry, donations welcome We recommend you RSVP, space is limited.
Time & Location
Nov 19, 2026, 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Kulturkirche Nikodemus, Nansenstraße 12, 12047 Berlin-Bezirk Neukölln, Germany
About the event
Black Rooster Kapelye: Psychedelic polyphony from the Baltic borderlands
Latvian and Jewish Folk: A Baltic Dance Party and Concert
Thursday, 19 November · KulturKirche Nikodemus, Berlin
Black Rooster Kapelye is six world-class musicians who turn rare Latvian, Lithuanian, Jewish and Latgalian songs into something fierce and hallucinatory. Voices in four languages rise over drones of accordion, kokle, bagpipes and electric guitar. For the band, these century-old songs aren't relics – they're a way of working out who we are. That is also the name of their debut album Vos mir zaynen ("Who We Are", Lauska Records), which was nominated for Latvia's Zelta Mikrofons award.
The band is named after the Latvian musicologist Emilis Melngailis, whose name means "black rooster". Around 1900 he collected these melodies from Latvian and Jewish communities alike. For decades the repertoire was almost unknown outside the Baltic region. Working collectively from his historical manuscripts, the band doesn't…