65th ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOLK GROUP

KYCERA

65th anniversary is really very nice celebration in one's life. But now it's much nicer, because it was anniversary of the folk group. In these few lines below I would like to introduce to you the folk group Kycera from Cierny Balog in central Slovakia located close to Brezno and Banska Bystrica. Kycera's name comes from the hill "Kycera" above Cierny Balog.

On Saturday afternoon November 23, we set off with Vladimir for Cierny Balog where the celebration took place. It was a cold afternoon and early evening prior to the anniversary program at Cierny Balog cultural center I found some interesting information about the Kycera, by Jozef Kollar, school director who established Kycera. In 1933, Matica Slovenska and one of her employees Prof. Karol Plicka initiated her establishment. They performed at the beginning as national or costumed group together with other groups in programs organized by Matica Slovenska.

It's acting was and still is very varied. They took part in folk celebrations in Sliac in years 1934, 35 and 1937, where they performed "The falling of the trees" (Rubanie stromov), "Fires and playing around them" (Ohne a zabava pri nich).

Jozef Gajdos became the head of the group in 1945 and Kycera won first price at Devín's celebrations of folklore in 1946.

In 1960 with the cooperation of the Slovak Radio they taped their program for record release under name: "From the folklore treasury," (Z Ludovej klenotnice). From 1968 under the leadership of Slavomír Auxt they started to work systematically. They started to perform on regular basis at different happenings in the village, important folklore celebrations and festivals in Helpa, Detva, Vychodna and Stažnice. They performed abroad in Yugoslavia and Hungary.

From 1990 their directors are Peter Auxt, Pavol Tazky and choreographer Lubomir Medved. Julius Bartos nick named Suko, leads their Gypsy musicians. It is very interesting to note that Suko-Julius Bartos was born also 65 years ago, as was Kycera.

In the folk group are people of every age who are in love with the beauty of folk music, songs, and dances. They devote their free time to discovering and preserving the folklore heritage of the people of Cierny Balog. In their repertoire at the present time are dances as: Zbojnik, Koleso, Vrchovo, Fasiangy, Odzemok and many more. The group actively participates at numerous competitions every year and is a brilliant representative of the central Slovakia's Horehronie region folk art. With their program "Na Balogu na svadbe, At the wedding in Balog," at the 5th All-Slovakia competition of the village folk groups in 1991 they placed third and their folk music of Julius Bartos-Suko they received honorary award of Czechoslovak Radio in Bratislava.

They also have a children group lead by Maria Polakova.
The celebratory cultural program started with Jaroslav Reznik's poem "Song about the homeland." We heard many beautiful songs such as: Vrchovo, Ked sa Hora, Co sa stalo tej noci and many, many others. Our friend Peter Bercik performed on accordion and harmonica, we could also hear three fujara players playing Fujaras. Second part of the program started with the children group and in my opinion the dominance of this part was little girl Maria Kovacikova playing on brass bells. The audience was unbelievably quiet. This quietness was interrupted by the gentle sounds of the brass bells. The end of the program took us few years back as we were witnesses to young boys going to the army service, leaving their homes, friends, and family. Young girls were crying after their boyfriends and mothers were crying after their sons.

The Mayor of Ciemy Balog Mr. Kovacik thanked all the performers at the end for their well prepared program and wished them lot of good luck for the years to come and I wish them the same.

Written by:

Maria Rybarova
Holleho 5
972 01 Bojnice
Slovakia

Published in the Slovak Heritage Live newsletter Volume 7, No. 1, Spring 1999
Copyright © Vladimir Linder 1999 
3804 Yale Street, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5C 1P6
The above article and photographs may not be copied, reproduced, republished, or redistributed by any means including electronic, without the express written permission of Vladimir Linder. All rights reserved.