Photos: Bellaire Sound, September 28, 2019 by Leslie Mixon
World music. No passport required.
Sombati is a world music band based in Fort Worth, Texas. Our passion is bringing music from all over the world to life. We play traditional tunes and original compositions in a variety of genres from across Europe, around the Mediterranian, and the Americas. From traditional Irish and Scottish music, waltzes and ballads from Northern Spain and Appalachia, polkas, tangos and rhumbas, toe-tappers from the Balkans, Greece, Turkey, and Transylvania, and a few unique concoctions of our own, we bring you the world in music. We put on a high energy, family friendly show, and are equally comfortable on large stages or street corners. We pride ourselves on being prompt, professional, organized, and on maintaining reasonable sound pressure levels. Contact us to see how we can make your event even more special!
Since our debut performance at Fort Worth's Rose Marine Theater in 2012, we've released two full-length CDs ("No Passport Required" & "Curiosities") and one EP ("From Ballydesmond to Inisheer") and made frequent appearances at local house concerts, bars, restaurants, and music festivals including Ron's Corner Tavern in Bedford, Reveler's Hall in Dallas, Legacy Hall in Plano, the North Texas Irish Festival, Fort Worth Arts Goggle, and the Lone Star State Dulcimer Festival in Glen Rose.
Contact Information:
The band:
Kristine Fisher
- violin, viola. Kristine is passionate about taking others on musical journeys through performance and teaching. She graduated from the University of Texas in Arlington with a Bachelors’s in Music Education where she studied with Dr. Timothy Angel. Kristine also holds an Associate’s Degree in Music from Tarrant County College where she studied under Becky Rathbun. When not teaching, she plays violin for church services, weddings, funerals, and other events. She is also part of the Seasonal Strings quartet.
Amber Gutermuth - violin, viola, fiddle. A Music Education graduate of UTA, Amber has been playing the violin since kindergarten, where she started in the Suzuki Strings program in
HEB ISD. Encouragement from her grandfather led her to dive headfirst into the world of fiddle music, going on to study with fiddle instructor
Dale Morris Senior.
On the classical side, Amber has played in several local orchestras,
eventually serving as concert master of the L.D. Bell High School Symphony,
and leading the school’s top quartet.
Amber teaches private violin lessons, and aspires to teach the Suzuki Strings method.
In her free time, Amber takes guitar lessons from Howie Baldwin and is teaching herself to play the mandolin. Amber also runs, composes, plays DND, and enjoys reading and writing.
Garry Brunson - percussion. With an amazing collection of percussion instruments from all corners of the globe,
Garry always has exactly the right instrument for whatever crazy thing we try next.
He is a past member of
Izibongo and the
David Gallegos band, among others in the area.
While his kit for Sombati varies, it usually includes cajon, doumbeks, bongos, bodhran, frame drums, cymbals, wood blocks,
foot tambourine and bells, and truly countless shakers, beads, rattles, and assorted whatnots.
Garry is also the inventor of the Brunson burner, the lesser known cousin of the Bunsen burner.
We're told it has something to do with matches....
Steve Mixon - mandolin, octave mandolin, mandocello, guitar, banjo, & accordion. A native of Houston, Steve is a veteran of the Santa Cruz California klezmer and belly dance scenes.
He and his wife Leslie are the founders of the
Keller Folk Music Society, a local music meet-up group of
acoustic musicians.
Steve is a killer instrumentalist, and has an astounding knowledge of eastern European and middle eastern music,
Celtic music, and traditional western folk and bluegrass music.
Steve also once played an impromtu command performance of gypsy tunes for none other than the late, great,
Dave Brubeck.
Eric Covington - bass, guitars, tuba, accordion. A Fort Worth native, Eric grew up in a house full of music including
60's folk revival, traditional European folk, belly dance, and classical.
Along with the music were instruments including banjos, mandolin, guitar, tin whistles, piano, pump organ, cimbalom, and an
unfortunate autoharp, disassembled when Eric was around the age five.
Eric studied the tuba and euphonium through his later public school years, and learned to play the
upright bass from
Bundy Varga.
Along the way Eric developed an interest in rock music which led him to the electric bass, and an interest in songwriting which led to the guitar, synthesizers, and recording gear.
In addition to performing with Sombati, Eric is a member of the electronic music collective known as
Sooterkin.
Past members:
Ron Perovich - originally from Southern California, Ron is a former garage band guitarist turned music theory nerd who spent 3 of his five 5 years at UNT studying theory. Ron has been flirting with with ethno-musicology since the very beginning - from his interest in Hungarian Roma music in high school (which got him to try the violin) to Japanese meditation music in college (which got him to the shakuhachi) to North Indian classical music (which led to playing sitar in a hookah bar fusion band) he's now settled into a decade long obsession with Arabic and Turkish music theory and performance, and all the traditional instruments related to them. Among his favorites to play are the Turkish and Arabic ney, Turkish baglama saz, Turkish zurna, G clarinet, Armenian duduk, oud, and Persian kamancheh. Ron also plays the accordion, for good measure! Ron has composed music for student films and computer games, recorded 5 albums, been part of the house band for numerous belly dance events, and played a couple weddings along the way! In addition to Sombati, Ron is a member of the middle eastern music ensemble Badrawn, records his own music, and is an award winning poet!
Deborah Titus - music educator, flutist, and collaborative pianist, Deborah works as a freelance musician in the Dallas area, playing for soloists, choirs, musicals, and operas. She grew up playing piano and woodwinds in church, singing in choirs, and ringing in handbell choirs, eventually studying studying flute, piano, and voice at Evangel University and earning her bachelor's degree in Music Education. During college she played principle flute in symphonic and traveling orchestras, pit orchestras for musicals, and flute choirs, winning the 2008 MMTA Collegiate Woodwinds Competition and principal flute in the 2009 MMEA All-State Collegiate Orchestra. Deborah also studied collaborative piano under Drs. Harlos and Puccinelli at UNT, and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in flute performance at UTA. She performs with several traveling ensembles, traveling to 42 states and countries including Canada, Russia, Poland, and Spain. In addition to music performance, Deborah works in music eduation, starting children's music programs at various churches, creating music curricula for summer camps, and teaching music, choir, and flute classess in both public and private schools. Deborah joined Sombati in 2015, where she dazzles with flute, piccolo, Irish whistles, voice, and the occasional growler.
Belinda Daughtry - another Texas native, Belinda hails from the once rural burg of Southlake, though the part of Southlake she grew up in is now occupied by the Disney Castle. Mansfield's answer to Naftule Brandwein (king of the klezmer clarinet), her other instruments include the hurdy gurdy, percussion, saxophone, and synthesizer. Belinda began her music education in the 5th grade, playing clarinet and alto saxophone throughout junior high and high school. Her other early performance experience includes the Six Flags Employees Band and the Dallas Tornado Soccer Band. She began belly dancing at the age of 16 and bought her first drum two years later. Her performance experience includes the Belly Dance Treasures Stage at Scarborough Faire and numerous haflas and stage shows. Belinda's musical education includes studying under instrumental and doumbek maestros such as Jamal Mohamed, Susu Pampanin and Issam Houshan. Belinda decided to retire from the band in April 2019 - we'll miss her.
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