Veseli Seljaci and Novi Stari Tamburitza Orchesra

1965 Santa Clara Valley: It all begins with one woman.  Caroline Puskarich, a native of the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, played in junior tamburitz groups as a child and then went on the play, dance, and sing in the well-known Duquesne University Tamburitzans. Moved to California, she married Afred Bahr in 1962 and settled in Mountain View to begin her married life.

But once a tamburitzan, always a tamburitzan, and she missed the dancing, playing, and singing that she was used to. The solution was to start up a tamburitza group of her own based upon her past experience in Pennsylvania. In 1965 Caroline gathered a group of some fifteen adults who were willing to work at this new experience, found some instruments, and began teaching in various homes and in the fruit-drying shed on the Sulaver ranch in Cupertino. Shortly after that beginning Caroline started several junior groups and the era of the Veseli Seljaci and its allied groups was launched.

By the mid-1980’s the tamburitza and kolo groups numbered about a hundred participants. Veseli Seljaci played to enthusiastic crowds at nearly twnety national Extravaganzas and had presented yearly concerts to large audiences. There were invitations to play in Seattle, several cities in Nevada, and in southern California. In 1992 several members of the original Veseli Seljaci retired for the usual summer break and then in the fall regrouped as the Novi Stari Tamburasi with Caroline as their director.  Veseli Seljaci continued for some years longer, but as some members of that group retired of withdrew, the original Veseli Seljaci has become at least temporarily inactive.

The Novi Stari Tamburasi continue as an orchestra with a membership of ten, mostly a nucleus of former members of the Veseli Seljaci. Rehearsals continue at the Bahr residence on tuesday evenings, and there are still dates to play at picnics, special programs, banquets, and private parties, although the major glamor dates and venues of the past appear less frequently on their schedule. In the mid-1990’s Novi Stari began palying occasional accompaniments for the Dalmacijo Singing Society of San Francisco and have formed a warm and close relationship with that group. Together the two groups ahve made joint appearances in the Bay Area and in Los Angeles.  Thus the Novi Stari Tamburasi continue to carry on the tamburitza traditions in thee Bay area and are still enjoying bringing tamburitza music to their audiences. During their most active period, the Veseli Seljaci recorded 4 LP records and 4 cassette tapes, and they performed at 15 Tamburitza Extravaganzas in various cities around the United States.  A children’s group, the Santa Clara Valley Jr. Tamburitzans, was also started by Caroline Bahr simultaneoulsy with the Veseli Seljaci.