About

The Great Soviet Bucket is a multimedia concert featuring songs of protest and resistance from Latin America and the former Soviet Union. Performed by the glam rock opera band Timur and the Dime Museum, the show brings together two distinct musical styles: nueva canción, a Latin American style of folk music of the 1960s and Soviet propaganda/censored songs, now both widely recognized as powerful movements for sociopolitical change.

Sharing his personal memories of growing up under communism, and his grandmother, who taught him many songs, Timur dissects the complexity of political regimes and the songs that they inspire. The Soviet propaganda songs were encouraged and endorsed by the officials, and Timur learned them by heart. But it is through the songs of the Argentinian singer Mercedes Sosa – and in the United States – that he rediscovers the revolutionary spirit, found in the unofficial songs of the Soviet underground.

The Great Soviet Bucket will premiere arrangements of songs in the original Spanish, Russian and the newly commissioned English. Each song in the project is arranged by a different composer, including Daniel Corral, Lauren Elizabeth Baba, Eliana Echeverry and Manuel Paredes.

One cannot imagine the life in the USSR without the presence of a simple, enameled bucket, which serves as a perfect metaphor for every facet of Soviet existence.

Support

Co-commissioned by Miami Light and Beth Morrison Projects with support from the National Performance Network.