“Romanca” is an instrumental song written by the students and director of the Galakticka School Band. It is a technical piece, meant to give the lead guitarist a chance to improvise on a simple melody. But though it’s a practice piece and not similar to traditional Roma styles of music, it’s still very Roma in one way – it’s expressive and filled with emotion.

Once when talking with a Roma musician, I expressed my own hesitance to perform a song unless I had a complete, polished performance. He laughed gently and said, “It doesn’t happen often, does it?” He went on, “What’s most important when you’re playing music is to feel it. You put all of yourself in that moment into the music you’re playing and singing. If you can do this, it doesn’t matter whether you get all the notes right or not. People will be with you.”

Romanca (Instrumental)
Music by Galakticka School Band

Instruments: Martin Ferkov, Alex Rybar
Music Director: Marcel Šenkýr