Invited Guests

Attendees of this year's convention are in for a special treat, as we've invited two famous Esperanto musicians from Europe to perform Friday and Saturday nights! But the fun doesn't stop there. These performers will be participating in the convention off-stage as well, sharing their fun-loving personalities with us during the day and joining us for late night music and dancing after the normal convention activities have ended. (See descriptions below.)

Also a treat will be the attendance by Humphrey Tonkin, past president of UEA (the World Esperanto Association) who will give the keynote speech. Besides being past president and current vice president of UEA, Tonkin is also a board member of the Esperantic Studies Foundation and of World Learning, which runs the School for International Training where the NASK Esperanto courses will be held this year. Tonkin is also a famous editor and translator in the Esperanto community. Recently published was his English translation of Maskerado, an autobiographical account by Tivadar Soros (father of the famous businessman and philanthropist George Soros).

JoMo (Jean-Marc Leclerc) began playing music in 1977 and speaking Esperanto in 1988. It was only natural that he began to sing and write lyrics in the "international language." He started his own group, The Rosemary's Babies, in the early 90's in the French alternative rock scene. The group toured in many countries (including China) and recorded two albums. After The Babies disbanded, JoMo created a new group, Liberecanoj, with which he recorded a 7-song revolutionary-themed album and set the first record for a multilingual concert (22 songs in 22 languages), which appeared in the Guiness book in 2000. In 2001, he recorded a solo Esperanto album entitled JoMo friponas, which captures the more personal and folk style of his solo performances at Esperanto festivals through-out Europe. Besides music, JoMo is currently working on publishing a book on the Gascon language and a rugby dictionary. He has a Polish wife, a seven year old daughter (who is already singing on stage in Polish), doesn't smoke, doesn't drink alcohol, doesn't eat meat, but has one vice: he loves to talk.

Kimo (Kim Henriksen) is a native Esperanto speaker who has played music and entertained from an early age. At two years of age, he feel from a second story window. Nothing was broken, but it probably influenced his crazy antics on stage (and off!). He attended many Esperanto youth gatherings where he met other young musicians, and from those friendships formed Amplifiki, one of the most famous Esperanto rock groups. In those early years, Kimo wrote the song "Sola," which is now a staple of Esperanto youth gatherings in Europe. Kimo was president of the Danish Esperanto Youth Organization, president of the Danish Esperanto Association, and co-organized several Esperanto music and arts festivals, including the upcoming KEF in Sweden this summer. He now performs with the Danish-Bosnian-Polish group Esperanto Desperado, whose album broKANTAĴOJ contains covers of several songs by Amplifiki.

Visit the Esperanto Desperado website http://www.esperanto.dk/desperado/

Download free music by JoMo from Music Express http://www.musicexpress.com.br/jomo

Download free music by Esperanto Desperado from Music Express http://www.musicexpress.com.br/espodespo

CDs by JoMo and Esperanto Desperado can be purchased through ELNA's book service.