European Roots is a unique international series of documentaries about Europe’s own world music. The stories in this series are close-up and personal, showcasing the fascinating variety of the continent’s musical traditions and showing why roots music matters in our globalizing world.

The 15 programmes demonstrate the vitality and variety of Europe’s musical traditions.Featuring some of the best new performers around, these stories also show how traditional music can be the springboard for the future.

The stories come from the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Portugal, the Netherlands, Norway, Hungary, Bosnia and Greece and include bands and performers like Nithin Savhney, Parno Graszt, Mostar Sevdah Reunion and many more. Here are three stories from the most recent part of the series:

·        Mariza and the Story of Fado: Fado is Portuguese blues music and Mariza is its exotic new international star.The story of Fado mirrors the history of Portugal, including a “lost” period in the early 20th Century when it was working-class and militant.

·        The Warsaw Village Band: On the road with the Warsaw Village Band, as they travel by local buses into the heart of rural Poland, seeking out surviving old-time musicians and instrument makers. They are winning accolades abroad, including a BBC World Music Award and building new audiences, but back home the picture is rather different.

·        Klezmer in Germany: The sound of klezmer – the unmistakeable Yiddish good-time music from the schtetl of old Eastern Europe, which was virtually extinguished in the Holocaust. So where’s the biggest klezmer scene in Europe today? Germany. What is even more surprising, is that most of the musicians who play klezmer are not Jewish. What does this fascination with Yiddish culture reveal about Germany today?