THE ALCHEMY OF SOUL

2017-08-11 22:00

Summer Stage

 

AMIRA MEDUNJANIN, vocals (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

ANTE GELO, guitar (Croatia)

ZVONIMIR ŠESTAK, double bass (Croatia)

BOJAN ZULFIKARPAŠIĆ, piano (Serbia / France)

 

Ticket price 10 euros. At the venue before the program starts 12 euros

 

01 Amira Medunjani Pho_opt.jpeg

Amira Medunjani

AMIRA MEDUNJANIN, a winner of a prestigious award La plue belle voix feminine 2012 by the French Foundation Orange, after her appearance on the album A Secret Gate (2003) of a band Mostar Sevdah Reunion, she recorded her debut album Rosa (Snail Records, 2005), which music critic Clive Davis declared Album of the Year. Then, there followed compact-discs Live (Gramofon, 2009), with the recordings of the concert in the Bosnian Cultural Center in Sarajevo during Jazz Fest Sarajevo, and Zumra (Winter Village, 2010), realized in collaboration with accordionist Merima Ključo. The album Amulette (Harmonia Mundi, 2011), on which performed Bojan Zulfikarpašić, Bahar Khalife, Nenad Vasilić, Kim Burton, Walter Quintus and Vlatko Stefanovski, received excellent reviews in reputable journals around the world, such as The Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, Observer and others. After the album Silk and Stone (Harmonia Mundi / Winter Village, 2014), recorded in the studio of the small concert hall Vatroslav Lisinski in Zagerb, the latest CD Damar was recorded in the studio of Peter Gabriel, Real World Studios in the UK.

02 Ante Gelo_fmt.jpeg

Ante Gelo

ANTE GELO, guitarist, composer and arranger, graduated Jazz Guitar from the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, where in 2001 enrolled in postgraduate studies at the Department for Composition and Arranging. He has performed in numerous concerts and jazz festivals in Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, Austria, Germany, France, Slovenia, Italy, Brazil, and in notable venues such as L’Olimpia (Paris), Royal Albert Hall (London) and Carnegie Hall (New York). He has collborated with both jazz musicians, such as Boško Petrović, Matija Dedić, Amira Medunjanin, Tamara Obrovac, Lee Harper, Alberto Marsico, Gabi Novak, and pop musicians, including Oliver Dragojević, Arsen Dedić, Nina Badrić andTereza Kesovija. Ante Gelo writes for orchestras such as the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, the Croatian Radiotelevision Symphony Orchestra, the Zagreb Soloists, the Croatian Radiotelevision Jazz Orchestra, the HGM Jazz Orchestra and The Ljubljana Symphony Orchestra. He has won various awards: several Porin Awards – for the best arrangement, composition, production, etc., Croatian Composers Society Award for best jazz composition, the Status Award by the Croatian Association of Musicians, and others. He is active as an educator in jazz workshops.

03 Zvonimir Šestak 1_opt.jpeg

Zvonimir Šestak

ZVONIMIR ŠESTAK, double bass player, studied jazz bass first at the Kärntner Landeskonservatorium under Professor Ulrich Langthaler, and then at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz under Professor Wayne Darling, while he completed his postgraduate studies in 2014 under Professor Morten Ramsbøl. He began his collaboration with the HGM Jazz Orchestra in 2009. In addition, he has collaborated with musicians such as Amira Medunjanin, Tamara Obrovac, Satoshi Inoue, Deborah Carter, SimonMarlow, Klemens Marktl and others. Zvonimir Šestak has performed at jazz festivals and concert venues in Chian, the USA, Canada, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Slovakia, Italy, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. In 2014, he participated in the project of the European Broadcasting Union as a member of the Euroradio Jazz Orchestra. He received the Status Award by the Croatian Association of Musicians for 2013 for best jazz performer on double bass and electric bass guitar. Zvonimir Šestak has won several Porin Awards for: best jazz concert (2014), best jazz album (2015), best jazz ensemble (2015) and best jazz performance.

04 Bojan Zulfikarpašić_opt.jpeg

Bojan Zulfikarpašić

BOJAN ZULFIKARPAŠIĆ, pianist, composer and arranger, has played piano since the age of five. In his early age, he started to perform in Belgrade jazz ensembles, to be declared the best young jazz musician in ex-Yugoslavia when he was twenty. After his studies in Michigan, he returned to Serbia to do his military service, and while playing in an army orchestra, he became acquainted with the rich tradition of Balkan music. After moving to Paris in 1988, Bojan Zulfikarpašić released his first album Bojan Z Quartet. In 1999, he was engaged in multinational project Koreni (Roots) with eight musicians from different countries. Among his ten solo albums, there are Solobsession (2001), Transpacifik (2003), where he collaborated with American jazz musicians Scott Colley and Nasheet Waits; then there are compact-discs Xenophonia, Soul Shelter, Duo, with saxophonist Julien Lourau, and others. Bojan Zulfikarpašić has appeared in more than a thousand concerts at major jazz festivals such as Montreal, North Sea Jazz, Paris Jazz Festival, Copenhagen Jazz Festival, Jazz in Marciac, and others. He was granted the title of Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government (2002) and received the Prix Django Reinhardt from the French Académie du Jazz (2002).