Goran Bregovic’s Wedding and Funeral Band
Two performances:
Tuesday-Wednesday, July 8 and 9 at 8 p.m.
Running time: approximately 2 hours, no intermission
Avery Fisher Hall, Broadway at 64th Street
Tickets: $30, 40, 50
Goran Bregovic—charismatic Balkan rock star in his youth turned opera and film composer and concert performer--returns to Avery Fisher Hall, scene of his Festival 06 triumph, on July 8 and 9, as part of Lincoln Center Festival 08. Along with his mainstay ensemble, the Wedding and Funeral Band, the Sarajevo-born Bregovic performs a repertoire of Balkan folk arrangements infused with his own musical ingredients, drawing inspiration from his war-torn homeland and the raw energy of brass-powered Gypsy bands.
For this Festival appearance, Bregovic and his nine-piece band will perform songs from his upcoming CD, Alcohol—scheduled for a May 2008 release—along with material from two other recent projects: the gypsy opera, Karmen with a Happy End, and the album Tales and Songs from Weddings and Funerals.
A native of Serbia calling Paris his home base, Bregovic still makes appearances in his home country. An August 2007 concert at the Guca Festival in front of 100,000 people was recorded for his new release, Alcohol—so titled, the artist says, because “it’s through that filter that people listen to music in Guca.” On the disc, Bregovic performs several “Bjelo Dugme” songs, which he adapted for his brass band.
Balkan composer Goran Bregovic was born in Sarajevo in the former Yugoslavia to a Croatian father and a Serbian mother. The cult rock group White Button (Bijelo Dugme) that he founded at age 16 became one of the most popular groups in Eastern Europe in the late 1970s. Director Emir Kusturica convinced Bregovic to work in films; he has composed soundtracks for Time of the Gypsies, Queen Margot, Underground, and Arizona Dream. His music carries Slavic and Gypsy themes, fusing popular music with traditional polyphonic music of the Balkans, tango, and brass bands. In June 2002, his collaboration with Oliviero Toscani, My Heart Has Become Tolerant, had its world premiere at the St. Denis Basilica near Paris, performed by three singers from three religions—Christian, Jewish, and Muslim—with the Moscow Orthodox Choir, a string section from Tetouan in Morocco, and Bregovic’s own Wedding and Funeral Orchestra. Another project, Forgive Me, Is This the Way to the Future?—Three letters for three prophets, commissioned by ECHO (European Concert Hall Organisation), toured Europe in April 2007, as Bregovic’s Wedding and Funeral Band was joined by Absolute Ensemble, under the direction of Kristjan Järvi.
Midsummer Night Swing
Wednesday, July 16
Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar
Balkan Brass Band
The trail-blazing brass band from Serbia, led by trumpet virtuosos Boban Markovic and his rising star son Marko, whips dancers into a frenzy with its stunning blasts of exuberance and ingenuity.
NYC CHI: Dance Partners**
Lesson: Michael Ginsburg
DJ: Joro-Boro
Midsummer Night Swing’s evenings of dance are ticketed events. Each evening begins with a dance lesson at 6:30 pm for all levels with some of New York’s foremost instructors. Lessons are included in the price of admission. Live music and dancing begin at 7:30 pm and runs until 10 pm. All events take place on an elevated dance floor in Damrosch Park, 62nd Street between Columbus and Amsterdam.
