
MAK GRGIĆ, BALKANISMS AND BACLAVE (Slovenia, Croatia, USA)
THE CONCERT IS CANCELLED BECAUSE OF THE BAD WEATHER FORECAST.
Damjan Krajačić, flute
Mak Grgić, guitar
Goran Delac, double bass
Enos Kugler, drums
The world-renowned musician from Ljubljana, guitarist Mak Grgić, returns to our summer stage. Famous for his artistic versatility and performance inspiration, Grgić is devoting himself to classical music as well as improvisation and popular genres, performing a very diverse repertoire of works, from the Renaissance and Baroque to Spanish guitar music and contemporary (avant-garde) compositions. This time Grgić will join the Croatian band baClave, with the music from his new album Balkanisms, which he recorded for the Naxos label (in cooperation with RTV Slovenia). The programme is full of rich folk-inspired writing and contemporary outlook at music from Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia.
Touted as »a guitarist to keep an eye on« by the Washington Post, Mak Grgić is emerging as a star on the worldwide stage. His extraordinary talents and tastes as soloist, collaborator and recording artist are fueled by his curiosity, imagination and boundless energy. As a concert artist, he averages eighty-five performances a year as both soloist and collaborator. He is a founding member and active performer in two duos – the Flamenco-style Duo Deloro with Adam Del Monte, and the new music-focused FretX Duo with Daniel Lippel. Other ongoing collaborations include the JACK Quartet, Martin Chalifour (concertmaster, LA Philharmonic), cellists Jay Campbell and Joshua Roman, and The Assad Brothers. In 2009, Mak made his debut in Russia, performing the Concerto de Aranjuez with the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra. A month-long tour recently took him to China, Japan and the Balkans. Other engagements include performances and residencies in Portugal, Spain, at the Sarajevo Music Academy, Zurich University of the Arts, the Hong Kong International Guitar Festival, and at several venues in North America (Pittsburg, Dallas, Washington, D.C ., etc.). Also an active entrepreneur and educator, Grgić is director of EuroStrings, a consortium of seventeen guitar festivals in Europe; as well as Zagreb Guitar Festival and the Music@Rush Hour (Los Angeles). He also serves as director of the Elemental Guitar in Santa Monica, an exciting program for youth.
Born in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 1987, Grgić studied guitar in Zagreb with the revered Ante Čagalj at the Elly Bašić Music Academy. He completed his bachelor’s degree with Alvaro Pierri at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Pursuing advanced studies in the U.S., he was one of the first students to apply for USC Thornton’s new Arts Leadership graduate program, which he incorporated into his doctoral studies in guitar. He has been a student of William Kanengiser and Scott Tennant of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet. In the fall of 2017, he began the Artist Diploma program at USC (University of Southern California), the first guitarist in the university’s history to be admitted to this elite program.
Part afro-cuban, part jazz, part classical – baCLAVE grooves deeply and speaks strongly, with immense energy and profound sophistication. It has very much to do with the Cuban clave as it does with the delicious Balkan baklava – a musical experience with no boundaries. Led by Croatian-born flutist Damjan Krajačić, the band is a true tour de force, featuring some of the most prolific jazz and latin-jazz musicians from both Europe and the USA.
Composer and flutist Damjan Krajačić is an artist characterized by »his own style defined by the immediacy, intensity, quality and sophistication of sound« (Cantus Magazine). A musician of eclectic styles, Damjan’s background spans jazz, latin jazz, and classical training. A native of Zagreb, Croatia, Damjan holds a Master of Music degree in Afro-Latin Music from California State University Los Angeles. His teachers and mentors were the world-renowned flutist Danilo Lozano as well as the award-winning flutist and composer James Newton. Damjan has performed in jazz concerts and festivals in both the United States and Europe, both as a leader and collaborator, and continues to be active on both continents. In 2014, Damjan was instrumental in starting the Croatia Flute Academy, a week-long summer flute festival in Karlovac, Croatia. There he served as Artistic Director and Professor of Jazz and Latin-Jazz Flute from 2014-2016, teaching alongside some of the biggest names in the classical and jazz flute community, such as Pierre-Yves Artaud, Trevor Wye, Orlando »Maraca« Valle and James Newton. With 8 CD releases under his name, Damjan is a seasoned artist with a mature compositional and stylistic approach that seamlessly combines various musical styles and influences. His compositions are infused with jazz and classical sensibilities as well as Eastern European rhythms and melodies.
Free admission.