Friday
20. August
at 20.30
Stari-Gornji trg, Ljubljana

TRIO AKK:ZENT (Austria) and BRATKO BIBIČ & DEDLEY WOODLEYBEARS (Slovenia, Austria, Czech Republic)

Bratko Bibič, accordion
Paul Schuberth, accordion
Victoria Vicy Pfeil, saxophones
Tomáš Novák, violin, vocals
Johannes Münzner, accordion


A few years ago, composer and accordionist Bratko Bibič invited three Austria based musicians of the younger generation, Paul Schuberth, Victoria Vicy Pfeil and Tomáš Novák, to a special episode of his musical career. Bibič and accordionist and composer Paul Schuberth have also been regularly (co)performing in the 15-member accordion orchestra Die Wiener Ziehharmoniker since its founding in 2009, and together with Otto Lechner, they form the accordion Trio Fatasticus. Bratko Bibič performed with Dedley Woodleybears on their first tour in Slovenia in August 2015 in Ljubljana, Izola, Labor, and Novo mesto (Goga festival), and in 2016 in Austria, Slovenia, and Germany. The series of performances ended in March 2017 with the gala closing concert of the 17th edition of the Accordion Festival Vienna (Reigen), one of the largest accordion music festivals in Europe. They played a concert of Bibič’s selected “imaginative film narrative”, “mixed medley”, and a stylistically diverse set of original compositions of the trio featuring elements of avant-garde jazz, new music, experimental world music, critical workers’ songs, as well as Turkish, Slovak, Macedonian folk songs, and improvisations. The recordings from the Kromberk concert in 2018 represent a large part of the songs published on Bratko Bibič’s new album Hommage a cliche.

Bratko Bibič (1957, Ljubljana) has been active on the domestic and (mostly) international »different music« scene for 40 years. He is considered as one of the pioneers of emancipation of the accordion from the corset of musical stereotypes from the early 1970’s onwards. The open space between world music, minimalism, improvisation, and the avant-garde he connects with a distinct melodiousness, sudden intrusions of disharmonies and adventurous rhythmic reversals, that originate from his characteristic method of »cinematic narration«. He cultivated and still develops paradoxical »simple and complex, serious and humorous, thoughtful and silly« music with the groups Begnagrad (SLO / YU, 1976-1983), Nimal (SLO, CH, USA 1987-1991), Accordion Tribe (SLO 1995-2010), The Madleys (SLO 1995-2015), Otto Lechner & Die Wiener Ziehharmoniker (A, SLO 2009-), and Dedley Woodleybears (A, CZ, SLO 2015-).

With these groups and solo, in duets or ad hoc projects, he has given concerts mostly in Western Europe, USA, Canada, and India at a wide variety of venues, from underground and alternative to reputable festival and cultural institutions such as Knitting Factory, New York City’s Town Hall, Chicago Symphony Orchestra Center, WDR Grosse Sendessaal Koeln, Wiener Konzerthaus, Bruckner Haus, Luxmebourg Philharmonie, Palace of Arts Budapest, Koelner Philharmonie, Bimhuis Amsterdam, MIDEM Cannes, Cankarjev dom … Bibič’s music has been recorded on fifteen albums in Slovenia, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and Israel, most recently on the albums Bratko Bibič & The Madleys with guests: Brutko Bimbič’s Cabinet of Miracles (SLO 2013), Die Wiener Ziehharmoniker. Live in Metropol (A 2014) and Bratko Bibič & hosts: Hommage a cliché (2019/20), in the documentaries Accordion Tribe, Music Travels (CH-A 2004), and Accordionists (SLO 2005).

He was and still is an author and performer in the fields of (street) theater, contemporary dance, more complex multimedia projects (most recently Javorca Resurekcija. Echoes from Invisible Landscapes, 2016), music – film production (Bridko Bebič’s Traveling Cinema: In the Home Garden 1 -3 ,1999-2005 / 2015-2016; »From blacksmith to miner«, 2018), cultural and political activism (ŠKUC, KUD F. Prešeren, Mreža za Metelkovo…), connected to applied research (cultural infrastructure, urbanism: Kino Šiška, Stara elektrarna, Rog …), and journalism (numerous articles and two books).

Paul Schuberth (1994), one of the most renowned Austrian accordionists of the young generation, voluntarily dedicates himself to playing the accordion from an early age. Despite his youth, the review of his references is surprisingly abundant. He completed his tireless training as a concert musician and composer in 2018 at Bruckner University in Linz. He is a multiple winner of national and international awards at competitions in performing and composing music (Klingenthal, Castelfidardo, Austrian World Music Award 2010 etc.). He presents a wide repertoire of original and interpretive musical experience and knowledge as a soloist and in regular collaboration with the trio akk: zent (Austria), Bratko Bibič & Dedley Woodley Bears (Austria, Czech Republic), in duets with accordionist A. Dimovski (Austria/Northern Macedonia), violinist Jelena Popržan (Austria/Serbia) and violinist Tomaš Novak (Austria/Czech Republic). With various ensembles, musicians such as Otto Lechner, André Heller, Paul Gulda etc., and solo he performed concerts in Austria, Germany, Italy, Tunisia, Bulgaria, Northern Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Pakistan, Iceland, and Slovenia. He has recorded 8 CDs with original music, most recently in 2017 his third solo album Dark Side of Sun, about which the reviewer wrote in Vienna’s Falter: »23-year-old accordionist Paul Schubert is considered a genius of his genre. He has now released his third solo album, but what genre can we talk about here? It’s improvisation at the highest level, every beat is reversed many times – Schubert can’t afford a second of peace. He doesn’t do it systematically, he simply can’t do otherwise: virtuoso changes of tempos, pitch and sounds in all possible variations, which are hardly reminiscent of an accordion, with short melodies in between – Schuberth is a genius. « (Stefanie Panzenböck, FALTER 36/2017).

Victoria Vicy Pfeil, born in 1994, studied jazz saxophone (soprano, alto, tenor and baritone) at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz in 2018, and is pursuing a master’s degree under the mentorship of Klaus Dickbauer at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. She is active with ensembles such as the jazz trio VICTHAMIN, the SEPP octet, the Bruckner University Big Band, the Jazz & Rap Band Pumn De Țărână, and has recorded two albums with the trio akk: zent, which also includes accordionists P. Schuberth and Johannes Muenzner. They toured in Austria, Uzbekistan, South Africa, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and elsewhere in Europe.

Tomáš Novák (b. 1987 in Prague) comes from a family of Czech emigrants to Vienna, where the former punk and rock musician recognized his dedication to the music profession very early on and completed his classical violin studies at the Vienna Conservatory. Now a keen and fast-paced jazz violinist, inspired composer, and also an excellent singer, after studying jazz violin at Bruckner University in Linz, while regularly composing and playing in the duet Vakkordeoline with P. Schubert (album Altre storie 2017), he also participates in various ensembles, e.g. the international group Gypsy Jazz Collective Hot Club du Nax, as well as in larger ones, e.g. the 27-member The Orchestra Suite Project by Austrian contemporary jazz composer Michael Mantler with concerts in Austria, Germany, and many European capitals, such as, in his words, »Baku, Tbilisi, Ankara or Feldkirchen, and Dijon«.


 Admission free. *In case of rain, the concert will take place at the Škuc Gallery.

Due to the amendments to the decree on the temporary restriction of the cultural services, event may be attended only by persons with a certificate of: recovery of covid-19 (P), vaccination (C) or a negative test result, which must not be older than 48 hours (T). Entry to the event is only possible with a PCT certificate. Certificate is not required for children under the age of 15 who attend the event with close family members or guardians.


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