Goran Bregovic Concert
Known as the composer
whose music epitomizes the spirit of all of ex-Yugoslavia, this former
rock mega-star makes his U.S. debut as a successful international
composer. With roots in the Balkans and a head in the 21st Century,
Goran Bregovic creates music that marries different sounds – a gypsy
brass band with traditional Bulgarian polyphonies, an electric guitar
and traditional percussion with a curious rock accent – all against a
background of a bedevilled string orchestra and deep sonorities of a
male choir. He creates music that the soul recognizes
instinctively and the body greets with an irresistible urge to dance.
Bregovic was born in Sarajevo of a Serbian mother and a Croatian father.
At 16 years old, he started his first group “The White Button,” which
lasted fifteen years. He has composed music for Emir Kusturica’s Times
of the Gypsies, Underground (Palme d’Or at the 1995 Cannes Film
Festival), and White Cat Black Cat. Bregovic also composed the original
soundtrack for Arizona Dream along with rocker Iggy Pop. Bregovic
abandoned pure rock in 1985, and his music was not performed live until
1995, when he and a band of ten traditional musicians, a choir of fifty
singers and a symphony orchestra, undertook a series of mega-concerts in
Greece and Sweden. The tour was followed by a concert on October 26 at
the Forest National of Brussels in front of an audience of 7,500. In
June 1997, the group was reduced to fifty musicians for a two-hour
concert of music Bregovic composed for films. He toured successfully
throughout Europe with his Wedding and Funeral Band, performing pieces
from the famous Ederlezi (from Time of the Gypsies) to In the Death Car
(from Arizona Dream) and to the energetic Kalasnikov (from Underground).
More than 500,000 people attended the concert at the Piazza St. Giovanni
in Rome, confirming that Goran Bregovic’s music has made a significant
impact on an international level.