Body music from the Balkans travels to Sicily this summer. After the short tour to Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland, we’re coming back home full of inspiration to continue the work on the second album of Alice in WonderBand.
We have plans for new collaborations, with Vladimir Mićković, singer and sculptor from Mostar, De Bavarian Immigrants, long admired artistic friends from Bavaria and Kathryn Doehner and Christoph Schoenbeck, new friends from Bahnhof Leisnig cultural centre, cultural entrepreneurs and artists.
Alkantara Festival brings us to Sicily for the first time. We’ll do a workshop for all ages followed by a concert on July 26. It is our favorite combination, teaching and performing, spreading the love of body music around the generations and countries.
June Balkan body music tour
Photos: Milan Riha, Habrovka festival
Festival Habrovka is a charming community music and theater festival, bringing together all generations. It is held in a yard of a church in a green residential area of Prague, next to the Lesopark Habrovka. It brings together theater for kids, choir music, world, rock, blues, indie music and all generations. The weather was pretty British, to say the least, but it did not kill the turnout. The charming details were kids who made a mud slide from benches and a plastic crate, raincoats, gum boots and umbrellas of all designs.
We had two concerts, and both, due to rainy weather, happened in the church. That was the first time for us to perform in such a venue. The afternoon concert brought us scouts, that sharpened their ears to hear what’s our body music all about. The evening concert brought us triumph and ovations that swept us from our feet. We hope to return to Prague soon!
The next song we recorded for the new album is Mamko moja in collaboration with lldiko Kali. We packed up and went to Trnava for a two day residency with Ildiko, who invited us and hosted us in her home. We came to Slovakia with one arrangement idea for the song, but then it changed completely, becoming a dialogue between the mother and daughter in disguise. Ildiko’s Gypsy guitar mesmerized us, bringing a new flavor to the song. Again, the next album will be very hard to put in any genre drawer.
Finally the Slavyk session recorded in April in Katowice for Do Dzieła! project is available on YouTube! When Maja Rączka came to the Teatr Rozbark to hear and see our new quartet, the idea of recording a session she produces in a small cultural educational centre Muzykuj in Katowice emerged. We wholeheartedly excepted. We fit the musicians, four technicians, three people in the audience, painting exhibition of Julia Lewandowska, upright piano and a stage one, guitar, double bass, guitalele and benjolele in cca 10 square meters. And a lot of music!
In June we were in Belgrade with a workshop organized by Waldorf Academy Sunce.
4th edition of the New Balkan Rhythm festival
The New Balkan Rhythm festival will have a special Polish edition this year! In cooperation with the Polish Institute in Belgrade, the Rozbark Theater, the Academy of Theater Arts from Krakow (Dance Theater Department in Bytom) and Center for culture Sirmiumart our festival will be held in Sremski Karlovci, Sremska Mitrovica and Belgrade in September.
You will have the opportunity to listen to the quartet Slavyk, to attend workshops and enjoy the performances of Mirror with sound, a music theater performance, as well as the programs of the students of the Academy. Read about the program here.
More body music events in 2025
07/26 Alkantara Fest, concert and workshop, Catania, Sicily
08/31 New Balkan Rhythm festival, Slavyk concert, Sremski Karlovci
09/03 New Balkan Rhythm festival, Mirror with sound performance, programs of the Academy, Belgrade
09/04 New Balkan Rhythm festival, Slavyk concert, programs of the Academy, Sremska Mitrovica
10/04 – 12/23 AIR-M, Residency with Octopus Theater, Munich, Germany
10/17 Concert with De Bavarian Immigrants, Montessori Eberharting, Germany
10/18 Workshop, Montessori Eberharting, Germany
10/26 Tampereen Ylioppilasteatteri, concert after WOMEX with Vilma Talvitie, Tampere, Finland
11/14 Kulturhof Langenzenn, concert, Langenzenn, Germany
11/21 Weiherhaustheater, concert, Ortenburg, Germany
11/22 Weiherhaustheater, workshop, Ortenburg, Germany
11/28 Freies Musikzentrum, concert, Munich, Germany
11/29 Freies Musikzentrum, workshop, Munich, Germany