Nataša Mirković – vocals
Michel Godard – serpent, electric bass
Luciano Biondini – accordion
Jarrod Cagwin – percussion

Nataša Mirković and Michel Godard met for the recording of “En El Amor”, a re-reading of the Sephardic songs that the young singer listened to in Sarajevo, her hometown. A project that has received great acclaim from international critics, especially in Germany.
Today the two musicians continue in the search for the relationship between ancient and contemporary music in an original production of the Festival Fabbrica Europa.

Risplendenti, Riversi combines well-known Italian music of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (“Se l’aura spira” by Girolamo Frescobaldi and “La suave melodia” by Andrea Falconieri) to Balkan compositions to be rediscovered (such as “Bugarscchica” by the Croatian poet Petar Hektorovic, printed in Venice at the end of the 16th century) and which dialogue with the improvisations and compositions of the performers themselves, in a play between ancient and modern.

Michel Godard, French musician and composer, is one of the very few tuba soloists and probably the only serpent soloist. Sepent is an instrument, ancestor of the tuba, that was born as the bass of the cornet family and had never had a solo repertoire. Godard, developing on this forgotten instrument his enormous technical talent, performs a repertoire ranging from 16th century music to jazz and improvised music.

Originally from Bosnia-Herzegovina, the singer and actress Nataša Mirković first studied musicology in Sarajevo, followed by classical voice, Lied and Oratorio in Graz. She is interested in classical song, Baroque music and traditional folk music. Through her numerous performances at prestigious theatres and international festivals, she has become a sought-after artist throughout Europe. Her great versatility, demonstrated in a variety of genres, has also been recognized in Hollywood by the composer Gabriel Yared, who invited her to sing the theme song to the film « In the Country of Blood and Honey », directed by Angelina Jolie.

Luciano Biondini is one of the top accordion players on the scene. He started studying the accordion at age of ten and has been awarded many prizes for classical accordion. Since his turning to jazz in 1994 Biondini has played with the likes of Rabih Abou-Khalil, Dave Bargeron, Michel Godard, Battista Lena, Gabriele Mirabassi, Enrico Rava, Ares Tavolazzi, Martin Classen, Tony Scott and many others. A true master of accordion and a soloist with an overwhelming dramaticism, he always adds something beautiful and original to any context he works.

Born in Iowa, Jarrod Cagwin received a scholarship to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston. He studied percussion and drums under professor Jamey Haddad and was exposed to various hand drumming techniques from India, the Middle East, Northern Africa, and Brazil. In 1995 he received a grant to study South Indian drumming techniques with Trichy Sankaran at York University in Toronto. Upon graduation he moved to New York City, subsequently performing and recording in a variety of contemporary and traditional music formations. In 1999 he began working with the Rabih Abou-Khalil Group, shortly thereafter relocating to Europe where he has been actively touring and teaching throughout the continent. He works closely with Eckermann Drums in Vienna, Austria, designing frame drums and drum sets.

CALENDAR

May 9, 2018 | Festival Fabbrica Europa – Stazione Leopolda, Florence
June 4, 2021 | Akzent Theater, Vienna

[photo: Marco Caselli Nirmal]