The ninth Todo Mundo, the Belgrade world music festival, will be held in Club DIM, from September 25 to 28, 2021. The focus of the upcoming edition is on women in world music.
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After last year’s break caused by the pandemic, the capital’s world music festival returns to the scene. The new edition of the “Todo Mundo” festival will include six concerts, a photo exhibition and a conference.
The Todo Mundo festival is often adorned with a connecting thread or theme, which gives to each issue a striking feature. Among the themes so far have been: Africa, Turkey, the Balkans, Hungary… Far from clear geographic determinations, this time a woman was chosen as the connecting thread of the festival.
The wish of the organizers and selectors is to emphasize and bring to the fore the creative strength and power of women in the music world, more precisely – the world music milieu, considering the genre orientation of the festival.
The main, music part of the program consists of performances by artists and ensembles from Hungary, Greece, Italy, North Macedonia, Austria and Serbia. The first festival evening(September 25) will be opened by the local female a cappella trio Roђenice, whose members come from Novi Sad and Belgrade. They will give the audience the raw energy of Serbian and Balkan archaic songs, which form the backbone of their repertoire. At the same time, it is not about archaism that has museum value. The sound is ancient, but the attitude and stage appearance of these young singers are modern and contemporary, which is additionally supported by the accompanying multimedia content.
The power of the female voice, in the continuation of the first evening, will also be presented by the Monika Lakatos Folk Trio from Hungary. Monika (Mónika Lakatos) is a Romani singer, a member of the Olah Roma community, whose heritage she cherishes devotedly.
Her fascinating voice is infused with a specific color and vibrato, and expressiveness built on large dynamic amplitudes and a combination of melancholy and boldness. She is the winner of the prestigious WOMEX Lifetime Achievement Award (2020). At the concert in Belgrade, Monika’s voice will be supported by guitar and percussion.
On the second evening (September 26), on Sunday, we will first listen to the Greek qanun player, composer and improviser Sofia Labropoulou. Her art combines the heritage of Greece and the Mediterranean, classical Ottoman, medieval, experimental and contemporary music. She collaborates with numerous musicians, composes film music and holds master classes dedicated to the Qanun and Greek folk music.
The special guest at Sofia’s concert in DIM will be Tijana Stanković, a singer and violinist from Belgrade.
Rounding off the second evening is Maria Mazzotta, one of the most impressive female vocalists on the contemporary European world music scene. With many years of experience built up in the famous Italian ensemble Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, Maria ventured into soloist waters a few years ago. In January 2020, she released the album Amoreamaro, which was extremely well received by the audience and critics.
At the concert in Belgrade, accompanied by accordionist Antonino de Luca, Maria will pamper us with the charm and rhythm of the Italian south. This is her first concert appearance in our country.
After a day off, the festival will have its third night on Tuesday, September 28. We will listen to a fresh project by the Macedonian artist Dorian Jovanović (oud), created in collaboration with the singer Dobrila Grašeska.
In July, Dobrila & Dorian Duo released the album Apocryph, composed of original Macedonian songs in a simple, striking, irresistible arrangement. Dorian is the winner of the Vojin Mališa Draškoci award for 2021, which will be given to him at the beginning of the evening by representatives of the World Music Association of Serbia.
The honor of rounding off the ninth “Todo Mundo”, whose thread is women in the world music world, went to Jelena Popržan, a prominent artist from Austria, born in Serbia. Jelena is a respected violist, vocalist, composer and performer. She is a versatile musical personality, always prone to self-reflection, new discoveries, changes…
Jelena is also the winner of the above-mentioned Vojin Mališa Draškoci award for 2020, which will also be given to her this evening. At her solo performance in Belgrade, she will present mainly material from the album La Folia (2020).
The beginning of every musical evening is at 8 p.m. DIM (Cetinjska 15a) was chosen as the venue for the concerts this time – an alternative and innovative city space intended for concerts, performances and diverse cultural events.
The main theme of the festival – women’s contribution in music – is also dealt with by an international conference, which kicks off the ninth “Todo Mundo”. The gathering entitled “Women in the World Music – Artists, Managers, Journalists…” will be held in the “RTS Club – Radio Belgrade Gallery” (Hilandarska 2, entrance from Svetogorska), on Saturday, September 25, starting at 11 a.m. Participants come from Slovenia, Italy, Greece, Austria, Spain and Serbia. The conference has been supported by the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia.
On the same day, at 7 p.m., an exhibition of photographs by the Slovenian author Janez Marolt will be opened in the “Kula” Gallery (Cetinjska 15a). It is about a series of portraits of Monika Lakatos, a singer who will perform at DIM on the same evening. The exhibition will be opened by the author.
The organizer of the “Todo Mundo” festival is the “Ring Ring” Association.
The festival was supported by: Collegium Hungaricum Belgrade, Austrian Cultural Forum, Italian Institute of Culture in Belgrade, Ministry of Culture of North Macedonia, World Music Association of Serbia and Music Information Centre of Serbia.
Tickets can be purchased in advance through the Facebook page of the festival, at a price of 600 dinars for the first two concert evenings and 500 for the third evening. During festival days, tickets will cost 700/700/500 dinars.
