The third Pocket Globe World Music Festival will be held in Novi Sad, at the new building of the Student Cultural Center (Vladimira Perića Valtera Street 5), from November 12 to 14, 2024. Each of the six concerts within the festival program will celebrate the creative power of women and their leadership spirit in music and artistic projects in its own way. The start of each evening is scheduled for 8 PM.
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The first two editions of the “Pocket Globe” festival, held in 2022 and 2023, demonstrated that Novi Sad is indeed a suitable place for showcasing sound and cultural heritages from various parts of the world, whether traditionally or modernly interpreted, original or arranged, through their diverse content, large audience, and exceptional atmosphere.
After those exciting, promising, and acclaimed initial steps, the “Pocket Globe” festival happily continues its mission, which involves broadening musical horizons and listening habits, serving as a form of spontaneous music education, and enriching the cultural offerings of Novi Sad and Serbia with rare, lesser-known concert programs, often including premieres: local, Serbian, and even regional.
When it comes to this year’s edition, “Pocket Globe” can proudly announce that all concert programs will be premiered in Serbia.
This year’s festival is dedicated to women. Their “voice” – in both a literal and metaphorical sense – will dominate the concert program, which consists of six concerts divided over three evenings. At some concerts, women will be the sole performers on stage, while in mixed settings, it will still be women who take on the leading roles!
At the very beginning, on Tuesday, November 12, we will listen to the French trio Samaïa, composed of three young artists captivated by vocal polyphony, various musical traditions, and linguistic diversity.
With their radiant and sharp voices, sometimes accompanying themselves on instruments, Eléonore, Noémie, and Luna interpret songs in more than ten languages, drawing from traditional Breton, Occitan, Anatolian, Caucasian, and many other European and Eurasian song sources, enriching their repertoire with their own original compositions.
They have two albums to their credit, with the latest one, “Traversées”, released in June 2023.
Following them, the star of this year’s “Pocket Globe”, Ana Alcaide, will take the stage. This unique Spanish artist is deeply committed to ancient traditions, drawing inspiration from them for her own compositional work.
Ana’s originality is largely based on her combination of playing the nyckelharpa and performing medieval Spanish melodies, some of which have spread throughout the Mediterranean over time. Naturally, Ana’s artistic openness has also embraced Sephardic heritage, including singing in Judeo-Spanish.
On her artistic and research journey, Ana has collaborated with numerous musicians from various countries. Among her regular collaborators is the American-Spanish musician Bill Cooley, who is also her life partner. He plays various oriental string instruments and incorporates electronics into his work. At the concert in Novi Sad, titled “Essentia”, we will hear Bill Cooley alongside Ana Alcaide, who will play not only the nyckelharpa but also the Hardanger fiddle and sing.
The second evening, on November 13, will be opened by the duo Hiram Salsano and Marcello De Carolis, whose fresh joint project “Fronni D’Alia” is rooted in Hiram Salsano’s long-standing dedication to the music of Southern Italy, which she researches in the field and then performs and reinterprets with her exceptional vocals, as well as by playing Italian frame drums (tamorra and tamburello) and jaw harps (marranzano), skillfully using the looper as well. Hiram has received multiple awards in Italy for her work so far. Marcello, Hiram’s partner in this captivating musical experiment, plays the chitarra battente while also using the looper.
The fusion of their affinity for archaic themes and modern virtuosity offers a fascinating journey through the landscapes of Southern Italy, exploring the spirit and essence of folk narrative songs, serenades, work songs, and more.
This “duo evening” will be rounded off by Maniucha Bikont and Ksawery Wójciński, Polish artists whose project, as well as their album “Oj borom, borom”, released in 2017, continues to delight European audiences – not only fans of world music and traditional songs but also enthusiasts of experimental and avant-garde sounds.
This project is also rooted in a woman’s perspective, as Maniucha’s in-depth field research focuses on Ukrainian songs from the border region of Polesie, which she performs with her rustic-ethereal voice.
She found the perfect collaborator in double bassist Ksawery, who seamlessly blends his avant-garde vocabulary with her archaic voice and messages, bringing a deep understanding to their music.
After one trio and three duos, “Pocket Globe” will feature the smallest and largest ensemble in its third edition. On Thursday, November 14, the audience will first be introduced to Teija Niku, an academically trained accordionist from Finland, who not only possesses technical and performing excellence but also a musical cosmopolitanism. Open to various influences, Teija often combines different traditions and genres in her playing and composing. She is perhaps best known for her love of the Scandinavian North and the Balkan South, as evidenced by her three solo albums: “Finsko Pajdusko”, “Memento”, and “Hetkessä”.
To conclude the festival, the organizers have chosen the increasingly recognized Serbian and Austrian artist Jelena Popržan, an authentic and unique performer. Although the local audience has had many opportunities to hear her live in Serbia (Jelena last performed in her hometown of Novi Sad in 2013), this will be the premiere concert of her ensemble and project, Jelena Popržan Quartett. Joining Jelena (vocals, viola) are esteemed jazz musicians from Austria: Richie Winkler (clarinet, alto saxophone), Clemens Sainitzer (cello), and Lina Neuner (double bass).
The project of this quartet, materialized in the 2022 album of the same name, features Jelena’s original compositions inspired by the poems of Tamar Radzyner (1927 – 1991), a Polish-Viennese poet of Jewish descent. This concert program combines the form of a song cycle with a series of vivid instrumental compositions.
The performance of Jelena Popržan’s quartet, which synchronously unites two powerful female signatures, will convincingly conclude the third edition of the “Pocket Globe” festival, dedicated to the strength of the female voice and the creative power and contributions of women in society, culture, and music.
In addition to the concert program, the festival will also offer the audience some accompanying events, about which more information will be available soon.
Tickets for the festival can be purchased through the Gigstix website. The price for a single evening ticket is 1,000 dinars, while the price for a full festival ticket package is 2,500 dinars.
The festival is supported by: The international project “Sounds of Europe” (supported by Creative Europe), the Embassy of Spain, the Polish Institute in Belgrade, the Austrian Cultural Forum, the French Institute, the Italian Institute of Culture in Belgrade, and the Student Cultural Center Novi Sad. The organizer is the Ring Ring Association in partnership with the Music Information Centre Serbia.
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🔗 Pocket Globe 2024: Website ǀ Facebook Event “Pocket Globe Festival 2024” ǀ Facebook ǀ Instagram
🔗 Samaïa: Bandcamp ǀ YouTube ǀ Facebook ǀ Instagram
🔗 Ana Alcaide: Website ǀ Spotify ǀ YouTube ǀ Facebook ǀ Instagram
🔗 Hiram Salsano & Marcello De Carolis: YouTube ǀ Hiram / Website ǀ Marcello / Website
🔗 Maniucha & Ksawery: Facebook ǀ Bandcamp ǀ YouTube
🔗 Teija Niku: Website ǀ Spotify ǀ YouTube ǀ Facebook ǀ Instagram
🔗 Jelena Popržan Quartett: YouTube ǀ Bandcamp ǀ Jelena / Website