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Slobodan Trkulja
Slobodan Trkulja (born May 29, 1977) is a serbian multi-instrumentalist, composer and singer in traditional & Byzantium style. Trkulja is one of the first artists who composed, performed, and popularized Balkan Traditional Music with modern approach in arrangements. He is the founder of the Modern Balkan Tradition music genre, although he is most famous for his collaboration with Metropole Orchestra from Netherlands in 2008. Aside from playing 13 instruments, Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad called him "one of the most beautiful male voices of the Balkan." He never had any formal music training, instead he finished a public high school in Sremski Karlovci. He moved to the Netherlands in 1997, but in 2008 he moved back to Serbia, where he has been since.

Early life
Trkulja was born in Odžaci on May 29, 1977. At the age of 10 he taught himself to play the clarinet. After clarinet, Slobodan learned to play dozen more instruments in the next 8 years. At the age of 14, he started playing in the professional folk ensemble Kolo in Belgrade. In less than a year he was announced the best instrumentalist at “Festival of Music Societies of Vojvodina”. He spent next four years focusing on his high school education and performing with Kolo. In 1998 Slobodan went to Amsterdam, where he studied at Conservatorium van Amsterdam, Saxophone Department, an instrument which he had played less than a year and a half at that point. In 1999, right before the NATO bombing of Serbia, he returned to his homeland and postponed his education until the end of the aggression. Trkulja continued with his studies in February 2000. In 2004 he graduated, and three years later he received his Master’s Degree of Arts with honors and an award for his MA concert.

Religion influences
Slobodan claims to have recognized the true gist of music upon entering his religion, when suddenly he experienced a revelation of different and unknown musical views and fields. The feedback that he got from religion was reciprocal, because he entered faith through music. “One day, I went to the Kovilj Monastery and experienced a great temblor inside my soul that moment when I heard the Brother of Monastery singing. For me it was an out-of-body experience, an un-earthy feeling… something that shook me to that extent that I felt physical changes inside." Slobodan was threading deeper into the faith and realized that Orthodox Christian traditional singing was immensely based on Byzantine singing. “The melodies in the old Byzantine Church singing are exactly the same as Orthodox Christian music”, says Trkulja. The predominant emotion in our tradition is an emotion weaved with spirituality, because our people couldn’t make music that was not close to their souls. What I personally as a musician like the most about these melodies is that they are infinite. They start and keep on going with the prayer. At one moment it takes you and you forget about yourself, about your problems, about all the things that make you miserable. It’s like you have plugged in to a pure, beautiful energy that nurtures you from inside.

Balkanopolis
In 1997, in the clubs of Novi Sad, Trkulja started playing music that was inspired by Serbian music and Balkan tradition, but had strong modern influences from the west. Pursuing his dream further, he founded the group Balkanopolis, with whom he held many concerts and published an independent album titled Let Iznad Balkana (One Flew Over the Balkans). Western musicologists consider his sound a new genre that they call “Modern Balkan Tradition.” Ever since, under the Balkanopolis influence, many musical groups ensued and continued to weave the Modern Tradition into the Serbian music scene. This exposure brought him a lecturing invitation for the "International Ethno Camp" in Sweden. Slobodan was featured as an artistic leader, representing the Balkan countries in the "mix of world music" in Stockholm.

Today Trkulja plays 13 instruments in total. Clarinet since he was 10; bagpipes, diple, double, kaval, flute, acoustic guitar since he was 15; flute since age of 18 and tenor saxophone since 19. Today, besides all of these, he plays the drums, Armenian duduk, ocarina, alto and soprano saxophone. In addition to his talent for playing, Slobodan Trkulja also has impressive singing abilities, which he developed by listening to traditional Serbian throat-singers. The most respected Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad called him "one of the most beautiful male voices of the Balkan."

In 2005 he played at the neo-Balkan music concert “Večiti most” ("Eternal Bridge") at the exhibition Expo in Japan. He performed at Exit 2006th, completely solitary on stage, in front of three thousand people. He participated with "Balkanopolis", and reached the finals, where he won the award "best new talent." On September 15 the same year, he participated in a charity concert of ethnic music "Kuća na putu” (“House on the road”) in Belgrade's Sava Center, with blessings of the Patriarch Pavle. In 2003 he was one of the main soloists in the prestigious project of Tea Huka and “Metropole Orchestra”, called “Mixed Nuts”. At the benefit concert “Dar za Hilandar” ("A gift for Hilandar"), April 13, 2004 in the Sava Center, Trkulja performed his song Lepe moje crne oči (Beautiful black eyes of mine). In December, same year – same place, with Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra and “Balkanopolis”, Trkulja held a concert, conducted by Arjan Tien, called Prizivanje kiše (Invocation of rain). This concert was held on the occasion of the completion of the Dutch presidency of the European Union organized by the Netherlands Embassy in Belgrade.

Currently Balkanopolis consists of:
 * Goran Milošević - trad. vocal, percussions
 * Arie den Boer - drums
 * Aleksandar Jovanović - Byzantium chanter
 * Ištvan Mađarić -bass guitar
 * Predrag Manov - guitar, trad. string instruments
 * Franz von Chossy - piano, keyboards
 * Slobodan Trkulja - trad. vocal, multi-intrumentalist

On February 22, 2008, they had a notable appearance on the 15th Celtic Connections festival in Scotland. With attendances reaching 120,000 and events taking place across 14 venues throughout Glasgow they had great feedback from this visit.

Metropole Orchestra
In 2008, April and May marked collaboration with Metropole orchestra. On April 17, in Hilversum, the Netherlands, Balkanopolis and Metropole Orchestra recorded the programe for the interval act of Eurovision. Session conducted by mr. Jules Buckley. On the next day Balkanopolis and Metropole Orchestra rehearsed in MCO Studios and finalized overdub recordings. Mr. Richard Evans, producer and musician in Peter Gabriel Band that is due to record and produce new Balkanopolis album arrived to the studio. Richard and Slobodan met and talked about future sound of Balkanopolis.

Highlights of May 2008:


 * 18. May  (Belgrade, Serbia) - Metropole Orchestra arrives to Belgrade for 5-day tour with Balkanopolis


 * 19. May  (Belgrade Arena, Serbia) - Balkanopolis & Metropole general rehearsal and performance in Belgrade Arena


 * 20. May  (Belgrade Arena, Serbia) - Balkanopolis & Metropole live TV broadcast from Belgrade Arena for 150 million viewers of EUROVISION


 * 21. May  (Belgrade, Serbia) - Balkanopolis & Metropole Orchestra - EBU sponsored concert in Sava Centar, Belgrade for 3.500 fans


 * 22. May  (Novi Sad, Serbia) - Balkanopolis & Metropole Orchestra - EBU sponsored open-air concert, downtown Novi Sad for 5.000 fans


 * 26. May DVD release (Belgrade, Serbia) - Balkanopolis & Metropole Orchestra – Live in Belgrade (Serbian release only)

Albums
On their debut album, "Prizivanje Kiše" ("Invocation of Rain", published in 2006 by PGP RTS), Trkulja build a fusion of modern jazz and original folklore. Album features several popular traditional folk song covers, a jazz standard, and six original compositions in which they combine traditional music, jazz, pop and ambiental music.

Second album "Kingdom of Balkanopolis" (published in 2010 by ) was produced in four countries on two continents. Slobodan Trkulja worked on this album with his colleagues and friends for a couple of years. David Rhodes, John Giblin and Tony Levin were featured as guest musicians on some compositions. Producers of this album are world-renowned Richard Evans (UK) and Chad Blake (USA). It was recorded in Peter Gabriel's "Real World Studios" in the UK. Metropole Orchestra recorded the orchestral sections in Netherlands. Album went through the final stage of post-production in "Gateway mastering studio" in USA. The sound engineer Adam Ajana said: "Sound that Trkulja creates is a unique combination of tradition and modern sound that has emerged as a real refreshment at a time when all the bands are more like each other."

Involvement in Jazz
Trkulja collaborated with numerous jazz bands and philharmonic orchestras. He joined the multinational groove-jazz band "Turqumstances,” in Amsterdam. On their common appearances, his solo sections had a special place as well as duets with clarinetist Oguz Buyukberber. After this, he easily made his way through the Latin jazz scene, traveling through Benelux with the Latino big band of Eddie Martinez from Colombia. At the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, in a traditional New Year’s concert, January 2002, he performed his Pythagorean Oro, together with Dutch Brass Ensemble. The performance at this concert (which was directly transmitted by the Dutch television) was the high point of Trkulja’s career, which gained him admiring reviews and earned him recognition in the Netherlands. This was followed by series of appearances as guest soloist with the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw at the National Jazz Competition of Holland. On February 6, 2005 he won the Dutch Erasmus Prize for performing jazz saxophone and clarinet pieces for 45 minutes with drummer Ari De Bur as his only accompaniment. Other than a sum of money from Rotterdam Conservatory, the prize included a number of concerts at the renowned jazz clubs in the Netherlands.

Concert for Bebies
In 2011 Slobodan performed a concert he specially designed for babies and children. This concert was followed by a workshop in which the audience could musically interact and play the instruments with Slobodan. This concert took place in SKC Novi Beograd, Belgrade and, as part of the Pokreni Se (Move) project, it was done in collaboration with the students of the Belgrade Academy of Music and Center for Culture and Information Kissaro. This was one of 33 projects that was supported by Center for the Promotion of Science of Serbia.

Summary
Trkulja’s music is described as contemporary art and intelligent synthesis of traditional Serbian music and modern jazz and fusion, asymmetric bars of Balkan rhythms and grooving beats of modern funk, which entail an unprecedented examples of rhythmic fireworks. He does not hesitate to use exotic, almost delirious time signatures like 25/8. He employs vocal counterpoint parts in which he plays with different textures, which produce a powerful effect in his melancholic ballads. He claims that he is not narrowed by genre. Trkulja once said that for him music making is not subject to any kind of classification. On Beovizija 2007 Slobodan Trkulja and “Balkanopolis” competed with his composition ”Nebo” (“Sky”), which combines traditional and Byzantine ecclesiastical chant. They won second place with 10/12 points of TV voting and 7/12 points of votes of the jury as well as and the prize for best interpretation assigned by the Eurovision Fan Club (OGAE Serbia). The song “Nebo” also was a representative at the annual OGAE Serbia OGAE “Second chance” contest 2007 in Slovenia. They took 14th place.