Boban and Marko Markovic Orchestar (Serbia)

Named after father and son, Boban and Marko Marković Orchestra is the most famous brass band to emerge from the Western Balkans. Founded in 1984, this twelve-member band has won several of the most important prizes at Guča Trumpet Festival – regarded as the most important Balkan Brass Band Festival in the region. In addition to winning the "Golden Trumpet" and "Best Orchestra", in 2001 Boban Marković won the festival’s “First Trumpet Award”, being the first competitor ever to receive full marks from all jury members for his performance.

The group has received international acclaim after it performed music for Emir Kusturica's films "Arizona Dream" (1993) and "Underground" (1995). Since then, they have released eight international albums and played in festivals and concerts all over Europe, as well as in the United States and Canada.

Read more about Boban and Marko Marković Orchestar here (English only)

Boris Kovač (Serbia)

Boris Kovač is a composer, musician and multimedia artist from Novi Sad, Serbia. He was taught the accordion as a child, later took up the saxophone and went on to become a self-taught multi-instrumentalist. His musical style can shift from joyful exuberance to aching melancholy, but his use of free improvisation underpinned by a conceptual exploration of the musical process is always guaranteed to keep audiences riveted. He has released more than a dozen albums, spanning a myriad of musical genres. He has participated in over a hundred new music and contemporary theatre festivals in about thirty countries on four continents.

To read more about Boris Kovač, please click here (English only).

DANICA (the Western Balkans)

Founded by a group of Western Balkan students studying at the University of Salzburg, DANICA is committed to keeping alive the musical folk traditions of the Slavic world. Their performances are characterized by unusual rhythms, energetic dance and the use of traditional instruments from Southeast Europe.

To read more about DANICA, click here (English only).

Robert Soko DJ Set (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

DJ Robert Soko, born in 1970 in Zeneca in Bosnia and Herzegovina, is one of the fathers of BalkanBeats – a genre of party music that combines Balkan folk music with rock, ska and urban electronic sounds, and which, in recent years, has become a global phenomenon.

Soko grew up in former Yugoslavia listening to western-influenced guitar music, and spent his early twenties “wandering Europe and learning languages”. On 3 October 1990 – the day of the German reunification – Soko arrived in Berlin. Playing DJ sets that brought together East and West, he tapped into a special energy, thanks to which he keeps audiences dancing to dawn not only in Berlin, but also in New York, Paris and London.

Read more about Robert Soko here (English only)

Toni Kitanovski & Cherkezi Orchestra (the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia)

Toni Kitanovski is the most famous jazz musician of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Generation of 1964, he started to play jazz guitar at the age of fifteen, under the mentorship of local jazz legend Dragan Gjakonovski – Spato.

Kitanovski studied at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, and received the Charles Mingus Award for outstanding and original accomplishments in the field of jazz composition in 1994. Upon his graduation in 1997, he returned to his hometown Skopje, where he formed the band Luna. Later, he began to collaborate with a Roma wedding band Cherkezi. Together, Toni Kitanovski & Cherkezi Orchestra blend Balkan Brass Band, reggae, tango, samba and jazz. Taking on everything from traditional Roma ballads to compositions by Erik Satie, their live performances are guaranteed to be an unforgettable experience.

To read more about Toni Kitanovski & Cherkezi Orchestra, click here (English only).

Andrej Nikolaidis (Montenegro)

Andrej Nikolaidis is considered one of Montenegro’s most talented and outspoken writers. He is well-known for his critical newspaper columns, but is also the author of three novels and several collections of short stories.

Dragan Velikić (Serbia)

Author Dragan Velikić was born in Belgrade (Serbia) in 1953. He began his career as a journalist in 1991, working first for a weekly magazine and becoming then the editor-in-chief of Radio B92 in Belgrade. He spent his youth in Pula and has lived among others in Budapest, Vienna and Berlin. He served as Serbian Ambassador to Austria from mid 2005 till the end of 2009.

Velikić is highly regarded for his work as an essayist. His award-winning novels (e.g. The Russian Window, Dante's Square) have been translated into more than 10 languages.

Read more about Dragan Velikić here (English only)

Edo Popović (Croatia, born in Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Edo Popović was born in 1957 in Livno (Bosnia and Herzegovina), but has lived in Zagreb (Croatia) since 1968. Popović is a founding editor of Quorum, one of the former Yugoslavia’s most important literary journals. His first book, 'Midnight Boogie', is a witty collection of short stories set in 1980s Zagreb, and has become a cult book of his generation.

In addition to being a novelist, Popović also works as an editor of a publishing house.

To read more about Edo Popović, click here (English only).

Fatos Kongoli (Albania)

Fatos Kongoli (born 1944 in Elbasan, Albania) is a several-time recipient of the Albanian National Award for Literature. His works have been translated among others into English, French, German, Greek and Italian, and have received widespread critical acclaim. His novel "The Dream of Damocles" (Le rêve de Damocles) received the "Balkanika" prize in 2003.

Kongoli, who studied mathematics at the University of Tirana and in China, started working as a writer and editor in early 1970s. Today, he is known as one of Albania’s most important novelists.

To read more about Fatos Kongoli, click here (English only)

Lidija Dimkovska (the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia)

Lidija Dimkovska, born in Skopje in 1971, is recognized as one of the most original and compelling literary voices from the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Her poetry has been translated into over thirty languages and published in more than fifty anthologies. Dimkovska’s work often deals with notions of displacement and gender identity. While occasionally drawing on elements of traditional folk poetry, her poems have been described as post-modern for their unconventional, prose-like form. She has published several volumes of poetry, and in 2004, her first, prize-winning novel, Hidden Camera.

Sanja Lovrenčić (Croatia)

Sanja Lovrenčić was born in 1961 in Knin, Croatia. She works as a writer, poet, children’s writer, literary activist, and translator. Moreover, she has produced radio-plays and audio books. Together with other Croatian artists she founded the Authors’ House, an association aiming to create alternative space for artistic expression.

In Croatia, Lovrenčić has been the recipient of many prestigious awards, including the 2008 Steiermärkischen Sparkasse Literature prize for her novel, ‘Martin Strings’. Her work has been translated into English and Slovak.

To read more about Sanja Lovrenčić, click here (English only).

Kujtim Çashku (Albania)

One of Albania’s most famous film directors, Kujtim Çashku first came to prominence with his 1989 romantic drama ‘Ballad of Kurbin’. Later he gained international acclaim with the 1996 feature film “Colonel Bunker”, and the 2004 Albanian-German movie “The Magic Eye”. He has won 16 international and four national awards, including the Critics Prize at the 1996 Bastia Mediterranean Film Festival and the UNESCO Award at the 1998 Venice Film Festival. In 2007, Çashku won the Trieste Film Festival’s CEI Award for his “brave commitment to the development of Albanian cinema".

Kujtim Çashku is founder of the Marubi Film & Multimedia School in Tirana, and Albania’s first Human Rights Film Festival. He is also supervisor of Albania’s first film production company OraFilm.

Read more about Kujtim Çashku here (English only).

Dalibor Matanić (Croatia)

Dalibor Matanić (born in Zagreb, 1975) is an acclaimed Croatian screenwriter and film director. Having studied filmmaking at the Zagreb Academy of Dramatic Arts, Matanić had directed several short documentaries, commercials and music videos before embarking on his first feature film‚ 'The Cashier wants to go to the Seaside’ (2000). His best-known film is the 2002 feature ’Fine Dead Girls’, which won him international acclaim and prizes, including the Special Jury Prize at the 2003 Sochi film festival and the Young Jury Award at the Geneva Festival of Film and Television.

To read more about Dalibor Matanić, click here (English only).

Ognjen Sviličić (Croatia)

Ognjen Sviličić (born 1971 in Split) is a Croatian screenwriter and film director. His first international success was "Sorry for Kung Fu" (2004), an award-winning black comedy dealing with racial prejudice in a post-war Croatian community.

In 2007, Sviličić directed the critically acclaimed "Armin", a warm story about a father-son relationship. Armin was selected to be Croatia's submission for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 80th Academy Awards. It was screened at a number of film festivals, including the Berlin Film Festival, the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, the Tribeca Film Festival, the Palm Springs Film Festival and Durban Film Festival. It received several awards.

To read more about Ognjen Sviličić, click here (English only).