On August 12, a concert titled Cultural Intertwining: Strengthening the Mne-USA Ties and a play Balkan Bordello in Kotor
Six artists from Montenegro and the United States have been selected to participate in the KotorArt project titled Cultural Intertwining: Strengthening Montenegrin-American Ties, implemented in cooperation with the Don Branko Sbutega Foundation, the Santa Barbara-Kotor Sister City Committee, and the University California in Santa Barbara, with the support of the US Embassy in Montenegro
The selected artists from Montenegro are composer Slobodanka Bobana Dabović Đurović, violinist Milena Petković and violinist Milutin Radulović. From the United States, the participants in this project are composer Dariush Derakhshani, violist Karis Lee and cellist Ivan Law.
The results of several months of preparations will be finalized at rehearsals in Kotor and presented at the Festival on August 12 in the Church of the Holy Spirit, at 8 p.m., when a string quartet composed of the abovementioned players will perform works by Joseph Haydn, Antonín Dvořák, as well as composers from Montenegro and the USA. It will be an opportunity for four new commissions of the Festival to be premiered. Composer Dabović Đurović, in addition to the original composition, is also working on a piece based on an American jazz melody, while Derakhshani is writing a piece inspired by the klapa song Boko moja mila [Oh, My Dear Boka].
Young musicians will present the same program during September at the University of California in Santa Barbara, which is an integral part of the project.
The same evening, August 12, the play Balkan Bordello will be performed at the Cinema Square at 10 p.m. It is the production of the New York La MaMa Theater, Atelje 212 from Belgrade, Qendra Multimedia from Pristina and the My Balkans Foundation from New York. The Balkan Bordello: The Saga of a Balkan Family, a play that will have its Montenegrin premiere in Kotor, is the project of Jeton Neziraj, a prominent Pristina playwright with a New York address. “With black humor,[the play] touches on the very fabric of the Balkan temperament, traces the morbidity of the human soul and highlights the stupidity and naiveté of an era being built on the foundations of violence, intolerance and hatred”. Directed by Blerta Neziraj, the cast includes Svetozar Cvetković, Jelena Stupljanin, George Drance, Eugene the Poogene, Valois Mickens, Mattie Barber-Bockelman, Ivan Mihailović, and others. The music is written by Gabriele Marangoni, costumes are made by Gabriel Berry, stage design by Marija Kalabić, choreography by Gjergj Prevazi and the visual and light concept by Nico de Rooij.
The play is performed in English with translation provided, and its realization was helped by the Trust for Mutual Understanding, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Open Society Foundations, the European Fund for the Balkans, and many others.
This summer, the KotorArt International Festival will be held from July 1 to August 14, with a rich and diverse program, under the auspices of UNESCO, the Ministry of Culture and Media and the Municipality of Kotor, with the support of the European Union, the Western Balkans Fund and the Open Society Foundations, numerous embassies in Montenegro and other important partners and sponsors.
