12 November, 2022, at 6 pm
Minorite Church – Maribor Puppet Theatre

Roads: Lazar Čolović and Tjaša Korenjak – program: Čolović, K. Friend Oculus, J. Walmath Bushido, J. Cage, J. Elias.

The concept of “Roads” was born as an idea to combine music and dance with non-verbal communication. The dance is conceived in an improvisational form, which finds its central inspiration in the composition “Popoklop” (original music by Lazar Čolović), based on a flexible form of minimalist themes with different rhythmic structures. The project transitions between spontaneous improvisation and modern literature for percussion instrument with visual accompaniment as a film is projected on the screen.

The project was premiered in Murska Sobota in May 2022, and a derivative of Roads 02 is being prepared for the Maribor concert, which delves even deeper into the exploration of communication, this time also with the help of the spoken language, Norwegian.

It is a unique crossover project, which therefore includes composed music, improvisation, dance, visual art and spoken word. However, it is all based on spontaneity, which the artists want to feel together with the audience. The latter is also challenged by questions about communication itself – is an accurate understanding of the material even necessary for it?

Lazar Čolović (1979) is a percussionist born in Kruševac, Serbia. His musical career began at the age of four; he performed as a percussionist with the brass ensemble Abrašević. At the age of six he started clarinet lessons at the Stevan Hristić Music School in Kruševac. After graduating from the music theory department, he continued his studies at the prestigious Stanković Music School in Belgrade. He continued his percussion studies at the Academy of Music in Belgrade. In 1998, he won first prize in the percussion category at a national competition. Since 2001 he has been regularly engaged as a percussionist by several music orchestras in Belgrade (Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, National Theatre Symphony Orchestra, RTS Symphony Orchestra). In 2003 he was commissioned by the National Theatre Sterija (Vršac, Serbia) to compose music for the theatre performance Introduction of Time, based on the text of the play The Dancing Dancer (E. Lazar has also collaborated for many years with the internationally renowned piano ensemble LP Duo (Sonja Lončar, Andrija Pavlovič). As a soloist and chamber musician, he has participated in numerous international festivals, specialising in contemporary music. In 2008 he received a scholarship to study at the Institute of Dance and Music in Stavnager (Norway). Since 2018 he has been working at the Music School Murska Sobota, and remains active in concert, mainly with the percussion group Murska Percussion Ensemble, the solo project Popoklop and chamber projects.

Tjaša Korenjak(1988) was born in Maribor. In 2012 she graduated from the Maribor Conservatory of Music and Ballet and at the same time from the Maribor III Secondary School. After high school she was accepted to the Faculty of Education in Maribor, where she continued her studies in the field of early childhood education. She successfully completed her student years with a diploma in 2016, and a year later, after her professional exam in Ljubljana, she gained experience in local kindergartens as a teacher, while always trying and looking for opportunities to introduce and teach classical ballet to children. After a few years, the small ballet rooms and kindergarten playrooms were replaced by a large ballet hall, first at the music school in Lendava and now at the music school in Murska Sobota, where she teaches. Every year, she and her pupils prepare a ballet performance.

She also wants to identify developmental characteristics with all types of special needs, and is currently furthering her knowledge by studying at the postgraduate course in Inclusive Pedagogy at the Faculty of Education, University of Primorska.