New York, NY (Top40 Charts) On Wednesday, July 1st Bosnian born and New York City resident, composer Svjetlana Bukvich will be performing for a group of United Nations delegates and representatives. The performance will take place at the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) which is the United Nations' central platform for reflection, debate, and innovative thinking on sustainable development. The event is commemorating the 8,000 innocent victims of Srebrenica, one of the towns which suffered during the war in Bosnia 1992-1996. It is the twentieth anniversary since the violent crimes were perpetuated against Bosnians and the intention of the event held at the United Nations will be to honor and remember the victims. Mirsada Colakovic, a plenipotentiary and extraordinary ambassador of the region has invited Bukvich to share her unique and mesmerizing brand of music at the event to help lift the cause of humanity and forgiveness. Colakovic knows Bukvich has firsthand experience of the war as she was a young woman living in Sarajevo during the onset of the violence in the region.
Over the last two decades, Bukvich has become a well-respected and admired composer and multi-media performer. She collaborates on the artistic vision of choreographers, film makers and other visual artists with her signature hybrid sound. Bukvich composes mostly with acoustic strings and the Minimoog synthesizer paired with various other keyboards and software amidst her own tuning, and recorded sounds such as her voice, voices of artists from the ethno, hip-hop and opera worlds, orchestra, breathing, feet moving and other noises. On July 1 Bukvich will present "Sabih's Dream" from her album EVOLUTION. The piece is inspired and informed by her dual citizenship - a fusion of music and idioms from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the US. "Sabih's Dream" offers the experience of "jezditi", which in her native tongue means "to touch the stars on a horse", interwoven with sounds of NYC and is performed widely when Bukvich tours.
Joining Bukvich will be Patti Kilroy, a modern-minded violinist based in New York City. Described as "intensely focused" by The New York Times, she has played with Alarm Will Sound, Newspeak, Ensemble Signal, Argento New
Music Project,
Cadillac Moon Ensemble and the Wordless
Music Orchestra in such venues as Carnegie Hall, the Sydney Opera House, Muziekgebeouw a'ant ij, Le Poisson Rouge, and the Etihad Towers in Abu Dhabi, UAE. She is a candidate for the Ph. D in String Studies at NYU and she teaches violin and chamber music at NYU and Western Connecticut
State University. The two artists have been performing together over the past four years.
Bukvich explains, "As I am an independent artist, and not affiliated with any political organization, my inspiration to take part in this event is solely to elevate the memory of the victims, and to offer a message of hope, dignity, beauty and freedom. I am honored to represent my country in this way. The idea in my music is transformation, "darkness to light," a journey into a future which is rich with ideals held up high."
ABOUT SVJETLANA BUKVICH: Svjetlana Bukvich grew up during the wildly creative music scene in Sarajevo's eighties, when music and technology began their life-long affair. Her genre-bending performances weld together symphonic and progressive rock with experimental world/classical and electronic soundscapes in "ecstatic musical experiences" (New
Music Connoisseur). Bukvich was honored in 2013 when she won the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Fellowship in Music/Sound Award. That same year she was featured in the book "In Her Own Words - Conversations with Composers in the United States," joining the ranks of twenty-five trail-blazing women composers including Meredith Monk, Joan Tower,
Pamela Z and
Pauline Oliveros. Bukvich has various degrees including an M.F.A. in Electronic Arts, from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a Bachelor Degree in Composition and a Bachelor Degree in Musicology from Sarajevo University's
Music Academy, Yugoslavia. Bukvich is a board member of the American Festival of Microtonal Music, and an honoree in 2014 Selected Honors, Awards & Achievements in ASCAP Concert Music. She is on faculty at NYU, and writes a new music and art column in
Modern Diplomacy International. Among her mentors are Philip Glass, Carl Stone, Miroslaw Rogala, and Goran Bregovic. Bukvich's debut album EVOLUTION was released in the spring of 2014 on Big
Round Records. Bukvich is currently working on her sophomore release, tentatively titled LENKORAN, named after a 120 year old line of Arabian horses bred in the mountains, not far from Sarajevo. The album will contain music developed for movement. In June of 2015, Bukvich became an associate director of the Composers Concordance organization.
About KeyMedia Public Relations: KMPR is a New York City Based Public Relations and Production Company with a Focus on the Performing Arts, Health & Wellness and Non-Profits. Its founder, Denise Marsa, is an award winning international recording artist, producer and songwriter.
For more information about Svjetlana Bukvich please visit: www.svjetlanamusic.com
