The highly acclaimed cross-cultural ensemble Eastern Blok, a dynamic fusion group that effortlessly blends classical and jazz music with rich folkloric traditions of Macedonia, Bulgaria and Serbia, will present a free concert Tuesday, April 12, 8 p.m. at Juliet J. Rosch Recital Hall at SUNY Fredonia.
As alluring as they are complex, Eastern Blok’s exotic Middle Eastern motifs merge gracefully with the evocative sounds of Eastern European klezmer music.
Its music has been described as “relentlessly innovative” by the Los Angeles Times, while Downbeat Magazine says Eastern Blok’s music is “often breakneck and consistently challenging.”
Also chiming in with praise is Acoustic Guitar Magazine, which lauds the group for playing with “blazing virtuosity and sheer beauty.”
Eastern Blok is led by award-winning guitarist Goran Ivanovic, a native of Croatia, a Balkan country torn by the civil strife that engulfed the former Yugoslavia. With a Serbian father and Bosnian Croat mother, Ivanovic has crossed many boundaries both in his life and in his music. While studying in Croatia with masters such as Elliot Fisk and Joaquin Clerch, his parents were expelled and given political asylum in the United States. Ivanovic’s broad grounding in classical music has been enriched since coming to the United States by influences of jazz, Balkan and world music.
Joining Ivanovic in Eastern Blok are Doug Rosenberg, woodwinds; Matthew Ulery, upright bass; and Michael Caskey, percussion.
The concert is sponsored by the Fredonia Guitar Society.
