Thanks to the rich tangible and intangible cultural heritage and several diverse cultural events, Sinj and the Cetina region have long been engraved in golden letters on the tourist map of Croatia. Moreover, thanks to the pursuit of sustainable tourism, the coexistence of carefully designed activities that hosts and guests equally enjoy, events in the Alkar city always attract attention and larger more audiences, although this year in a somewhat reduced form due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Such events certainly include the Music Evenings at Kamičak Fortress. Namely, at Sinj’s authentic and unique Kamičak fortress with a beautiful stage under the open sky, concerts of classical but also traditional and jazz music are organized. Such an approach popularizes these, perhaps somewhat neglected, musical expressions and where better than in Sinj, a city of rich musical tradition.
The Sinj Tourist Board, with the support of the Croatian Ministry of Culture, the City of Sinj, and the Split-Dalmatia County Tourist Board, has been organizing successful and extremely well-attended concerts for several years. So far, Kamičak has welcome the Academic Accordion Orchestra “Ivan Goran Kovačić,” Sara Renar, Jazz swing quintet “Repassage,” Wind Quintet “Kalamos,” the unique Samobor percussion ensemble “Sudar Percussion,” ethno musician Dunja Knebl with the band Kololira and ethno, Nocturnal4 and Ratko Zjača, ZZ Quartet, Trio EX PONTO, and TRIO VENTUS.
This year boasts another extraordinary program because on August 21, 2021, starting at 9:30 pm and ending at 11:30 pm, young artists gathered in the Papandopulo Quartet will present the best of classical music to Sinj and its guests, and jazz music will be presented by the renowned duo Sara & Jappa Brodarić.
About the musicians:
Papandopulo Quartet – this “most important and rightfully the most exposed domestic chamber ensemble” consists of four Croatian saxophonists, Nikola Fabijanic – soprano saxophone, Gordan Tudor – alto saxophone, Goran Jurkovic – tenor saxophone, and Tomislav Zuzak – baritone. Their concerts are regularly accompanied by applause from the audience and praise from critics: “relaxation and confidence in performance, intonational precision, and richness of tonal creation, skill in various articulations, fantastic mobility and precision in both the highest and lowest registers, in a word, amazing technical skills, are the foundations on which the members of the Papandopulo Quartet build their musical expressiveness and expressiveness… That is why the Papandopulo Quartet can proudly and with dignity bear the name of one of the most versatile, most musical, and passionately dedicated to music greats of Croatian music history. ” (Mirta Špoljarić, sbplus.hr, January 27, 2014)
They collaborate with many musicians, including the Zagreb Quartet, Zagreb Soloists, Zagreb Saxophone Quartet, Dragan Sremec, Ivan Batoš, Linda Mravunac-Fabijanić, and foreign eminent saxophonists such as Arno Bornkamp, JeanDenis Michat, Jean-Yarstel Fourmeau quartet, and Mobilis quartet. The quartet attaches special importance to the promotion of contemporary music by Croatian and foreign authors, so they premiered, among others, compositions by Mirela Ivičević, Margareta Ferek Petrić, Ante Knešaurek, Fran Đurović, Julian Gamisch, Dubravko Palanović, Tena Ivana Borić, Krešimir Seletković Simon Vosecek, Zeljko Brkanovic, Davor Bobic, Tomislav Uhlik and Gordan Tudor.
In 2015, the quartet released their second record, Per Quattro, and in 2017 their third album Scherzo, both released by Croata Records. 2019 was one of the most successful years for the Papandopulo Quartet. In addition to a large number of concerts, in June of the same year, they won the “Diploma of Milko Trnina” for a particularly successful and notable artistic performance at the opening of the 6th edition of the festival “Showcase of Contemporary Sound.”
Sara & Jappa are a family jazz duo consisting of Željko Brodarić Jappa and Sara Brodarić, father and daughter, whose performances are based on vocal and guitar interpretations of jazz classics of the last century, which were celebrated by Broadway and Hollywood musicals and popularized by Peggy Lee, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, and other legendary performers.
Known for previous achievements in other music genres, Sara & Jappa began collaborating on a family jazz project in the summer of 2016, performing since then in front of full theaters and exclusive locations across the Croatian coast. So far, Jazz Winter Wonderland and My Jazzy Valentine have performed at the City Puppet Theater Split and the Croatian National Theater Split and the Marin Držić Theater in Dubrovnik, the Croatian National Theater Zadar, and the Hvar Historical Theater.
They gained a loyal audience with their summer cycle of concerts called “Jazz Summer Nights,” performing at unique locations such as the Cedulin Palace in Zadar, Central Park Club in Hvar, the historic center of Trogir, as well as summer festivals and events such as the Festival Soli Ston 2018 and the astronomical-musical event “Konavle under the stars 2018” in Lovorno Polje.
In August 2018, Sara & Jappa crowned their summer tour in their hometown with an extremely successful “Split at Night Jazz” concert, which made the impressive Cellars of Diocletian’s Palace the scenery for a sold-out summer jazz spectacle. This concert inspired them to organize the first edition of the Split at Night Jazz Festival at the same place exactly a year later, at the end of August 2019. The great performances, including the performance of the festival, hosts Sara and Jappa and the exceptional response of the audience, giving them the wind in their sails to organize a new edition of the jazz festival in Diocletian’s Cellars this summer as well.
Sara & Jappa concluded 2019 by opening JazZima!, a jazz festival in Split’s GKL, another sold-out “Jazz Winter Wonderland,” followed in February 2020 by the equally successful fourth edition of their popular concert “My Jazzy Valentine.”
The concerts at Kamičak Fortress will take place with the implementation of the recommended measures of the Civil Protection Headquarters and the NZJZ. Admission is free, but due to the current pandemic situation, seating is limited to preserve all visitors’ health.
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