They play baroque melodies on tambura, while the rhumba sounds are coming from the organ.
The modest family Novosel from Slavonski Brod has given the world four musicians, some of which are known far beyond the borders of their city, county and country. Their talent, hard work, and a lot of will and discipline have brought them remarkable achievements, reports Glas Slavonije on July 16, 2016.
The concert in the Church of the Holy Trinity, a part of the 27th Musical Summer in Slavonski Brod, was the opportunity for the brother and sister Filip and Tena Novosel to show how tambura and organ sound together to the delight of the local audience. The unusual combination, rhumba on the organ, baroque on tambura, is their joint idea.
“It all started as a joke. We used to say that we would never be able to perform together because Filip plays a folk instrument, and I play a classical instrument – two entirely different worlds. One summer we tried to play together and chose Vivaldi concertos for mandolin. It sounded really good, so we decided to do something about it”, says Tena, an organist and harpsichordist who studied at the University of Music and Applied Arts in Vienna after she graduated from the Zagreb Music Academy.
About her younger brother, the first musician with a degree in jazz-tambura, who studied at the prestigious New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York, many have heard of before. The young composer, musician and arranger has proved that tambura and jazz are not incompatible, and now he is proving with his sister that the organ and tambura can produce some interesting melodies. He sent music sheets and drafts to Tena in Vienna and she was coming up with the solutions for the organ. They were playing around this idea for about a year and actively worked on it for six months. Their premiere performance in Slavonski Brod, after the Vienna Schottenkirche a few months ago, has absolutely captivated their hometown audience.
“At first I was skeptical because tambura is a faster instrument in creating a tone, but I was surprised that everything at the end sounded very natural and good, and this was recognized by the audience. It is a unique musical blend of the queen of instruments known to the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, with tambura, the most popular national folk instrument. No one in the world has ever come up with such an idea before“, says Filip.
