Chamber Ensemble, composed of four members of the Novi Sad Brass Quintet accompanied by cello, brings the sounds of chamber music to the Doček 7529 programme.

‘We’re preparing New Year concert of chamber music, which, we believe, is quite interesting to the audience, but to us as well. It’s very weird now that there’s no audience, we missed that kind of interaction in the past year. However, modern technology makes it all much easier, because there’s still an option for people to hear us play, even two or three weeks after broadcasting the concert, which is great,’ said Ksenija Mijatović Korom, the flutist.

Ksenija points out that the space of the Bukovac Cultural Station is phenomenal and extremely comfortable for work, she says it has good acoustics and that there’s some kind of warmth to it. ‘To us, the idea of opening a space for culture is great, since we experienced excellent cooperation with the Rumenka Cultural Station in the past, where we were given the rehearsal space too. I believe it’s a positive change, because not all events should strictly be in the city centre, so this new space is amazing for us musicians,’ says Mijatović Korom.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, Ksenija says she will remember this year as the one with quite a number of concerts.

‘Some of the concerts we had allowed only a limited number of people, some were recorded and then broadcast online but despite everything, music and chamber music continued to live, which, I believe, is a big success. Lack of audience and adhering to all the measures did affect everything, but the most important thing is that we’re all healthy. We all hope that everything will go back to normal soon,’ says Ksenija.

The unique Doček in Novi Sad that connects two New Year Eves, two calendars and two time calculations, 31 December and 13 January, will be held in an online format for the first time ever. Doček will open new spaces for culture so that Serbian Athens could readily wait for the European Capital of Culture title. The fourth Doček will present the world virtuoso, internationally acclaimed performers, but also young talents of various music genres – classical music, traditional and electronic music, jazz, indie-rock, rap…

Photo: Uroš Dožić