NISVILLE – THE EUROPEAN FACE OF SERBIA - COOPERATION WITH YOUNG PEOPLE FROM BUJANOVAC

Nisville is one of the best-known and most popular jazz festivals in the region, which features the world-renowned musicians and brings together the audiences from different countries. The festival is held at the Nis Fortress every year and, in addition to the music program, workshops and discussions involving the participants in the main program, as well as all those who wish to learn more about jazz, are part of the festival.  

This year, the Nisville Foundation's program included the project “Jazz- a Multi-cultural Expression”, which implied working with young musicians from Bujanovac, Bosilegrad, Leskovac, Vladicin Han and Vranje.  Apart from being multicultural, “the municipality of Bujanovac is a municipality of young people with an exceptional potential for cultural development”, claims Ivan Blagojevic, the Director of the Nisville Foundation.

Nine young people from the municipality were involved in the project. In addition to attending regular workshops, they had the opportunity to perform at the Nisville festival independently and as part of the jazz band, which consisted of 50 young people from Serbia. 

The audience that filled up the hall of the local cultural center and that watched the performance of the children from the Albanian, Roma and Serbian communities that were involved in the project, had the opportunity to hear the performance of the Nis-based jazz band “Jam Station”, too. The attendance and atmosphere of the event are proofs that Bujanovac has a jazz audience. 

The Director of the Foundation said that the children with whom they had worked weren’t burdened with prejudices and differences, and that they had cooperated with each other splendidly. “The multi-ethnic team from Bujanovac acts as one team”, Mr. Blagojevic said.

Cendresa, Vladimir and Nezo are the participants in this year's Nisville jazz workshops.  Cendresa is 16 years old and she sings, Vladimir is fifteen and he plays the keyboards, while Nezo is a student of the eighth grade of primary school and he plays the violin. This was their first time to meet with jazz music and all three of them noted that they were very fond of jazz as a music genre. Apart from entering the world of jazz and having the opportunity to improve their own musical expression, by participating in the workshops, they gained a new experience and had the ability to travel and socialize with each not only during the rehearsals, but also in their spare time.  According to Cendresa, this was an additional opportunity for her to better learn the Serbian language through socializing with her peers.  

Cendresa, Vladimir and Nezo, along with the other workshop participants, will perform for the Bujanovac audience at the “Vuk Karadzic” cultural center at 5 pm on Thursday, October 16.   We believe that many of their friends will come to support them, just as they did on the occasion of marking the International Jazz Day, when the hall of the cultural center was full of curious boys and girls.

Vitomir Janjic, a coordinator from Bujanovac, also pointed to the importance of the workshop that the Nisville Foundation had organized, adding that the interest in the workshop was great and that it helped establish the contacts between young people in the municipality. People form the Nisville Foundation are confident that the citizens of Bujanovac are satisfied with the workshops and concerts, because” jazz is part of the world’s culture, and it is possible to express their own musical traditions through it, by means of  integrating their own cultural heritage.”

According to Mr. Blagojevic, the message that young people from Bujanovac convey by their example to their peers in other parts of Serbia is “Turn to creativity and music as a universal language and make friends with the peers of similar musical preferences: jazz vs. the gap”.

Thanks to this year’s impressions, the organizers of Nisville plan to continue their cooperation with young people from Bujanovac. This year's program was financially supported by the Office for Cooperation with Civil Society of the Republic of Serbia and the EU Delegation to Serbia, whereas the activities in Bujanovac were supported by the Office of the Coordination Body of the Government of the Republic of Serbia for the Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja and the municipality of Bujanovac.

Source: Coordination Body