“Why Are You Gone?” new online concert on Thursday, November 19 2020

Posted on November 2, 2020

After the 1st edition of the concert in July 2020 when we experienced technical issues and were not able to present the whole program, we are scheduling another live stream performance on Wednesday, November 18th 2020 at 8 pm New York time!

Astrid Kuljanic’s project “Why Are You Gone?” is a performance project featuring music connected to the experience of migration, from the perspective of immigrants as well as the countries they’ve left. The program will consist of music written during various periods of emigration from Eastern and Southern Europe as well as original compositions reflective of contemporary immigration issues. It will be a multilingual performance in many Slavic languages.

The performance has been preceded by a period of musicological/historical research with the goal of curating a program in line with these themes, as well as informing the composition of the program’s original songs. It is our hope that such a program will bring together some of NYC’s diverse immigrant communities in a shared cultural experience.

“Why Are You Gone?” has been awarded a Brooklyn Arts Fund grant to produce multiple concerts in neighborhoods that have a significant immigrant population from Eastern and Southern Europe through Brooklyn.

Leading up to the duo concert with Mat Muntz (bass, bagpipes) on Thursday November 19th at 8 PM EST, Astrid will present each song with short live streams explaining the process of research, composition, and arranging every weekday at 2 pm New York time (20:00 Croatian time).

Join the Zoom Meeting for the short live presentations and the concert and be the “live audience” that can interact with the performers, ask questions and comment in real time. The same link will be used for all events. Here is the link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEudeqqrjgjHNX4B8huT8evdTJM7lzgKMr0

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Also if you know any other communities or individuals that might be interested in this performance, we will appreciate it if you would share info with them!

The performances will also be streamed on Facebook www.facebook.com/music.astrid, YouTube www.youtube.com/c/AstridKuljanic/live and Twitch www.twitch.tv/astridmusic, where the audience will be able to interact via comments.

Astrid would like to thank Brooklyn Arts Council, Asia Joanna Mieleszko, Natasha Stolichnaya and Mat Muntz for their support and help.

“Why Are You Gone?” is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council.

Short presentations of each song:
Wednesday 11/4 “Pod Našima Okny” (trad. Czech) / “W Moim Ogrodecku” (trad. Polish) / “Ja Se Konja Bojim” (trad. Croatian)
Thursday 11/5 “Sheyn Vi Di Levone” (Y. Rumshinsky, C. S. Tauber)
Friday 11/6 “Siadaj Nie Gadaj” (trad. Polish)
Monday 11/9 “Katyusha” (M. Blanter/M. Isakovsky)
Tuesday 11/10 “Breathe Freedom” (A.Kuljanic, D. Alrwishdi)
Wednesday 11/11 “Što Te Nema?” (trad. Bosnian)
Thursday 11/12 “Wanderers” (A. Kuljanic)
Friday 11/13 “Plyve Kacha” (trad. Ukrainian)
Monday 11/16 “Samo Sviraj Harmoniku” (Flory Jagoda)
Tuesday 11/17 “Dorogoy Dlinnoyu” (B. Fomin, K. Podrevskyi) / “Those Were The Days, My Friend” (G. Raskin)
Wednesday 11/17 Live soundcheck with Mat Muntz on bass and meh – Croatian bagpipes