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Town Hall Seattle and SAMA: Music+Art present
Global Rhythms: Damir Imamović
The Bard of the Balkans
EVENT NOTES
Lobby doors for this event will open at 6:00 PM. The Great Hall will open for seating at 7:00 PM.
Free and reduced cost tickets made possible in part by
For Damir Imamović, king of sevdah music, the tradition of Balkan music culture runs deep.
Imamović’s father and grandfather were renowned sevdah musicians. But as an adolescent during the siege of Sarajevo he wanted to play anything but sevdah. Then as a philosophy student, he began forging intellectual connections with the music, developing into both a performer and historian.
Sixteen years into his career, he interprets traditional sevdahs alongside writing new ones, his exquisite tenor ensuring listeners who speak no Slavic languages can engage with the music.
Sevdah is a specific genre of music in the south Slavic region that is concentrated in Bosnia, but also performed in Croatia and Serbia. The Balkans had 500 years of Turkish rule so this explains its Turkish influences, but sevdah has never been sung in Turkish – it’s always been sung in Slavic languages as a form of oral poetry.
Sevdah is mournful yet beautiful – commentators have also labeled it “the Balkan blues” – with songs focusing on the anguish of love alongside older ballads that tell stories of life on the border, rebellions, family relationships, and more. After Yugoslavia’s brutal dissolution, young performers have started to renew the genre and continue to grow and expand the components of Sevdah.
Watch: Damir Imamovic – O bosanske gore snježne
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Damir is one of those leaders of change with his research & educational work. Apart from his performances, Damir teaches within his own SevdahLab project. In 2015, he curated a multimedia exhibition “Sevdah, the art of freedom” at the National Gallery of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The following year, he published the first history of the genre of sevdalinka – “Sevdah” (Vrijeme, 2016, also available in English). He won several local and international awards and recognitions for his writing for theatre, film, video games and other media.
Most notably, Damir holds a strong determination to show the world that Bosnia and the entire Balkan region should not be branded as countries of war and crime but a region where some of the world’s most iconic love songs have been and are still being created.
Damir Imamović stands as a luminary figure in the realm of Bosnian music, wielding expertise as a musician, singer, composer, and preeminent authority on the traditional melodies of Bosnia and Herzegovina, specifically the evocative “sevdalinka” or “sevdah”. While he is Sevdah’s most accomplished traditionalist and preservationist, he is also its most progressive force, continuing to push the boundaries of the art form. Notably, he received the title of “The Best Artist of Europe” at the 2021 Songlines World Music Awards, solidifying his position as a noteworthy force in the musical landscape. This is his first North American tour.
Presented by Town Hall Seattle and SAMA: Music+Art.
Global Atmosphere
.Pre-show Talk at 6:30PM in the Mehdi Reading Room
Join us for a pre-show conversation with Balkan scholar, translator, and writer Denis Bašić.
This is part of the Global Rhythms Series
In-Kind Media Support provided by KEXP.