Ongoing Projects
U MALU JE UŠA ĐAVA
WITH TISJA KLJAKOVIĆ BRAIĆ
For Croatian/Bosnian/Serbian -speaking countries only
Književno-glazbeno scensko djelo umjetnice Tisje Kljaković-Braić i koncertne harmonikašice Merime Ključo nastalo je prema istoimenoj knjizi Tisje Kljaković Braić te donosi scensko iskustvo koje briše granice između književnosti, kazališta i glazbe. Umjesto klasične kazališne predstave ili konvencionalne promocije knjige, riječ je o književno-glazbenom scenskom predstavljanju u kojem riječ i glazba ulaze u suptilan dijalog i zajedno oblikuju scenski prostor.
ARITMIA
with MIROSLAV TADIĆ
After many years of friendship and musical affinity accordionist Merima Ključo and guitarist Miroslav Tadić unite to present "ARITMIA"- a new project that is a perfect vehicle for their compositions, arrangements and improvisations.
Drawing from a great variety of material ranging from Bach, Couperin and Satie to complex Balkan folk themes that feature unusual rhythmic, metric and melodic structures these two acclaimed masters combine their vast and diverse experiences to create deeply moving and unique musical landscapes.
APPARITIONS
with JELENA MILUŠIć
“To the loved ones, the most loved ones and the least loved ones"
Dramatic love songs, dark chansons and humoresques
Two internationally renowned musicians, Ključo and Milušić, take us into the world of captivating and seductive stories about the splendor of love, as well as its dark side. Together, Jelena and Merima create an enchantingly theatrical atmosphere with their voices and accordion alone. With their expressive and subtle music they weave an invisible web of emotions, moods and love stories full of passion, longing and pain. Shrouded in the veil and whispers of secrets, traditions and forgotten legends, we become prey to intertwined worlds between reality and illusion.
The musical project, La Convivencia, by Merima Ključo in collaboration with contralto Jelena Milušić, is inspired by the powerful message of coexistence. It is based on Sephardic traditions of different countries visited by Sephardic Jews, traveling through history after the expulsion from Spain.
Used to peaceful coexistence, Sephardic Jews observed the traditions of their home countries, and infused Jewish culture into the music of their adopted lands. This resulted in musical similarities. For example, Bosnians and Sephardic Jews use the same scales and rhythms. They share the same emotion in their songs, the same pleasures, and the same pain. In the end they share the same country, the same customs, the same food…and they learn from each other.
La Convivencia reminds us that we need to do more in emphasizing the values of respect across all faiths, and it inspires us to be peaceful ambassadors of its message of acceptance for all.
- Merima Ključo
LUME
with Jelena Milušić
In different languages, ‘Lume’ has various meanings - world, life, source of light, illusion, fire, spark, lover, humanity, more than love, but all these meanings point in the same doubtless direction -: life is passion and love! The enormous value of this conceptual work lies in the diverse cultural origins and languages of the repertoire - the love songs from different parts of the world combined with Ključo’s song cycle. Together on stage Jelena and Merima, with just a voice and an accordion, build an atmosphere that is enchantingly theatrical: they completely wrap their audience in their wide-ranging performance that goes from grimly dramatic to fetchingly melancholic, only to dissolve into a cheerful, almost cabaret-like finale.
Mind-blowing! Pleasant pain is caused on the one hand by the richness of Merima Ključo’s artistic expression, whose every tone, interval, chord or cluster on the accordion grow out of layers of determination and melancholy. And when Jelena Milušić’s incredible vocal gets involved, I wonder if Merima’s accordion has a human voice among its registers.
Marija Vitas - ethnomusicologist & Editor in Chief, Serbian World Music Magazine (RS)
HERKUNFT - eine besondere perfomance
WITH SAŠA STANIŠIĆ
For German-speaking countries only
Saša Stanišić schreibt Geschichten, Merima Ključo lässt das Akkordeon Geschichten erzählen. Gemeinsam haben die beiden mit Sprache und in der Musik auf Grundlage von Stanišićs vielfach ausgezeichnetem Roman „Herkunft“ eine Performance komponiert, in der Traditionen von bosnischen Sevdalinka-Lieder erklingen und Gesänge eines Fußballstadions. Auf dem Mond werden Pferde musikalisch behuft und dazu alte Partisanenlieder geschmettert. Texte und Musik erzählen Geschichten und kreieren jedes Mal eine neue!
Multimedia Project
The Sarajevo Haggadah:Music of the Book
For accordion solo and video
or
For accordion, piano and video
or
For accordion and chamber orchestra
Merima Ključo's multimedia work traces the dramatic story of one of Jewish culture's most treasured manuscripts.
Using the musical traditions of Spain, Italy, Austria, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ključo illustrates and illuminates the Haggadah's travels from medieval Spain to 20th-century Bosnia, where it was hidden and rescued during World War II by Muslims, to its restoration by the National Museum in Sarajevo after the 1992-95 war.
Inspired by the historical novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks and commissioned by the Foundation for Jewish Culture, The Sarajevo Haggadah: Music of the Book creatively interprets this miraculous artifact as a universal symbol of exile, return, and co-existence.
For this special program, the musicians perform with visual accompaniment -- the Haggadah's original paintings digitally animated by video artist Bart Woodstrup.
The project has toured to major venues in the USA, including the Cleveland Museum, Arsenal Center for the Arts in Boston, Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, Texas Performing Arts in Austin, the Morgan Museum & Library in New York, The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC and other.
"Powerful music. An incredible story. Haunting images...
Oozing from its every measure were palpable senses of the book's beauty and value and of the loss and human tragedies it has witnessed over half a millennium."
The Cleveland Plain Dealer