CLUB "JAZZ" - November 23rd - 29th 2003.
Workshop / Vocal jazz workshop - BERND SPITZBARTH, Germany
Associates: Istvan Madjaric, bass guitar; Aleksandar Bahun, piano; Robert Pongo, drums

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29th - Serbian National Theatre, Club "Trema" - 11,30 pm
Workshop / Vocal jazz workshop - BERND SPITZBARTH with associates - PUBLIC PRESENTATION

BERND SPITZBARTH was born 1956 in East Germany. As a young boy he sang in a boy's choir and began to study piano playing. Till the end of his high school time he worked as an assistant in some choirs. He studied School Music, Choir Conducting and Piano at the Franz Liszt Music Conservatory in Weimar and absolved different master classes, for example at Masur, Sanderling, Oesterreicher and Gronostay.
After his studies he began to work as a teacher for Piano, Choir Conducting and Music Theory at the Musikgymnasium Schwerin / Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Since 1990 he has been conducting the Youth Choir of the Schwerin Music High School and received a lot of prizes at national and international choir competitions. He has recorded with his choir at the NDR, (north German public broadcasting), as well as on CD; his choir have given concerts in Europe and the U.S.A. Bernd Spitzbarth is especially interested in baroque and gallant music styles, as well as in the vocal jazz and light music. He gives workshops and seminars for these specific music styles and conducting vocal jazz in choirs.

ISTVAN MADjARIC was born in Kula in 1973. He has been in music professionally since 1995. He has played with many musicians and singers: the Tanja Jovicevic Band, Aleksandar Dujin, and the Yupika Quintet. He has also collaborated with the RTV Novi Sad Orchestra.

ALEKSANDAR BAHUN was born in Novi Sad in 1975 into a family with a long music tradition. His father Petar (1945-1999) was a composer, arranger, guitar player and professor. He went to primary and secondary music schools and studied Composition at the Academy of Art in Novi Sad (class of Prof. Milan Mihajlovic). He has performed at several jazz festivals. He and his trio stayed in Egypt for over a year and after returning he started writing music for DUPLO DNO - a theatrical troop from Novi Sad. He is currently preparing his own material.

ROBERT PONGO was born in 1976 in Novi Sad. He started playing professionally in 1994 when his band 'Flying Rabbit' released their first album with their own songs in a jazz-rock style, while at the same time playing jazz standards. In 1996 he started playing with a funk band called 'Colibri' as well as in a jazz trio with pianist Prof. Aleksandar Dujin. In addition to these, he performed at the Pepsi-Sziget Festival in Budapest where he played British pop with the 'Simic Quartet'. He has played not only with small bands but has also acquired experience playing with big bands. He has accompanied some of the well-known singers of our country, such as: Vladana Markovic, Maja Odzaklijevska, Tanja Jovicevic, Ksenija, Dejan Cukic, etc. Through 1997 and 1998 he attended the Music Academy in Budapest, where he was taught by Koeszegi Imre and Javori Vilmos. In 1998 he played at the Budapest Jazz Festival and recorded an album with famous musicians from Budapest. At the competition of drummers held in Budapest in 2002, he was one of the six drummers out of seventy participants who entered the finals, and was awarded as the best drummer of Hungarian nationality living outside Hungary. During the competition he had the opportunity to meet and play with one of the world's leading drummers - Jack DeJohnette. In 2002 he began playing the timbales in the band 'Fiesta Latina'. At the beginning of the year 2003, he became a member of the 'Novi Sad Brass Band' conducted by Fedor Vrtacnik. In the same year he became a member of the 'Drum Factory'.