New commission: David Bowie's Blackstar!

A nice 2 month long compositional break after finishing the Requiem was much needed for me to refill my inspirational chambers and to retain freshness in my writing.

However, the train is moving forward again and this time with a really interesting new project. Big Band Radlje has commissioned me to arrange the entire Blackstar album by David Bowie (his last, an absolute masterpiece) for a big band and a string quartet featuring the vocals and backvocals as well.

The music on this album was masterfully performed and imagined by Donny McCaslin quartet, however, the project still presents a big challenge, as it will be really hard to retain the original sound while augmenting the entire story orchestrally. But what an awesome challenge, right?

The project will be conducted by Aljaž Razdevšek and premiered in Radlje ob Dravi in Slovenia on May 2nd, with performances following on June 12th in Maribor (Jazz Ma Mlade festival) and on 9th of July on Koprivnica Jazz festival. Hopefully there will be many more after that!