Vladimir Simić – kaval, tambura, lute, dvoyanka – a band leader
Born in Belgrade on June 6th, 1972. Vladimir is a mechanical engineer (BA). After playing guitar for many years, in 1997 he discovered his musical expression in playing the kaval, dvoyanka, tambura and bagpipes. Since 1997 he deals with research and production of traditional musical instruments, that is wind instruments (kaval and dvoyanka) and string plucked instruments (different types of tambura and lutes). In this work on instruments he deals in the reparation and restoration of existing instruments and the manufacture of new ones. He works with his father Slobodan in the family musical workshop.
Nataša Simić – vocals, tambourine
Born in Belgrade on November 25th, 1976. Nataša graduated in the first generation of ethno singers of the Ethnomusicology Section of the “Mokranjac” Secondary School of Music. She is a student at the Faculty of Political Sciences. She was a member of the Obilic choir of the Academic Cultural and Artistic Association Branko Krsmanović, then of the Stanković choir of the Church of St. Aleksandar Nevski and the Byzantine choir St. John Damascene. She has been a member of “Belo Platno” since the founding of the group, where she deals in studying the field recordings of our folk music and contemporary interpretation of tradition.
Zvezdana (Anastasija) Ostojić - vocals
She was born in Belgrade on November 22th, 1970. Zvezdana is an ethnologist, BA. She began studying Byzantine church singing in the autumn of 1992, with the choir St. John Damascene. She is a first chanter in st. Nicolas church in Novi Sad. She has been taking an active part in authentic folk singing since 1993 when she joined the Belgrade female vocal ensemble Moba. Anastasia is an excellent interpreter of modal style songs, as well as a Byzantine church-music chanter.
Tanja Damnjanović - vocals, tambourine
She was born on August 22nd 1983 in Zemun. Tanja is final-year student of the Tourism College in Belgrade. She has been member of various folklore ensembles since the age of 10, and is an exceptional dancer with an excellent sense of rhythm, which lends a special charm to her singing. Apart from dancing, she has been a singer of authentic folk songs for years, receiving awards at folklore contests and meetings.
Filip Krumes – violine
Filip Krumes developed his unique style and improvisational sense while playing with leading jazz and ethno musicians in Serbia and Belgium. He has been a member of the Balkan Music Club, Hazari and Turn Around Band and presently plays with Belo Platno and Shira u’tfila. He has composed music for theater and film and is deeply involved with the repair and restoration of string instruments.
Akash Bhatt – tabla, goch, tarabuka, daff
Akash was born on 1971. October 31st in the city of Ahmadabad (Gujarat, India) Akash is an architect and musician. He was traind in the traditional “Banaras Gharana” manner of playing ‘tabla’ and plays various percussion, but he mostly uses a conterporary style in his playing (esp. on this edition). He likes the authentic folk music of our country very much and has found certain similarities with the filk music of Gujarat. He enjoys the combination of the free (folk) style of playing ‘tabla’ and the rhythms from the Balkans.
Goran Milošević - daff, tarabuka, udu, tambourine (riqq) and vocals
He was born in Belgrade on March 8th 1973, where he completed
secondary musical school, French horn section. Since 1997 he has
played percussions, at first latino and afro percussions (congos,
bongos, djembe. The theme of music of the Balkans began interesting him in 2000. He played in the groups Hazari, Balkanika, Ognjen i prijatelji, and with authors
such as Slobodan Trkulja (Balkanopolis) and Vlada Nikić.
Goran took part in a large number of musical editions and world
festivals (Strictly Mondial Instanbul, North Sea Jazz Festival.)
Miloš Jakovljević - kaval
He was born in Belgrade on May 15th 1981. He is a student of Ethnology at Belgrade Filosofic Faculty. In 2005 traditionals music and plating kaval beggan interesing him when he started with taking lessons of kaval playing from Vlada Simić. He plays with group Runo, as a guest performer, as well as with Folk Dancing Group RAD New Belgrade.
A friend of the band - special guest
Svetlana Spajić - Latinović - vocals, Jew's harp
She was born on 1971. August 19th. in Loznica in Serbia. Svetlana has been a singer of traditional songs since 1993. She has performed in several traditional groups, and has been leader of the group «Drina» since 1999. Apart from nurturing the traditional singing styles of the Serbian people, she also nurtures the traditional songs of other peoples from the Balkans. Svetlana performs both at home and abroad and has performed and cooperated with some of the greatest names of traditional music of the Balkans and the world including Domna Samna, Janka Rupkina, Ksantipi Karatanasi, Jorgos Simeonidis, Periklis Papapetropulos, Ihsan Ozgen, Stela Civese, Boris Kovac, Boban Markovic and others.
She has taken part in several albums: Drina «Live Water» (her own), Serbia: Sounds Global 1, 2 and 3, Extended Europe – Live from Vienna and others.
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