11/11/2024, FRL with Nikola Pekovic

MUSIC 2024 2025

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Acknowledgments Tonight’s event is sponsored by the Emory University Department of Music, Emory Arts, Emory Friends of Music, the ECAS Deans Programming Fund, and Republic of Serbia Ministry of Culture.

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MUSIC FRL

Adam Mirza and Akiva Zamcheck Featuring

Nicola Peković and Bojana Peković

Monday, November 11, 2024, 8:00 p.m.

Performing Arts Studio Department of Music 1804 N. Decatur Rd., Atlanta, GA 30322 Welcome to the Performing Arts Studio in the Department of Music.

404.727.6445 | music.emory.edu | music@emory.edu

2024 2025

Cover Design: Lisa Baron | Cover Photo: Mark Teague

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Program Sustained Zatišje dubine + ( The stillness of the deep +) (world premiere) Ibar kavatina Images of the passing time (Procession) Nikola Peković

V. Korać A. Kazimić Brkljačić A. Kusyakov

FRL Adam Mirza, Akiva Zamcheck, Nikola Peković, and Bojana Peković

About FRL is an ongoing duo performance project in which we (Akiva Zamcheck and Adam Mirza) interrogate mediated “facts” through explorations in the podcast media form. We adopt the mannerisms and mania of radiophonic personalities and a variety of media genres (e.g., podcasts, YouTube rants, ASMR sessions, selfhelp narrations, dream sequences, radio plays, nature documentaries) to playfully/ seriously jar the clarity and authority imparted to “content” by contemporary audio production. Acting as (unreliable) hosts of an absurd podcast, we present a kind of musicalized speech performance act that juxtaposes multiple modes of audio narration against live synths, processed violin, and sampled audio and video fragments.

Our project self-consciously addresses radiophonic matter as both subject and form. The result is a technologically and culturally hybridized discourse in which power-symbols presented as performative utterances are subsumed within an assault of genres. In particular, we use audio production to highlight and amplify the transformation of text into performance, and performance into text, powerful manipulations which we see as ubiquitous and scarily efficient throughout contemporary media culture(s).

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Performers Adam Mirza is a composer and sound artist who works with various media, including acoustic and electronic music as well as sound at the intersection of video, theater and installation. His compositional approach involves the reconfiguration and abstraction of bodily gestures and politically charged or otherwise culturally resonant sonic media. His solo album of chamber works Partial Knowledge was released on New Focus Recordings in 2024. Mirza is an assistant professor of composition at Emory University.

Akiva Zamcheck is a musicologist and musician from New York. He studies correlations between aesthetic trends in contemporary music and in urban development, and related possibilities and pitfalls for musical activism. His work combines historical research, news/media analysis, and audio experiments.

Zamcheck did a PhD in musicology at New York University, and currently teaches music history and audio production at Lafayette College in Easton, PA.

Nikola Peković is an exceptional accordionist who began his musical journey at an early age. He studied at the Faculty of Arts in Niš, Serbia, and completed specialist studies in Spain under the mentorship of Professors Miljan Bjeletić and Alberdi Iñaki. He is currently completing his doctoral studies in Portugal.

Nikola has performed solo concerts across Europe, North America, and Asia, also collaborating with various orchestras, including the RTS Symphony Orchestra and the Belgrade Chamber Orchestra. In the past three years, he has worked closely with composers, premiering over 38 works, 21 of which he performed as a soloist with orchestras. Nikola has achieved notable success in over 50 international competitions, including the World Trophy and the World Cup. Nikola is Associate Professor of Accordion at the Faculty of Arts in Niš.

Bojana Peković is a gusle player from Serbia. Even though Bojana was brought up in the traditional gusle heritage, she is known as a reformer in the field. Bojana has participated in numerous public events and held concerts and workshops throughout Europe, US, and Canada. She contributed to UNESCO’s list of the “intangible cultural heritage of the world” in 2018, noting her “singing to the accompaniment of the gusle.” Bojana completed her Bachelor’s and Master of Art degrees in Global Music at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland. In addition to collaborating with artists from various countries, her work is usually presented with her group, Art Family, formed in 2015. Bojana is also a winner of the TV competition show, I Got Talent, alongside her brother Nikola.

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Music at Emory brings together students, faculty, and world-class artists to create an exciting and innovative season of performances, lectures, workshops, and master classes. With more than 150 events each year across multiple Emory venues, audiences experience a wide variety of musical offerings.

We hope you enjoy sampling an assortment of work from our student ensembles, community youth ensembles, artists in residence, professional faculty, up-and-coming prodigies, and virtuosos from around the world. music.emory.edu