Balkan Days 2023: Trio Merak
This event is in the past.
The Munich-based Trio Merak consists of musicians from Romania, Croatia and Germany who have made it their mission to spread the musical esprit of the Balkans. The students of the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich have been playing together as a trio since 2019. Their aim is to embody emotions and build bridges between diverse cultural idioms.
This event is in the past.
The Munich-based Trio Merak consists of musicians from Romania, Croatia and Germany who have made it their mission to spread the musical esprit of the Balkans. The students of the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich have been playing together as a trio since 2019. Their aim is to embody emotions and build bridges between diverse cultural idioms.
Cristina Lehaci from Romania and Boris Knezevic from Croatia exude the temperament typical of their home countries, while the German Moritz Knapp has an evident passion for the versatility and complexity of percussion. Taking advantage of their privileged access to an inexhaustible wealth of sounds, they have made music together extensively under the motto “Between Orient and Occident” in the Munich Percussion and String Orchestra directed by Prof. Adel Shalaby. On concert tours to Egypt and Oman together with other international musicians, they were able to experience cultural exchange on the ground. When asked in 2019 to portray that orchestra’s magic in a musical miniature, they formed a trio. Since 2022, they have been studying chamber music in the class of Prof. Christian Wissel at the Munich University of Music and Performing Arts.
The name “Merak” stands for longing, joy and pleasure in various Balkan languages, and it is the musicians’ desire to embody these emotions on stage in every performance.
Supported by the Department of Arts and Culture of the City of Munich, the Bavarian State Chancellery, the Munich Migration Advisory Board, the Münchner Stadtmuseum, the Southeast Europe Association and Münchenstift
