Brass and Percussion Septet from Dubrovnik in Zadar on 2 November - the ensemble the pandemic gave birth to plays Piazzolla and Mancini

The Bersa Brothers Concert Hall in Zadar welcomes the Brass and Percussion Septet of the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra on Monday, 2 November, at 8 pm. The programme is called "From Buenos Aires to Dubrovnik" and is part of the Dalmatian Cycle project in the 2026/2027 concert season.

The ensemble is a child of crisis. When the pandemic was declared in spring 2020, the orchestra's musicians carried on with online recordings from their homes, but video could not replace the hall. After the spring reopening the orchestra split into small chamber groups because of the epidemiological measures. In June a horn and percussion quintet was formed for early Renaissance and Baroque music, and that same summer, with Ivan Kušelj and Alan Polcer, it grew into today's septet. The measures are long gone. The septet stayed.

On stage are Damir Butigan on euphonium, Karmen Pervitić on percussion, trumpeters Džemal Cakić and Ivan Kušelj, horn players Toni Kursar and Martin Hrćan, and Alan Polcer on drums. Butigan is also the man behind the arrangements, and the repertoire jumps from classical and film music to jazz, funk and rock. Zadar will hear Henry Mancini, Astor Piazzolla, Nardelli and Gerardo Matos Rodríguez, the author of "La Cumparsita", together with traditional songs and dances from the Dubrovnik area.

Argentine tango and Dubrovnik folk dances in one night, on brass instruments: how many orchestras in the Balkans would dare try that mix? The ticket is 15 euros, about 925 denars, on mojekarte.hr.