The Bajich Brothers–Tamburitza Music from Kansas
Noon, Wednesday, Sept. 17
Coolidge Auditorium
Thomas Jefferson Building, Ground Floor
FREE
The Bajich Brothers, Boris, Paul, Peter and Robert, are a Serbian-American tambura quartet from Kansas. They were raised in the Serbian community of Kansas City, which dates back to the end of the 19th century, when Serbian immigrants began seeking work in the five major meatpacking plants located in the area of the city known as the West Bottoms. One of the traditions these Serbians brought with them was that of playing tamburas, a family of fretted, steel-stringed acoustic instruments common to several countries in southeastern Europe. Tambura music (also known as tamburitza or tamburica, after common diminutives for tambura), has been played in ethnic communities in the United States since the 1890s. Since then, it has spread wherever there are Americans of Serbian or Croatian heritage, becoming one of the most popular and widespread ethnic music traditions in the United States.
