Damir Bačikin

 

Damir Bačikin is one of the most versatile trumpeters in German new music, modern jazz and classical orchestral stages, who won first prize twice at the national trumpet competition in Belgrade, Serbia. After graduating with the highest score from the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, he moved to Berlin in 2005, where he studied in the trumpet class of Prof. William Forman at the Music Conservatory of the HfM Hanns Eisler.

Bačikin is a member of “ensemble unitedberlin”, the ensemble in residence for new music at the Konzerthaus Berlin (2017-2021) under the direction of conductor Vladimir Jurowski. Working with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and Gérard Grisey’s legendary orchestral work “Les espaces acoustiques”, where Bacikin played the solo trumpet, he received an invitation to join the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra for the first performance at the prestigious “Georges Enescu Festival”, Romania, in the category “The best orchestra of the world”. Bacikin played inspiring, confident, with brilliant sound and stylistically very adapted, the works of Georges Enesco: 2nd Symphony and Benjamin Britten: 2nd Violin Concerto.

Since then, he has been regularly engaged as a solo trumpeter in the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, playing in sold-out concert halls of the Philharmonie Berlin, Konzerthaus Berlin and the Rundfunk Sendesaal.

In the New Music world, especially with the ensemble unitedberlin, where he has been a member for 12 years, Bacikin played with many other New Music ensembles such as KNM Berlin, Zafraan Ensemble Berlin, Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop. This gave him the opportunity to work with composers such as Helmut Lachenmann, Vinko Globokar, Georg Katzer, Helmut Oehring, Fabian Levy and many others.

Besides his activities as a guest musician, Bačikin improvises and composes a lot.

Bačikin’s compositions and the arrangements for the first album by “Babylon ORCHESTRA Berlin” won the “German Record Critics!” award for the best album in the category of world music in 2020.

After years of collaboration with artists such as Matthew Herbert, Rashad Newsome, Efterklang, Josh Groban, Tino Segal and the Sasha Walz Company, he founded his own ensemble “Damir Out Loud”. In 2013 the ensemble wins the studio prize of the Senate in Berlin and a tour promotion in Cologne, where he released the first album “Graduation day” for the Swiss label Unitrecords and successfully presented it on tour in Europe.

The ensemble performed at festivals in Europe and Asia, and in January 2019 played in the entire evening show with live broadcast on Serbian television. After numerous concerts, “Damir Out Loud” recorded its second album “Earworm!”. The album was released in February 2020 for the Berlin label shoebill music.

Deutschlandradio reported about his works: “That a technically skilled highly talented musician is at work here quickly becomes clear. But the way Bačikin realizes his sonic ideas make him more than just a gifted musician…The band’s sound is balanced without ever being boring. It is full and warm, yet remains transparent. The same can be said about the trumpeter’s tone. And the man knows how to tell stories, as a soloist as well as a composer.”

Damir also teaches at the state music school in Kleinmachnow and at the University of Potsdam.

 

 

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