PJEV

PJEV is a female a cappella quintet from Zagreb which preserves and cherishes traditional vocal music from Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. PJEV gathers singers from these countries who each contribute songs from their homelands. Their common ground is a shared tradition transmitted by a common language and its varying dialects.

When mainstream rhetoric divides these nations and cultures, their songs pay tribute to the underlying unity, mutual understanding, intertwined narrative, and inevitable coexistence that connects them all. The group’s most important performance to date was a sold-out concert in September 2021 at the Cologne Jazz Week festival featuring Kit Downes on organ and Hayden Chisholm on Saxophone. The live recording made by Deutschlandfunk radio was broadcast to critical acclaim and has been just released for Red Hook Records in May 2023.