Shira Utfila was founded in 2000 by Stefan Sablić – vocalist, oud and qanun player, arranger, composer, theater director and cantor. Stefan’s many interests, as well as numerous improvements in Serbia and Israel, contributed to and enabled him to provide a thorough and systematic approach to Sephardic music tradition, as well as to the general Jewish tradition and tradition of other nations who shared the historical, geographical and cultural landscape of the Balkans, the Mediterranean and the Middle East in the past centuries.
The band finds inspiration in the richness of the Balkan, Jewish-Spanish, Ottoman-Turkish and Arab musical traditions, passionately combining traditional music and dedication to its preservation with a talent for fusion and improvisation.
Shira Utfila has released 9 albums so far – seven presenting secular music, and two albums of liturgical music.
They have performed throughout the region, Europe and the world including performances in famous concert halls such as Koncertgebouw (Amsterdam), Bozar (Brussels), Bela Bartok (Budapest) and Balkan Trafik Festival (Brussels), Printemps Sefarade ( Geneva), Simha Festival (Wrocław).
In 2011 in Amsterdam, Shira Utfila received the prestigious RASA award for the best World Music group, while the album “Biviendo en kantando”, released for the Dutch label “Music&Words”, was included in the Top of the world CD edition selection of the prestigious British magazine “Songlines”.
Along with Stefan, the band consists of: Branislava Podrumac (vocals), Aleksandar Jovanović Šljuka (piano), Filip Krumes (violin), Sinan Aćifović (clarinet), Srđan Đorđević (double bass) and Goran Milošević (percussion).
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