La Wayaka Current artist-in-residency in Atacama

My name is Maja Backovic and I was born in Serbia. I started playing the violin at the age of 7 at the ''School for Musically Gifted Children" in Ćuprija, Serbia, a boarding school specializing in bowed instruments. Later on, I studied music and the violin at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, Austria, with Lukas Hagen and Rainer Schmidt. After finishing my studies and after almost 10 years of exposure to high-class classical music education and international music and dance improvisation, developing writing and songwriting skills along the way, I started traveling. Three years ago, thinking I was leaving for just a short spontaneous getaway from the surreal situation of the repeated lockdowns, my nomadic life and a life of learning traditional music and instruments from different places I was visiting started.

After an elaborate interview, I was invited by the La Wayaka Current to join their nomadic artist-in-residency in the Atacama Desert happening in November 2023, and this video is my offering for a crowdfunding campaign I am starting to raise money for the residency fee and plane tickets from Europe and back. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to receive moral and financial support.

Please contact me if you have any questions regarding the campaign, if you want to help but cannot make a bank transaction, if you are interested in my work, if you are interested in listening to my live concert of traditional songs of Europe, or if you are interested in receiving classical or traditional music workshops and classes (violin, pandero cuadrado, singing, and high-level practice advice for any musical instrument) or a music improvisation workshop.

In case you are interested in collaborating with me and you have information about some cooperative, non-profit, humanitarian, or community-oriented groups or individuals in Europe and especially in Central and South America, let me know directly, as that could open up more doors through which I can observe the trip throughout the continent, starting in November 2023, from a wider perspective.

I would love to make use of the long travel by plane, which I have been successfully avoiding since the start of my nomadic lifestyle (by choosing to move by foot, bicycle, car, bus, or train solely in Europe) to stay in the Americas for a longer period.

I am planning on contacting individual artists, organizations, artist collectives, festivals and associations with charity backgrounds like https://balanyaerklingt.de/en/our-charity/ to:

I invite you to share my intentions with your friends, acquaintances, contacts and otherwise influential circles.

Follow me on Facebook to get an insight into my creative life: https://www.facebook.com/majasworld777/

Thank you for your time

Maja