Ensemble Anja & Zlatna presents The Songs and Dances That Keep Us Awake, *a carefully curated programme drawing on traditional music from the Balkans and neighbouring regions. These works honour people, places, and lived experiences—family and cherished relationships, moments of celebration and grief, and a deep connection to the land. 

Lively circle dances and moments of gentle wit sit alongside richly textured, expressive harmonies. Traditional melodies are transformed through sensitive exploration of modal colour, grounded in historical performance practice. Influences from Baroque structures and 17th century improvisation shape the ensemble’s distinctive sound, where unusual instrumentation and original reinterpretations create a musical world that is at once vivid, intimate, and unmistakably their own.