Slobodan Trkulja

Slobodan Trkulja is a Serbian singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist, born on 29 May 1977 in Odžaci in Vojvodina. He sings in the traditional and Byzantine styles and plays thirteen instruments, among them clarinet, bagpipes, kaval, double flute, duduk, ocarina and saxophones. He taught himself the clarinet at ten and at fourteen joined the folk ensemble Kolo in Belgrade. He went to high school in Sremski Karlovci.

In 1997 he founded Balkanopolis on the club scene of Novi Sad, a group that mixes Balkan folklore with jazz and rock under the label of modern Balkan tradition. The same year he moved to the Netherlands, where he studied saxophone at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam from 1998, graduated in 2004 and took a master's degree with honours in 2007. In January 2002 he played the New Year's concert at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with the Dutch Brass Ensemble, and that year Balkanopolis won the Best New Talent award at the North Sea Jazz Festival. In 2005 he received the Dutch Erasmus Prize.

The debut album, Prizivanje kiše, came out on PGP RTS in 2006, after a concert of the same name with the Belgrade Philharmonic in December 2004. Kingdom of Balkanopolis (2010) was recorded at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios, produced by Richard Evans and Tchad Blake, with Tony Levin, David Rhodes and John Giblin as guests. In 2005 he played at Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan, in 2006 at the EXIT festival and in 2008 at Celtic Connections in Glasgow.

In 2007 he sang "Nebo" at Beovizija, the Serbian Eurovision selection, finishing second and winning the OGAE Serbia award for best interpretation. He moved back to Serbia in 2008. On 15 May 2015 he gave the concert Balkanopolis & Friends at the Belgrade Arena with guests Mariza, Oleta Adams, Mayssa Karaa and Baaba Maal. In 2023 he appeared on the CCTV Spring Festival Gala in China, and in 2025 he released "Tri ružice". The playlist is the channel of Slobodan Trkulja & Balkanopolis.