Over the seven years of their collaboration, East of West have developed an intuitive musical relationship, flourishing through their dynamic interplays, virtuosic unison melodies and expressive soloing. Gajić’s compositions explore gentle melodic motifs nested in uptempo passages set to Balkan-influenced rhythms, interspersed with moments of mesmerising musical sparseness.

“When composing a piece of music, I begin with a kernel of an idea - something that appears during practice, daily life or even in the middle of the night.”, Gajić says.

“I start developing the motif, and then decide if it is going to work for the trio or if it’s more suited to other projects. The pieces on Pastorale were pieces that asked for another element, which I felt to be piano, and after a long time listening to many pianists, I heard Romano playing and immediately realised he was the pianist I wanted to work with on these pieces.”

Special guest Linsey Pollak will be the opening act of the evening.

7:30pm, Friday 15 August, 2025

Queensland Multicultural Centre

102 Main Street, Kangaroo Point

Tickets $35 (Full / $25 (Concessions) / $10 (Children 5-16) / Children under 5 free

Supported by BEMAC.

There is limited parking at the QMC. We encourage all guests to use public transport. QMC is only a 2-minute walk from the Holman Street Ferry Terminal and bus route 234. You can find more info about how to get to QMC at http://qmc.org.au/visit

Cover photo by River Petein

Artist Bios

Romano Crivici
Romano Crivici is one of Australia’s leading contemporary composer-performers (violin and piano). Crivici, a former member of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the New England String Quartet and the popular and humorous Paranormal Music Society, has also worked widely as a pianist, repetiteur and conductor. However it has been his work as composer, director and violinist with his ensembles Elektra String Quartet and, directing from piano, the ECU (Elektra Collektive Unconscious), for which he is most widely known. In pioneering the integration of technology, improvisation and cross-cultural collaboration within the classical tradition, he and the Elektra String Quartet created a genre unique to contemporary music making. Crivici has collaborated with artists from many cultures and performance styles, forming long working relationships with Australian indigenous artists, Indian/Jazz fusion artists, Javanese percussionists and traditional Tibetan performers within the various multimedia formats he has devised.

East of West:
Goran Gajić
Goran Gajić is a Bosnian-Australian instrumentalist and composer with many years’ touring experience in Europe and Australia with different ensembles. In 2017, he founded the contemporary modal/ethno jazz group East of West in which he plays double bass and composes music that draws from the musical traditions of the Balkans and Mediterranean, as well as European jazz music traditions. In 2023, East of West was nominated for an ARIA for ‘Best world music album’ for their second album, Moving Home. He has performed at festivals and venues across Europe and at Brisbane Powerhouse, QPAC, The Triffid, and at major festivals and venues in Australia such as Woodford Folk Festival, Brisbane Festival, Mona Foma, and the Blue Mountains Music Festival.

Philip Griffin
Philip Griffin is an instrumentalist, music director, singer, composer, and arranger.His studies of plucked stringed instruments include his main instrument with East of West, the oud (Arabic fretless lute), and have included training in Turkey, Berlin, Athens, Jerusalem and more recently via the internet with many internationally acclaimed artists and teachers. This study has focused particularly on Classical Music within the Ottoman tradition of Türkiye. He has extensive performance experience in the realms of Macedonian Traditional Folk Music and Balkan Gypsy Music. Performance highlights include featuring on the oud with Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Lior, festival appearances at Woodford Folk Festival, St Chartier Festival, WOMADelaide, and Melbourne & Perth International Festivals. In other realms of his professional musical life, he has composed and music directed works for The Royal Shakespeare Company, Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir Street Theatre, South Australian and West Australian Theatre Companies, plus a plethora of smaller ensembles.

Malindi Morris
Malindi Morris is a percussionist and occasional composer who draws inspiration from the Mediterranean, Balkans, Türkiye, and Iran, and specialises in frame drums and hand percussion. She has studied, composed and performed in Australia and Europe with various ensembles such as ARIA-nominated Australian trio East of West and her Slovenian ensemble Lastovka. Her past projects in Australia include extensive work with Balkan folk projects such as award-winning ethno-folk group Mzaza. She has also worked with Čardak, Kučibaba, The Transbalkan Express and Vihor, with performances at folk and multicultural festivals such as the Woodford Folk Festival, The National Folk Festival, Cygnet Folk Festival, Tablelands folk festival, Brisbane Festival, Scheherazade Festival, the National Multicultural Festival, and the Queensland Multicultural Festival. She co-directed, produced, composed for and performed in the 2017 project ‘Kučibaba’, a stage show involving interstate artists, which was presented at Woodford Folk Festival.

Special guest Linsey Pollak

Linsey Pollak is a renowned Australian musician, instrument maker, composer, musical director, and community music facilitator with a career spanning several decades. Since 1971, he has been crafting musical instruments, starting with bamboo flutes and later designing unique wind instruments such as the Cylisax, a single reed woodwind inspired by the saxophone. He is known for his innovative solo shows and collaborations, including projects like "Sunrise Sessions," where he performs with various wind instruments in scenic locations on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. Pollak has toured extensively across Europe, North America, and Asia, and has been involved in numerous festivals and cross-cultural music ensembles. His work also includes directing large festival pieces and engaging in music-theatre collaborations. Beyond performance, he has contributed significantly to the Australian music scene through his instrument-making and facilitation of multicultural music projects.