National Geographic Music (National Geographic)

Goran Bregovic, former Yugoslav rock star turned award-winning composer, will make his North American debut in Chicago's Millennium Park on Monday, June 10th. Bregovic, best known for the soundtrack to the 1995 underground Underground, will be treating audiences to a full-frontal Balkan brass assualt with his 43-piece Wedding & Funeral Orchestra.

Born in Sarajevo to mixed Serbian-Croatian parents, Bregovic has emerged as one of the former Yugoslavia's most influential musicians. He abandoned his career as a rocker in 1985, and dedicated his career to experimental work and film scores. His frenetic, brass band-driven soundtrack to Emir Kusturica's Underground helped document Sarajevo and Yugoslavia's bloody descent into war during the 1990s—even as it celebrated and preserved the region's unique musical heritage. Bregovic has also scored the soundtracks for such independent films as Times of the Gypsies and Arizona Dream—where he recorded rock icon Iggy Pop backed by a real life "band of gypsies."

His current band, The Wedding and Funeral Band, combines traditional Serbian, Croatian and Roma folk instruments with Bulgarian choral and symphonic elements to recreate his film compositions, which mix progressive and alternative rock with Balkan sounds.

Chicago, with its sizable Serbian and Croatian communities, is expected to welcome Bregovic with open arms, and a second show has already been added for July 11. The evening will feature a more intimate version of the orchestra, highlighting the Gypsy brass, percussion and Bulgarian singers, all led by Bregovic.