Join us this Sunday, October 22 at 2 p.m. at Miners Hall Museum in Franklin, KS for this special program. It is being presented in conjunction with the quarterly exhibit “Croatian Heritage in SE Kansas”, which is on display October 2 — December 23, 2023. The exhibit is hosted by Phyllis (Liposek) Bitner, Trustee at Miners Hall Museum, and JoBeth Nastav, Administrative Director and Adrienne Nastav, President of
Strawberry Hill Museum and Cultural Center, Kansas City.
Our special monthly program is being presented by Joe Baric. Joe will present a variety of music from Croatia and its diaspora. He will cover both old and new music from that area, along with a discussion of its history and context along with a Q&A session.
Joe Baric grew up in Kansas City, KS, as part of the Croatian community in Strawberry Hill. As a child, he had wanted to play either guitar like his idol, Elvis Presley, or the piano like Liberace. But the first instrument he picked up at the age of five was that happy medium, the accordion.
Joe, along with his brother Jim, would later join the St. John’s Tamburitzans, learning numerous Croatian instruments under accordion legend Don Lipovac. For over ten years, he performed with that group as a singer, dancer and multi-instrumentalist. Notable appearances include annual engagements at Worlds of Fun during its Octoberfest celebration and touring the former Yugoslavia in 1984.
While Joe attended the University of Kansas, working towards a degree in South Slavic Languages and Literatures, he joined his brother and other alum of the Tamburitzans to form Veseli Hrvati, a Croatian tambura combo. The group notably performed for the Croatian Consulate during the Croatian War for independence.
Later, Joe was a co-founder of the adult tamburitza group Hrvatski Obicaj, which Jim would join soon thereafter. Hrvatski Obicaj has performed in Las Vegas, Pittsburgh, Detroit and Nashville. In 2022, the group was privileged to be part of the annual Croatian music festival at Djakovo as well as be featured on Bosnian television with a performance in Bogojno. The group has also released two albums.
Joe and Jim also formed the Eastern European musical combo Kolograd, which has performed numerous times in Pittsburg at Little Balkans Days as well as performances in Los Angeles, Chicago and Omaha. The band frequently headlines the Sugar Creek Slavic Festival. Kolograd’s repertoire is quite broad, spanning all of Eastern Europe, from Italy to Russia.
Joe also performs with other bands and orchestras such as Braca out of the Chicago area and the Sugar Creek Tamburitzans out of Sugar Creek, MO.
The program begins at 2 p.m. (doors open at 1:30) and admission is free. We recommend calling the museum if you plan to join us so we can plan for adequate seating (620-347-4220). Donations are accepted and appreciated. After the program guests will be welcome to view the quarterly exhibit.
Miners Hall Museum is dedicated to preserving and sharing Southeast Kansas coal mining history and its diverse immigrant culture.
