"Graduation Day" has been on Damir Bacikin's mind for 13 years. He began thinking about the songs on this album as a young man in Serbia's Novi Sad. They stayed with him through years of training as a classical trumpet player at conservatories and in orchestras in Serbia and Germany. Bacikin brought them from the Balkans to Germany, refining his vision in the cultural and artistic melting pot that is contemporary Berlin. And then, after years of working with everyone from world- renowned classical musicians to contemporary music ensembles, brass groups and jazz and improvised music orchestras, Bacikin assembled the musicians he needed to make his dream a reality.