Esad Halilovic grew up in Belgrade/Serbia and studied drums and percussion privately with jazz drummer Lazar Tosic after graduating from high school. Later, he moved to Austria, where he resumed his percussion studies at the Vienna Jazz Conservatory for a time. Halilovic works as a jazz musician and cultural mediator in Vienna and in international collaborations.

As founder and leader of the ensemble dusha connection jazz, he released three albums, which were presented at the Viennese jazz club “Porgy and Bess” and at international jazz festivals. Halilovic has used his numerous guest performances and festival appearances abroad (including in Central and South Eastern Europe, Cuba, Hong Kong, China, Nicaragua, Uruguay, Nepal, Pakistan and India) to offer free workshops and master classes for young people and students in cooperation with local conservatories, universities and institutions. These collaborations have resulted in musical projects in which local traditional folk music and jazz come together and new soundscapes are created using specific traditional instruments, scales and rhythms.