11:00
11:00 Town Square
Concert: Classical music at 11
Belgrade’s Faculty of Music students
The Faculty of Music Art of the University of Arts in Belgrade celebrates 78 years of its activity as the oldest school of higher music education in Serbia in 2015. It built the foundations of the overall development of professional musicians and particularly of the overall system of music education. With 822 students and almost 200 teachers, it is the largest school of this type in the region and its study programs cover all the specific features of music.
The Faculty of Music has twelve departments: Composition, Conducting, Solo Singing, Piano, String instruments (violin, viola, cello, double bass), Wind instruments (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone and tuba), Musicology, Music pedagogy, Music Theory, Ethnomusicology, Chamber Music and Jazz. There are twenty-six study programs at under-graduate, master and doctoral level in the field of arts and science. Among the teachers are the most prominent Serbian artists – composers Zoran Erić and Isidora Žebeljan, conductor Bojan Sudjić, baritone Nikola Mijajilovic, soprano Aneta Ilić, pianist Aleksandar Serdar, violinist Maja Jokanović, violist Dejan Mladjenović, cellist Sandra Belić, bassist Nebojša Ignjatović, flutist Ljubiša Jovanović, trumpeter Mladen Djordjević, harpist Ljiljana Nestorovska and many others. Their best students will present themselves in the newly established program of The Days of Mokranjac – Classical music at 11 A.M. joining the European practice of holding concerts in the open air.
13:00
13:00 Rogljevo Wine cellars
Picnic / Science panel
Topic: Phenomena Stevan St. Mokranjac and the end of music history
Lecturer: Nadezda Mosusova, PhD, musicologist and composer
Moderator: professor Sonja Marinkovic, PhD, musicologist
The existence of cultural and musical event Days of Mokranjac (50th anniversary) is celebrated between the 100 anniversary of death (2014) and the 160 anniversary of birth (2016) оf the great Serbian musician. We can even add that next year will be 110 years since the St. Stojanovic Mokranjac was elected a corresponding member of the present SANU. It is undisputed that Mokranjac’s work, started and finished before the Balkan wars, still lives today, in the third millennium. Not only in Serbia. Undeniably is also that Mokranjac’s opus outlived its interwar successors, whose theater production, in particular, built on Mokranjac’s aesthetic principles, ended in the imaginary museum “des beaux arts”, at the end of the second millennium. “The Last of the Serbian Mohicans” was an inappropriate setting of Stevan Hristić’s ballet The Legend of Ochrid, performed in 2000 at the Belgrade National Theatre. It is also evident that Mokranjac’s creativity never ceases to be interesting for musicians and culturologists of various profiles. Where is the strength and vitality of Mokranjac’s works, sacred and secular, coming from? For performers – from beauty and high professionalism of its creation. For researchers – from the fact that to this day no one could completely solve the phenomenon of magic skill possessed by “the harmonizer” of folk and church melodies, in the field of Serbian choir music. That is the essence of true art: that it can not be fully explained.
Nadezda Mosusova, musicologist and composer, scientific advisor of the Musicological institute SANU and professor of music history at the Faculty of Music (now retired), finished her studies and made her career in Belgrade, obtaining her PhD at the Ljubljana University. The main fields of her research include music in Serbia and other Slavonic countries (musical nationalism), opera and ballet of the 19th and 20th centuries, impact of Russian emigration on the music and theatre in Europe, Asia, both Americas and Australia. Researcher on Serbian composers Petar Konjović and Stevan Hristić, author of numerous studies concerning analysis and aesthetics of the musical stage, participant of many theatrical and musicological congresses at home and abroad, collaborator of opera and ballet encyclopedias, member of domestic and foreign societies as Union of Serbian Composers in Belgrade, Society of Dance History Scholars (USA) and CID-UNESCO (Paris-Athens). Coordinator of the Project Contemporary Serbian musical scene of SANU (Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts) and former member of the Jury for Monaco Nijinsky Dance Award in Monte Carlo.
14:00
14:00 Rogljevo Wine cellars
Ethno performances
– Artistic association Stevan Mokranjac, Negotin
– Мale vocal-instrumental ensemble Аjduci, Negotin
Conductor: Danijela Markovic
– Pipers’ Association of Negotin Region Кrajina’s Flute
Cultural Artistic Society Stevan Mokranjac from Negotin was founded 61 years ago and its aim is to preserve and nurture the Serbian folk treasure through dances, songs and rich original costume. The proof that they got really close to this objective is large audience that enjoys their performances, throughout the former Yugoslav republics and Europe, and in recent years, from the restoration of the Society also in Sweden, Denmark, Bulgaria, Austria, but also in the traditional annual concerts in the Cultural Centre in Negotin.
Vocal and instrumental ensemble Ajduci was established at the end of 2013. in Negotin by Danijela Markovic and her high school students. The purpose was cherishing the original Vlach and Serbian music in polyphonic processing for male ensemble, and at the same time, preserving the rich musical tradition of Serbia and Negotin region. In its short existence, this ensemble has appeared in several school and city events in Negotin, Kladovo and Belgrade.They won the special prize of the international jury at the Vocal Ethno Youth festival VEF in Negotin, 2014.
Danijela Markovic graduated in 1998 in music pedagogy at the Dr Hohs Conservatory in Frankfurt am Main in Germany. She is one of the founders and conductor (1998 – 2001) of the mixed church choir Vasilije Ostroski in the Serbian Orthodox Church in Frankfurt. She has been teaching music in Negotin high schools since 2003 and she is a conductor of the mixed high-school choir. In 2008, she formed the ethno group Marinika, and five years later the group Ajduci. She writes polyphonic arrangements for both these ensembles. In 2014, she founded the Vocal Ethno Youth Festival (VEF) within the creative association NEGO from Negotin – the first competition of its kind in Serbia.
Pipers’ Association Krajina’s Flute was established in 2011 in Kobišnica. Its activity is directed towards the preservation of authenticity and tradition of playing the flute, duduk, and ocarina, as well as fostering music from Eastern Serbia. It has 36 members from Bor and Zajecar districts. Within association, the orchestra was formed consisted of 5-10 members (flute, duduk, ocarina, drum, the original singer of folk songs) which is very active. They perform in all events of local character (Vineyard days in Rajac Wine cellars, Customs of Krajina, Honey and Wine Fair, Tourism fair in Belgrade, Diaspora Days, Lilac Fest – Miroč, The Days of Mokranjac), as well as in many regional and republic events. At this year’s pipers’ competition Crnorečje in Boljevac, two members of the Association qualified for the National Assembly of pipers Oj Moravo in Prislonica near Cacak, where they achieved distinguished results. In cooperation with the elementary school Stevan Mokranjac from Kobišnica, they have organized the School of flute.
20:00
20:00 Cultural Centre
Musical and theatrical performance:
Festival Premiere:
Magic moments of humanity
Concert performance of radio drama Mokranjac, the man of his art
Author: Maja Colovic Vasic
Director: Sasa Latinovic
Choir Labyrinth, Zajecar
Conductor: Zeljka Aleksic
String quartet – School for musically gifted, Cuprija
Foundation Zoran Radmilovic, Zajecar
Pre-performance:
Childrenhs’ choir Vivak, Negotin
Conductors: Aleksandra Djukic and Dragana Marinovic Simonovic
MAGIC MOMENTS OF HUMANITY
Radio drama Mokranjac, a man of his art was created to commemorate the 100 years from death of the great composer and it had its premiere performance on Radio Belgrade Programme 2, on November 28th 2014.
The story of Mokranjac life is told through the correspondence between the composer and his wife Marija (Mica) Predić Mokranjac, but also from the viewpoint of two modern characters – a girl who is a student of the Academy of Music and the young man (Drama Academy student) who has to write a piece about Mokranjac. The girl helps him with her knowledge using (except professional literature) the letters of this couple as a valuable source of information. This correspondence follows the composer’s professional life, reveals his views on music, creativity, culture, the role of art in society, about the time in which he created, as well as about their own place in it… about life, friendship. It certainly provides one of the possible observation of Mokranjac’s unique work in our history of music, but the letters also reveal the most intimate part of Mokranjac’s personality – the purity of the composer’s soul and the soul of his wife and this story of their past becomes a reflection of the love story that emerges at present between the girl and the young man.
Maja Čolović Vasic (1970, Negotin) graduated from the Department of Musicology at the Belgrade Faculty of Music with thesis Negotin’s Singing Society (1853-1912). She is an editor of the column Music critic and modern trends in music department of Radio Belgrade 2. She is an editor and host of numerous radio shows and programs, and also author of critical reviews, interviews and articles from the area of the current musical life in the country and abroad. As a musical collaborator of Drama department of Radio Belgrade, she took part in the realization of numerous radio dramas and documentaries, of which some participated in prestigious competitions such as the Prix Italia and Prix Europa. As a consultant and music critic, she has cooperated on several occasions with Television Belgrade. Music Production of Radio Television Serbia engaged her as an author of scholarly commentaries printed in the concert programs of ensembles of this house. Her musicological articles, interviews and reviews have been published in daily newspapers and periodical magazines (Politika, Pro Musica, Musical wave, Mokranjac, Torch, Pobjeda, Muzika Klasika, Etnoumlje). From season 2012/13 she has been the author of a series of lectures for the Belgrade Philharmonic’s concerts. She has been following festival Days of Mokranjac since she was a child, and professionally for two decades. She is a member of Program Board of Festival and editor of Program Brochure of this manifestation.
Sasa B. Latinović (1966, Belgrade) graduated from the Faculty of Drama Arts in Belgrade, in the class of proffesor Borjana Prodanovic and professor Svetozar Rapajić. He has directed 50 theater performances. As a long-time contributor to Radio Belgrade, he has realized more than 100 radio dramas. From 2006 to 2008 he worked as an artistic associate at the Academy of Arts in Banja Luka, in the Course Theater directing. For his work, he has received several awards (Charter Vitomir Bogić, Gran Prix of the International children’s festival in Kotor, Gran Prix Zvezdarište, Award of the round table of criticism for the best performance of the Festival Joakim Vujic, and award Mali Joakim). He lives in Belgrade, with the status of independent dramatic artists.
Labyrinth Choir was founded in 2001 and its repertoire of vocal music nurture domestic and foreign authors of different epochs. Until now achieved a number of public appearances and concerts at home and abroad (Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, the Republic of Serbian, Austria). He has received numerous diplomas and prizes at choral festivals and competitions: First place and Grand Prix at the First with International Choir Festival The May ceremony in Bijeljina (Republic of Serbian, 2002), and the silver medal at the same festival in 2004 and 2006; Silver medal at the 9th International Choir Competition in Budapest (Hungary, 2003); Gold diploma at the 4th Internationacionlanom Venecia music festival (2013); Silver medal at the 29th International Festival Franz Schubert – Sing’n’joy (Vienna 2014).
Primarius PhD Zeljka Aleksic (nuclear medicine specialist and medical doctor), graduated accordion and flute in elementary music school Stevan Mokranjac in Zajecar. Since 1991 he has led a vocal and instrumental ensemble Labyrinth, which in 2001 grew into a chamber choir. He received the Medal for cultural contribution to the city of Zajecar.
Ripieno String Quartet was founded in 2013. It is consisted of the students of the School for Musically Gifted in Cuprija from the class of Professor Milica Mihailovic: violinists Milica Stoiljković (2000) and Milica Kostic (1999), violist Milena Stojiljkovic (2000) and cellist Ognjen Milosavljevic (1999). Thanks to a very advanced and special school programme have the opportunity to play chamber music at a very high level at an early age. They have won numerous awards at national and international competitions as solo performers and members of chamber ensembles. They perfected their skills in courses of chamber music quartet Amernet from the United States, and in master classes conducted by maestro Bruno Campo from Guatemala (El Sistema project), as well as professors Dejan Mladenovic Dragan Djordjevic (Faculty of Music Art Belgrade). The quartet has a rich repertoire and frequently represents the school at all major concerts (Kolarac Hall, SASA Gallery, Cultural Centre of Belgrade, and Sava Centre).
CHOIR VIVAK
Children’s choir of the Music school Stevan Mokranjac in Negotin was named Vivak after the eponymous work of composer S.S. Mokranjac who wrote this composition for two-voice children’s choir. Author of the lyrics was Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj. As the musical term vivo vivace indicates something vivid, lively, so these children signify life, joy, light, warmth and Negotin’s future. Choir was founded in 2014 and performed on many concerts: Children to children in Krajina cinema – small stage of the Cultural Centre, Music school’s New Year’s concert in Cultural Centre, as well as on many concerts in Music school’s concert hall in Negotin.
Aleksandra Djukic (1987, Pula) was educated in primary and secondary Music school Stevan Mokranjac in Negotin on both theoretical and instrumental departments. She graduated in 2006 as the valedictorian. The same year, she entered the Faculty of Arts in Nis – music department, general music pedagogy. She graduated in 2011 with the highest grades. She was a winner of the Fund for young talents’ scholarship as the best student of Nis University. She started teaching in 2011 in Music school Stevan Mokranjac in Negotin. With children’s choir of Music school she regularly performs in many programs. Aleksandra arranged a couple of songs for children and is actively working as an accompanist and conductor of the children’s choir. She participated in the choir workshops in Arena International Festival in Pula (Croatia).
Dragana Marinovic – Simonovic, graduated musician – accordionist was born in 1981 in Knjazevac. She graduated in Secondary Music School Stevan Mokranjac in Negotin, instrumental department, in the class of Svetlana Kravchenko, and later graduated in Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade, in the class of Professor Boban Bjelica. She has been teaching since year 2000, which is accompanied by numerous prizes of her students: in solo competitions, including two special awards, and chamber assemblies’ competitions including first rewards in International competitions and Festivals of music schools, as well as prizes for orchestras. Apart from her pedagogical work, Dragana was a member of many juries in various regional and international accordionists’ competitions. After finishing primary and secondary schools, her students successfully continue their music studies.