11:00
11:00 Town Square
Concert: Classical music at 11
Belgrade Faculty of Music’s 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.
17:00
17:00 Cultural Centre Lobby
Forum:Memories and homages – 50 years of existence
Moderator: Aleksandra Paladin, MA, musicologist
Fifty years long history which was written into the Serbian musical life by Festival The Days of Mokranjac chronicled many remarkable moments. It contains an impressive list of artists and ensembles that have performed, archives the names of scientists in the field of music who were thinking on a variety of topics, remember eminent spokesmen who have met with the famous giant and his trail through their word. Time keeps permanent signs directed towards preserving tradition and culture that by actions of the composer. For the past five decades it changed and modified in accordance with the new times and new creative and performing perception of the authors who headed his direction.
The festival has in its existence joined and many other events that have as a thread knitted in richly weaving of its existence. Exhibitions, poetry nights and book promotions upgraded the coexistence of different arts through which Mokranjac himself also spoke. Festival has a special note given by socializing outside of concert venues, conversations and topics started in the courtyard of the birth house of Stevan Mokranjac dominated by a bust of the composer, surrounded by almond tree branches, which he also sang about in his Garlands.
All the above mentioned is preserved and in the memories of Mokranjac’s admirers, devotees of his character and deeds, who have visited Negotin and The Days of Mokranjac for all these years. Anniversaries are time to refresh our memories, to meet them, to pronounce them publicly, and to save the words for a future history. Tribune Memories and homages – 50 years of existence gathers prominent artists, musicologists, ethnomusicologists and cultural workers from our country, to remind of fifty years of the life of this eminent festival.
Aleksandra Paladin, MA, musicologist, editor in chief for the artistic music in “Radio Belgrade 1” radio station. She is a founder and editor in chief of the magazine Musika Klasika and artistic director of festival Muzika Klasika Light. Ms. Paladin realized numerous projects for Belgrade television acting as a scriptwriter, editor or music director. She is also engaged in the scientific research. Topics of interest include cultural management and Serbian music history. Writes the critiques of artistic music and promotes the selected music editions. Held public lectures on variety of topics related to the Serbian artistic music. She has actively participated in the music festival The Days of Mokranjac. She is a member of Festival’s Council of Art. For many years she was the leader of the Festival’s press center and its main PR. She is the author of textbooks for the course of Musical culture for elementary school and high school (Novi Logos, Belgrade). She is the author of brochure’s Susretanja – 30 years (2011) and Tracing the music in Serbia – Festivals (2012), and the book Children’s Choir RTS (1947-2012) (2013). She is a Member of the Serbian Musicological Society (2006), Section of Music Writers, Association of Composers of Serbia (2009) and a member of the Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia (NUNS) (2009).
19:00
19:00 Church of the Holy Trinity
Concert: Choir Iuventus cantat, Sombor
(Winner of the Choir Competition 2014)
Conductor: Dajana Mijic
Mixed Youth Choir Iuventus Cantat exists since 1985 within the Choral Society of Sombor, founded in 1980. It is a member of the European Federation of Youth Choirs (EFYC) and INTERKULTUR Foundation. Under the direction of its founder and conductor – Silvester Hajnal, the Choir gained an outstanding reputation for a short time, performing at all the major festivals in the country and working with leading orchestras and conductors. It has won many awards at some of the world’s most distinguished choral festivals in Rome, 1998 (Festival of Sacred Music), Linz, 2000 (first Olympics of Choirs), Budapest, 2001 (VIII International Festival, with three gold medals in the category of male, female and mixed choirs), Llangollen, 2001 (55th International Festival of Music – the first prize in the category of mixed choirs, the title Conductor of the world to Silvester Hajnal). At the 2nd Choirs Olympics in Korea, 2002, the Choir won the gold medal, led by Aleksandar Vujic due to sudden death of Silvester Hajnal. For almost four years, the choir was led by Fedor Prodanov, and very significant results were achieved under the baton of Ms. Nada Vukovic. Since March 2008, the Choir has been conducted by a prominent composer of the middle generation – Minta Aleksinacki. In that period the Choir participated in festivals Choirs among frescoes in Belgrade, The Days of Mokranjac in Negotin, and won a special prize at the festival in Nis. Since March 2012, the baton was taken over by Diana Mijic. The first competition with a new conductor brought the Gold Medal at the 37th Festival of youth choirs. In the same year, they won the second place at the 50th Festival of Musical Associations of Vojvodina, in Ruma. In 2014 the choir again won the gold medal at the 38th Festival of Youth Choirs of Vojvodina, and the same year it turn out to be the winner of singing competition of choirs at the 49th Days of Mokranjac in Negotin.
Diana Mijic (1988) is a student of the Music Academy in East Sarajevo, which she joined after graduation at the secondary music school in Subotica. The former longtime member of the Choir Iuventus Cantat, then an assistant of Minta Aleksinacki, she has been the conductor of this Sombor ensemble since 2012. She was engaged in volunteer work at various music festivals in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the NGO Podijum which is engaged in the organization of multimedia projects in the field of culture, sport and education in Sombor.
20:30
20:30 Cultural Centre
Concert: The dance troop Una Saga Serbica
The Dances and the Sounds of the Balkans
The dance troop Una Saga Serbica is consisted of young professional dancers who promote and cultivate rhythmic art and who (as many other artists do) find boundless source of inspiration in beauties of the Balkans, its history, cultural heritage, and above all its dances. Binding the steps, words, notes, colours and people, they came up with the idea of creating a new perspective of looking at the culture of the inhabitants of the region and thus displayed in a unique way all the beauty of the time behind us.
Scenic spectacle of Una Saga Serbica troop represents a time vacuum from which a new tradition is born through dance, music, costumes, set design.
Ensemble respects the limited character of the original folklore and upgrades it with a new formation. It brings to life the story on the scene using 3D mapping technology which, in a very unique way, links dance and visual experience. Well-known folk rhythms get a refreshing array of new notes that will surprise connoisseurs of music from the area and delight those who listen for the first time.
United styles, visual effects, and unique modern choreography steps blend in a fusion of modern beauty of the Balkans by creating a new form of artistic communication.
With a desire to inspire future generations to continue to nurture the folklore culture, the spectacle of Una Saga Serbica aims to revive and to bring closer our dancing heritage to modern audiences.