FRIDAY – SEPTEMBER 9th

17:00

17:00 Birth house of Mokranjac
Grand Opening of the Festival

– Laying flowers at the monument of  Stevan St. Mokranjac
– Welcome speech: Jovan Milovanovic, Negotin Municipality Mayor
–  Oration:
His Grace Bishop Toplicki Mr. Arsenije, on behalf of His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Irinej
– Joint performance of choir competition participants and Negotin choirs

Stevan St. Mokranjac The Sixth Garland 

18:00

LJUBICA CUCA SOKIĆ AND THE HERITAGE HOUSE

51-M.dani-kuca-legataLjubica Cuca Sokić had a specially significant role in the conception of the very idea to found the Heritage House and consequently played an important part in its realization. Together with Nedeljko Gvozdenović, who can be regarded as the originator of the idea, she shared not only the fact that they both had studios in the Endowment of Ilija M. Kolarac, but more then being neighbours, they both embraced Intimism as a style in painting. Thus, both of them painted as if competing who could interpret the beauty of “ordinary” everyday life in a more subdued, more restrained and more poetic way. Besides sharing a style in painting, they obviously shared a “kitchen” in which a lot of thoughts “simmered”, among them the idea to found a Heritage House in Belgrade. Hence, it is no coincidence that these two artists conceived such an altruistic, humane and as it turned out visionary idea to turn the premises of the present gallery in no. 46 Knez Mihailova Street, that used to be exclusively the Memorial Gallery of Nedeljko Gvozdenović, as was stipulated by the legal acts, into a home not only for their bequests but also a home for all the existing and future bequests and collections that were worthy of being exhibited.
The Heritage House was established on 21 July 2004 by the Assembly of the City of Belgrade. By the end of 2006 and beginning of 2007 a series of benefactors bequeathed their long cherished collections: Olga Jevrić bequeathed an important collection of 44 sculptures, Nada and Sonja Serban, the daughter and wife of the painter Milenko Šerban presented a selection from Šerban’s oeuvre – 35 paintings as well as a collection of works produced by his friends (18 pieces by Šerban’s contemporaries) and a smaller collection of applied art pieces. Our contemporary, Milena Jeftić Ničeva Kostić bequeathed 30 works from her different creative phases that indicated that the doors of the Heritage House would be open to the bequests of the middle and younger generation of artists.
Later in 2007, the Assembly of the City of Belgrade officially transferred the trusteeship of several bequests to the Heritage House and thus the existing fund was formed. On that occasion the Bequest of Nedeljko Gvozdenović was officially received, a total of 562 pieces in different techniques. Three immovable property bequests have also been received: the Bequest of Veljko and Mara Petrović that included a villa in no. 32 Teodora Drajzera Street, numerous manuscripts, a library, paintings and artefacts, the Studio of Petar Lubarda in no.1 Iličićeva Street that has been completely renovated and has a exhibition gallery that showcases Lubarda’s paintings, drawings, personal things, and the Bequest of Risto Stijović in no.18 Vladete Kovačevića Street that houses a collection of the artist’s sculptures. Two other important bequests are in the process of being officially received: the Bequest of Olga Jevrić consisting of 90 sculptures that had been donated to the city of Belgrade much earlier and a new one, the bequest of the recently deceased sculptor Kosta Bogdanović.

19:00

19:00 Cultural Centre
Choirs’ competition:

Required composition:
Stevan St. Mokranjac – Akathist

Choir ACAS Sonja Marinkovic, Novi Sad
Conductor: Dunja Deuric
Dunja-DeuricDunja Deurić  (1987, Zrenjanin) finished elementary and secondary music school Josif Marinkovic in her hometown, on the theoretical and the Department of solo singing in the class of Ana Aleksic Šajrer. As a solo singer, she has performed in numerous competitions in the country, and won many awards, such as the laureate of the Republic competiti on of solo singers (Belgrade, 2005), second prize at the Republic competition of solo singers (Belgrade 2004), second prize at the third competition of solo singers Lazar Jovanović (Belgrade, 2006)… At the Academy of arts in Novi Sad she got a degree in Music Pedagogy in 2012,  and Master degree in Art theory in 2015 (topic: The role and application of feature and animated films in teaching music culture). During the study, she based her interests on choral singing and cooperated with the Vojvodina mixed choir, vocal studio Orfelin, church choirs St. George and St. Stefan of Decani, and has attended conducting workshops in choral festival Europa Cantat in Torino in 2012 and 2015 in Pecs.
AKUD-Sonja-MarinkovicMixed choir of the Amateur Cultural Artistic Society Sonja Marinkovic, founded in 1961, nurtures music by foreign and domestic authors of different epochs and styles. The backbones of the mixed choir are students of the University of Novi Sad. Some of the most eminent choral conductors and music educators contributed to this with their efforts and skill: Imre Toplak, Hilda Pucarević, Nada Pavlov, Danijela Hodoba Leš, Jasmina Nešković and others. Since January 2015, when Dunja Deurić became the artistic director, the choir has won a number of awards: Golden diploma at the first International Festival of Youth Choirs Handful for the world, Golden diploma at the 39th Festival of Youth Choirs of Vojvodina, Golden diploma at the second International Choir Competition Aleksandar Morfidis Nisis (Novi Sad, 2015, 2016), Gold medal in the category of mixed choirs and Grand Prix of the competition at the festival May music festival (Bijeljina, 2015), special jury Prize and the Prize of the Association of Bulgarian composers festival Sounds of the Black Sea (Balchik, 2015), gold medal and laureate of the 52nd  Festival of music societies of Vojvodina (Ruma, 2015), and the Golden plaque and the Grand Prix at the First International Choir Championship Lege Artis (Tuzla, 2016), and two silver diplomas in competition Musica Eterna Roma within the choral festival Meeting Music (Roma, 2016).

Choir Belgrade Madrigalists, Belgrade
Conductor: Aleksandar Brujic
AlexandarBrujicAleksandar Brujić, MA (1976 Beograd) completed his undergraduate and graduate studies in the Department of Conducting at the Faculty of Music Art in Belgrade. He won the Predrag Milosevic award (2000) as the best student of conducting. The same year, he won a scholarship of the Goethe Institute in Mannheim in Germany, where he worked until 2002 as a choral conductor. As an accompanist and assistant he was engaged in the Belgrade Opera (2002-2005) and in 2004 he became an assistant at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. At the same time as an accompanist and assistant, he worked with conductors among which are: Stefan Schreiber, Karl-Anton Rikenbaher, Zubin Mehta, Francesco Rosa, Karl Donadij. As an assistant, he took part at the Festival of Young Artists in Bayreuth in 2005, where he was preparing the first performance of Wagner’s opera Das Liebesverbot, together with Professor Faust Nardijem and Professor Edwin Solca from Berlin. As music assistant, he has worked on master classes of Olivera Miljaković, prima donna of the Vienna opera. Since 2008, he has been the conductor of Belgrade madrigalists choir.
Bgd-madrigalistiChoir Belgrade Madrigalists was founded in 1951 by the conductor, Milan Bajšanski. The ensemble fostered a new kind of music (first of all, madrigals, motets, renaissance and baroque music) but also sacred compositions of domestic and foreign authors, national repertoire, and contemporary works. This choir was the first among our ensembles which performed Liturgy by Stevan Mokranjac in our country (1966) and in Moscow (1972) – and that is our only choir that had the honor of hosting a concert of Orthodox music in the Church of St. Peter in Rome before Pope Paul VI (1970). The choir was led by: Milan Bajšanski, Dimitrije Stefanović, Svetolik Pašćan, Vojislav Ilic, Dusan Miladinovic, Vladimir Milic, Aleksandar Spasic, Aleksandar Vujic and others. Among the awards the choir won, the most important are the first prize in Arezzo, Llangollen, Perugia, Bratislava and Brno. The choir has recently participated in competitions and festivals in Venice (Venezia in Musica), Rome (Musica Sacra a Roma), Wales (Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod), and Bulgaria (St. Atanas the Great). In 1991, the Serbian Orthodox church awarded the choir with the medal of St. Sava for outstanding achievement in fostering the Serbian spiritual music.

Choir Belgrade Students Singing Society
Conductor: Danilo Tomic
Danilo-TomicDanilo Tomic (1994, Kladovo) is a student of conducting at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade (the class of Biljana Radovanovic) which he started upon completing his study at the piano department in Music School Stevan Mokranjac in Negotin. He has been the principal conductor of the Belgrade Student Choral Society since March 2016. He was an assistant conductor at this year’s Summer Spiritual Academy in the monastery Studenica, he is engaged as an assistant conductor in the choir Cvetković in CAS Branko Cvetkovic, as well as the assistant conductor of the mixed choir of the Church of Saints Joachim and Anne. In this year’s festival Choirs among Frescoes he performed with this church’s children’s choir conductor in the crypt of the St. Sava temple. He is one of the founders of the School of Gregorian chanting Scuola Cantorum (starts working in September 2016). Periodically he is engaged as an organist and conductor in the Church of Christ the King in Belgrade as well as in other churches in the area of Belgrade Archdiocese.
BSPDConsidering the fact that most of today’s students don’t have the opportunity or chance to prove themselves in some of the best choirs, in March 2016, Belgrade Student Choral Society which is open to all young people up to the age of 28 with or without experience in choir singing has been created by the Students Organization Cherish the Culture. Thirty members of the choir are mainly students from over 10 different faculties of Belgrade University and from Faculty of Arts. The main idea is to create a unity where quality comes to the fore only after the dedicated work with individuals, and the entire group. The fact that a choir conductor is a student justifies the idea that young people are able to take care of young people and their enthusiasm will always be the guiding principle of all changes. The program includes sacred music and classical compositions, but (following the trends in the choir performance) the choir attempts to present music from popular culture in a genuine way (The Beatles, The Police …). This is just one of the ways in which young people want to encourage other young people to deal with things they like in their spare time and also show solidarity and the need for turning to cultural values. The choir has so far performed several times, mostly at faculties of the Belgrade University.

Choir Sumatovac, Aleksinac
Conductor: Marija Zovko
Marija-ZovkoMarija Zovko (Leskovac, 1981). She graduated in 2006. at the Faculty of Arts in Nis (General Music Pedagogy) as the most successful student. At the same faculty she acquired knowledge of Master Art Theoretician in 2013. Marija Zovko has been a conductor of the choir since renewed (2005-2010) and since April 2016. She works as a music teacher in Leskovac.
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SumatovacŠumatovac mixed choir was founded as Aleksinac Choral Society in 1887. It has performed in concerts of the First Belgrade Singing Society, and 50 years of its existence was celebrated by a gala concert, which was broadcasted live by Radio Belgrade. The repertoire, which in recent years has significantly expanded and enriched, consists of the best works of domestic and international choral literature of all epochs. According to expert assessments, the level of artistic performance was raised which led to the highest honours and awards: First Prize at the 1st Orthodox Music Festival in the context of 22nd International choral festival (Niš, 2008), Award for the original performance of composition I Cried Unto the Lord With My Voice…, Arhanglesky (Niš, 2010), third prize at Ohrid Choir festival (2013), third prize at the International festival of choirs in Pardubice (2014), two special awards at the 12th International festival of Orthodox Spiritual choral music in Pomorie, Bulgaria (2015).

Jury

JURY  OF  THE  CHOIRS’  SINGING  COMPETITION
Sonja Marinkovic, PhD, musicologist
Tamara Adamov Petijevic, conductor
Miloje Nikolic, MA, conductor

Sonja-MarinkovicPhD Sonja Marinković, musicologist, full time professor at the Department of Musicology at the Faculty of Music, Belgrade, Serbia, teaches history of music and research methodology. She is a member of Editorial Board of the International Magazin for Music New Sound; Editor-in-chief of magazin Mokranjac; director of XIV and XV Review of composers in Belgrade (2005–2006). She is engaged in research work concerning the Serbian history of music of the 20th century, especially dealing with the problem of relation between folklore and composers’ creativity (her doctoral theses was National Music Features in Serbian Music in the First Half of the 20th Century), as well as the problem of social art. She is author of high school text-books in the subjects: music culture, history of music and history of Serbian music.

Tamara-Adamov-PetijevicTamara Adamov Petijevic is a conductor, violin player and teacher, a researcher in the field of choral music. She conducts an Orthodox church choir St Stephen of Dechani, the Isidor Bajic Music School mixed and female choir and a professional vocal-instrumental oratorio ensemblе Orfelin. She graduated at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, Serbia, while also studying the English language and literature at the Faculty of Philosophy there. Then started choral conducting as an experienced orchestra and chamber musician and developed her skills through master-classes and work with European experts in choral music.Now is enrolled at the PhD studies in conducting at the Music Academy in Belgrade. From 2011 to 2013 she conducted the boys’ choir of the Karlovci Seminary of the Serbian Orthodox church as the first woman-conductor and teacher in the history of that institution. Her choirs won several prizes at national and international choral competitions and festivals.

Miloje-NikolicMiloje Nikolić graduated in 1974, and obtained teh master’s degree in 1983 at the Department of Music Theory of the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. Since 1977 he has been working at the Department of Music Theory, Faculty of Music in Belgrade, as a full-time professor. Since 1998 he has been working on the Faculty of Philology and Arts in Kragujevac, where he was the first acting dean. In the last fifteen years he has been engaged at the Music Academy in East Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Cetinje (MN). As a music theorist, he is the author of numerous scientific papers on the analysis of vocal music. He was the conductor of various choirs in Belgrade (Branko Cvetkovic, Ivo Lola Ribar, Žikica Jovanović-Spanac), and in 1990 he founded the Academic Chamber Choir Liceum in Kragujevac. He is the founder and artistic director of the International Festival of Chamber Choirs in Kragujevac, one of the founders of the International Association of Balkan choral forum, and was a founder and president of its Serbian section. He is a regular member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and Arts (BANI) since 2014.