A great man is one who collects knowledge the way a bee collects honey and uses it to help people overcome the difficulties they endure - hunger, ignorance and disease!
- Nikola Tesla

Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.
- Franklin Roosevelt

While their territory has been devastated and their homes despoiled, the spirit of the Serbian people has not been broken.
- Woodrow Wilson

Zivkovic Wins Grawemeyer Music Prize

“On the Guarding of the Heart,” a piece for chamber orchestra by Serbian-born composer Djuro Zivkovic (joo-ROH’ zhiv-KOH’-veetz), has won the 2014 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition.

The 20-minute work “makes a huge emotional journey in a relatively short period of time, moving through many landscapes between the mysterious, moody opening and the ecstatic conclusion,” said award director Marc Satterwhite.

.

“The composer also makes wonderful use of the colors of the 14-piece ensemble. The instruments are used in fascinating ways, both traditional and otherwise … that shape the sound of unnatural, echoing beauty,” he said.

Zivkovic, 38, describes the piece as an “instrumental cantata” inspired by the religious music of Bach. Its main theme is the need to return to oneself.

“It is about hard-achieved detachment, stillness and watchfulness, it’s about solitude and exile,” the composer said.

Born in Belgrade in 1975, Zivkovic has lived in Stockholm, Sweden, since 2000. He is active as a violinist and violist—with a special interest in improvisation—and teaches at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm.

Austrian ensemble Klangforum Wien gave the first performance of “On the Guarding of the Heart” in November 2011 in Belgrade. The piece also has been performed in Vienna and Bergen.

Zivkovic’s music has been commissioned, performed, recorded and broadcast across Europe and North America by ensembles such as Sonanza, Klangforum Wien, Trio Fibonacci, Musica Vitae Chamber Orchestra, BIT20 and Stockholm Symphonic Wind Orchestra and people such as conductors Emilio Pomarico and Baldur Brönnimann and Swedish contralto Anna Larsson.

He received a Swedish Grammy Award 2010 (Grammis) with Sonanza for his piece “Le Cimetière Marin” for mezzo-soprano and ensemble.

Influenced at an early age by folklore and Byzantine music, he has developed a wide range of composing techniques such as polyrhythms, improvisation, harmony-based scales and microtones. Over the past decade, he has become particularly interested in harmonic organization, an area he has identified as crucial in modern compositions.

UofL presents four Grawemeyer Awards each year for outstanding works in music composition, world order, psychology and education. The university and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary jointly give a fifth award in religion. This year’s awards are $100,000 each.

For more details on the awards or to download Zivkovic’s photo, see grawemeyer.org

From University of Louisville


SA

 

People Directory

Michael (Miroslav) Djordjevich

Michael (Miroslav) Djordjevich, from San Rafael California, was one of the patrons of today’s Serbian Philanthropy in the United States. Mr. Djordjevich founded Capital Guaranty Corporation, one of the first companies in the US to insure municipal bonds, ensuring $18 billion in financing for various infrastructure projects in America, which company he took public on the NY Stock Exchange in 1993, and subsequently sold his stake to devote himself full time to Serbian philanthropy.

Read more ...

Publishing

Христос – Нова Пасха – Божанствена Литургија

Serbian Edition, author Bishop Athanasius Yevtich (издање на српском језику, аутор епископ Атанасије Јевтић)

Период двадесетог века представљао је врло комплексно раздобље везано за развој литургијско-богословске мисли у нашој помесној Цркви. Осећајући насушну еклисијалну и пастирску потребу да поменуту мисао надгради и истовремено је учини приступачнијом народу Божијем, епископ Атанасије Јевтић се одлучио да понуди тротомно дело под насловом: Христос – Нова Пасха – Божанствена Литургија. Иако се објављивање трећег тома тек очекује, сматрамо да богословској и читалачкој пажњи треба представити два тома који су већ изашли.

Сложени назив овог епохалног издања, које може бити препознато као „српска литургијска стромата двадесет и првог века“, аутор је начинио на основу одељка из Прве Посланице Коринћанима светог апостола Павла: Јер се Пасха наша Христос жртвова за нас (1Кор 5, 7). Дело се састоји из два тома и намењено је, према речима епископа Атанасија, „богобојажљивим и христочежњивим љубитељима Божанских Тајни, усрдним учесницима Свете Литургије и причесницима Богочовечанских Светиња“. Наиме, у њему су сабрани текстови о Светој и Божанственој Евхаристији од најранијих времена Цркве Христове (првог века) све до савременог доба, а сâм циљ јесте „раскривање литургијских, еклисиолошких, космичких и есхатолошких димензија Светајне Христа и Његове Цркве“. Највећи део сабраних литургијско-светоотачких текстова се по први пут појављује на српском језику, благодарећи преводилачком и прегалачком труду епископа Атанасија. Уз то, веома су драгоцени његови оригинални коментари. Треба истаћи да су оба тома штампана са тврдим корицама у штампарији Интерклима Графика у Врњачкој Бањи.

Read more ...