Aleksandra Vrebalov studied composition at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, obtained her master’s degree in 1996 at the San Francisco Conservatory, and doctoral degree at the University of Michigan. She attended composition courses of Zoran Erić at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade and many master classes including Darmstadt, Apeldorn, Szombathely and Tanglewood. She was a recipient of the Rockefeller Center Grant at Lago di Como and participated in major festivals in the USA. Her works were commissioned by the Carnegie Corporation, Barlow Foundation, Providence Ballet Festival, Claris Smith Center in Maryland, Merkin Concert Hall in New York. She won the awards of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Meet the Composer, Douglas Moor Fund, several awards of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), First Prize at the competition Friends and Enemies of New Music (for the work Canta Claro) and the Leonard Bernstein grant for the participation at the June in Buffalo Festival.

She is the founder of international summer courses in composition Summer in Sombor in 2007. The works of Aleksandra Vrebalov were performed by Belgrade Philharmonic, TAJJ Quartet from Novi Sad, quartets Kronos, Sosalito, Momenta and Onyx (USA), Utrecht and Anachord Quartets (Netherlands), Noxville Symphony Orchestra (USA), Ballet Festival Ensemble (USA), guitarist Jorge Caballero (USA/Brazil), Moravian Philharmonic (the Czech Republic) and soloists of the new York City Opera.

Her composition Times – having received the prize at the Vienna Modern Masters Competition – was recorded in 1997 for the edition Music from Six Continents. Composition Pannonia Boundless was published by Boosey&Hawkes in 2007, and recorded for Nonesuch in 2000.

Bagatelles

Two piano Bagatelles were written in 2007 for the Beethoven Festival in New York, organized by the Mannes Conservatory. The pieces lean on two bagatelles from Beethoven’s Op. 119 and are performed in the following order: Vrebalov Bagatelle No. 1, Beethoven Op. 119 No. 5, Beethoven Op. 119 No. 9, Vrebalov Bagatelle No. 2. If the first pair of Bagatelles are regarded as an integral form, than Bagatelle No. 1 would be a kind of introduction for Op. 119 No. 5. Concerning the other pair, Bagatelle No. 2 would be a development section to the Beethoven Bagatelle No. 9. The character of the two Op. 119 miniatures refracted through my own prism, as well as Beethoven’s harmonic solutions served as the principal binding material in the formation of this anachronous pairs.