Nataša Bogojević (1966, Serbia/USA) graduated from the composition class of Prof. Srđan Hofman at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. She also attended courses in electronic and film music. In 1995, she moved to the United States, where she currently teaches at DePaul University and runs her Musica Natasha school of music. Her oeuvre comprises works for symphony orchestra, solo instruments, chamber ensembles, vocal music, as well as ballet, film, and theatre music.
Bogojević has won a number of prizes and awards, both national and international (UNESCO, Paris; October Prize, Belgrade; Joseph Jefferson Award, Chicago, etc.). Works by Bogojević have been performed by renowned soloists, ensembles, and orchestras across the world.
A biography of Bogojević appears in every edition of Who Is Who, as well as in Anne K. Gray’s The World of Women in Classical Music (Seven Locks Press, 2007).
“Nataša Bogojević formed her initial mode of expression in music quite naturally, within the context of postmodernism. Influenced by various musics, from a free and un-burdensome insight into works from the history of music, all the way to jazz and, in particular, the sounds of pop culture, she approached music as a fascinating sound archive storing tonal orations as calls for reformulations, quotations, paraphrases… in general, all sorts of inter-musical communication… materials from various temporal and cultural identities and profiles, as a diachronic or synchronic collage, as a reflection of creative curiosity and a penchant for retrospection.” Zorica Premate, musicologist.

Oče premudri, Svetitelju Savo(O Father Most Wise, Saint Sava) for violoncello and the Collegium Musicum choir is a version of the eponymous piece that I wrote for the 15th Academy of Saint Sava, organised by the eponymous school in Chicago, the only Serbian school in that city. The piece was written for a mixed choir and performed at Nichols Hall on 1 October 2016 (Branko Radičević Choir, conducted by Jelena Vranić, and Maja Bogdanović, violoncello).
The music is a setting of verses by Theodosius the Chilandarian (Teodosije Hilandarac, Теодосије Хиландарац)
(Troparion, Eighth Tone)
O beacon of Orthodoxy
and teacher of goodness,
O purity of thy fatherland
and enlightener,
the flower of hermits,
Father most wise, Saint Sava,
With thy teaching
Thou hast enlightened the people,
Thou, the pipe of the Spirit,
Pray Christ the Lord for our souls.
In this piece, as well as my other recent works, I sought to explore the possibility of synthesising our folk melodies as well as medieval Serbian chant with those of American urban minimalism.