Žarko Mirković (1952, Montenegro) completed his undergraduate studies at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, and his Masters studies at NYU in New York. He is the author of choral, chamber compositions and compositions for orchestra, as well as a number of pieces in applied music. Some of his most prominent pieces are:  Echo-Waldstein, for piano and electronic instruments, Junior for female choir, Musica Sioranu and Paintings of Loneliness for string ensemble and Triptych for soloists, choir and symphony orchestra. He has been a professor of many years standing at the Music Academy in Cetinje, and since 2006 he has been in charge of the Music Centre of Montenegro.

Taraf-trio, dedicated to Kotor Art ensemble, represents a sort of homage to taraf-players, Romanian gypsies, who perform their traditional music formed under the influences of different cultures from the Balkans and the Orient, in a virtuosic manner. The piece was created on a well-known union of slow and fast melodies while preserving their dominant traits: emotions and a harmonic tension of the former and the simple mobility of the latter. The music material wasn’t subjected to more complex additions but was treated with the aim to achieve a sort of remake of taraf-music by preserving its authenticity.