Stanislava Gajić (1980, Serbia) attended composition studies at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, in the class of Miroslav Štatkić and Zoran Mulić. She completed her postgraduate studies of composition at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, class of Isidora Žebeljan, where she is currently realizing her doctoral art project. Her graduation piece, music for the ballet Ožalošćena porodica (Bereaved family), based on the comedy by Branislav Nušić, to the libretto and choreography by Živojin Novkov, had its premiere on 24 October 2004 at the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad. Her final Master’s degree piece was the composition Koridon and Tirzis, and for her composition SPIN a virtual image for the symphony orchestra which was performed on 7 July 2007 in Bari (performance by Orchestra Sinfonica della Provincia di Bari, Regia Puglia, conductor Vito Paternoster) she was awarded the Vasilije Mokranjac Diploma. She works as an Assistant at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad at the Department for composition, on the subjects Harmony and Counterpoint.

Divafor flute and double bass

In ancient Slavic mythology Diva, sometimes called “Živa”, “Deva”, “Devana” or “Vesna” was the goddess of spring and fertility, in charge of the morning and giving birth to a new life. With her rosy and lush constitution Diva personifies the bloom and revival of nature in the spring, after the numbness of the winter and the return of light after a period of darkness. This goddess is presented as beautiful, always smiling, nude and barefoot, somewhat covered by the attire made from ferns, grass and flowers. There is a swallow on the index finger of her right arm and a posy of flowers in her left. In the folk tales of the Eastern Slavs Diva or Divka was the name for the queen of rusalki. After accepting Christianity, saint Parascheva of the Balkans and Virgin Mary shared this function of the female deity of fertility, beauty and motherhood (taken and revised from the encyclopaedia Slavic Mythology by Nenad Gajić).