Dejan Despić (1930, Serbia), composer, music writer, theoretician and pedagogue. He studied composition with Marko Tajčević and conducting with Mihailo Vukdragović at the Belgrade Academy of Music (today the Faculty of Music), graduating in 1955. Despić first taught theoretical subjects at the “Mokranjac” Music School (1955-1965), and then at the Belgrade Academy of Music, from which he retired as full professor (1965-1995). He was elected Corresponding (1985) and Full Member (1994) of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SASA). Since 1999 Despić is secretary of the Department of Fine Arts and Music of SASA.

Rendez-vous, Wind Quintet op. 195 (2008)
Having developed a very high esteem for the Wind Quintet of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, and esspecialy its excelent performances of my quintet A cinque on various occasions and places, I have decided to dedicate my recent piece to the Quintet as well. The work has the usual order of a four-movement sonata cycle: fast (Intrada) scherzo-like (Capriccio), slow (Lamento), fast (Giga e  partenza). The title of the composition arises from its unusual (if not utterly original) idea – a randez-vous of the musicians who are entering successively, and leaving one by one after collectively playing, as in Haydn’s Farewell Symphony. The oboist enters with a call-like motive, known from the beginning of Berlioz’s “Scene in the Fields” of the Fantastic Symphony. Each of the newly-arrived instruments responds to oboe, partly in canonical pairs. Finally, as in Berlioz’s work, the only remaining instrument – oboe – calls again, but this time without getting a response. Silence ensues, full of loneliness and sadness; the friends are separated (perhaps forever?). The motive transforms from major to minor variant…