Mirjana Živković studied composition at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade (Stanojlo Rajičić, BA in 1964). 1967-1968 she was in Paris attending graduate courses with Nadia Boulanger (composition, harmony, analysis) and Olivier Messiaen (composition). In 1974 she obtained a master’s degree at the Faculty of Music. She taught harmony, counterpoint, music forms and composition at the “J. Slavenski“ Music of School in Belgrade. In 1976 she became assistant professor at the Faculty of Music, subsequently associate and then full professor (Harmony, Methods of Teaching Music Theory). She was the head of the Music Theory Department 1998–2001.

She has won important recognitions: the Award of the Serbian Broadcasting System and the Stevan Hristić Award in 1964, First Prize of the Fontainebleau Conservatory, France 1968; awards of Serbian Composers Association, Golden Plaque of the University of Arts in Belgrade for pedagogical work in1997.

Her oeuvre comprises symphonic and concerto works, chamber and solo, vocal vocal-instrumental etc. She is the author of a number of textbook and articles published in magazines and journals.

Ballade No. 2 (fragments of memory)
In musical ballades there is always a story, although mostly without words. I devoted the Piano Ballade No. 1, composed and performed in 2001, to the one turbulent date of our recent past – to October 5th. In Piano Ballade No. 2, with subtitle fragments of memory, written in 2009, I turn to personal recollections form days long gone. The motives that during the years have been intertwined and inscribed in my musical conscious/subconscious have been built in Ballade No. 2: the fragment of one old urban song, excerpts from pieces by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and Vasilije Mokranjac. Quotations are never literal. Everything has been ‘immersed’ in the time motion.