Ivan Brkljačić (Belgrade, 1977) graduated from the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, Department of Composition and Orchestration, with Srđan Hofman. In 2005 he completed the MA studies of composition at the same university, with Zoran Erić.

In the course of studies he composed works for piano solo, guitar solo, various chamber ensembles and orchestra (his graduated composition – It!, piano concerto). Recently, he composed the following works: When the Curtain Raises Seven Time, for symphony orchestra; Cavatina, for harp solo; Cutting edge, for flute, baritone saxophone and piano; Jinx, for chamber ensemble; …in one’s eye wink… for cello and piano; Where are the Bad Musicians’ Children? for a rock band; Pulsation of a long-time-beyond-recall clock, for symphony orchestra; Fliza for flute solo and chamber string orchestra; Sun King for female choir (homage to the Beatles).

In 1997, his composition For two represented the Belgrade University of Arts in the Students’ Festival in Temisoar (Romania). He attended master classes for young composers in Ohrid, Macedonia (in 2000 and in 2002), in Warsaw, Poland (in 2003 – a course within the festival Warsaw Autumn) and in Graz, Austria (The Impulse-the International Academy for young composers and performers). His composition Sting was performed during the Music Festival in Katowice, Poland in 2003. On the same occasion he gave a lecture with a presentation of his orchestral compositions, for the students of the Department of Composition at the Music Academy in Wroclaw. During the month of April, 2004 he led the workshop Live Music (as a music coordinator) at the Faculty of Drama in Belgrade, within the Encounters of Belgrade Students.

In August 2005 he participated the Ostrawa Days of New Music in Check Republic. In the course of the festival he collaborated with renown composers and conductors, such as Louis Andriessen, Christian Wolf, Alvin Lucier, Peter Kotik, Phil Neeblock, Rebecca Sanders, Martin Smolka and Zsolt Nagy. Also, the Ostrawa Band, comprised of musicians from all over the world, premiered his composition Jinx for chamber ensemble. In September 2005 he participated at the Festival of Contemporary Music Kogoj’s Days in Slovenia, where, the Slavko Osterc Trio performed his composition Cutting edge.

The works of Ivan Brkljačić have been performed numerous times at the International Review of Composers in Belgrade, and the festival commissioned some of them. Also, his works have been performed in Romania, Hungary, France, Macedonia, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Austria, Italy, Check Republic and Brasil.

The Belgrade Summer Festival (Belef 2005) commissioned his work Where are the Bad Musicians’ Children? within the cycle I want to be a rock and roll star. He premiered this work with the band Bad Musicians’ Children in the concert at the Students’ Cultural Center in Belgrade.

The Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra commissioned his composition Pulsation of a long- time-beyond-recall clock, and premiered it in the season 2005/2006. In the same season Ivan Brkljačić had his first author’s concert in the Mokranjac Hall in Belgrade.

He is a prolific composer of incidental music: he wrote music scores for the theatre companies and troops Branko Krsmanović, Raša Plaović (within the Serbian national Theatre), Bitef theatre, Atelje 212, Duško Radović, Boško Buha, Mata Milošević (within the Faculty of Drama), Zvezdara theatre and Belgrade Drama Theatre. He participated twice in the festival of the university theatres with Branko Krsmanović, in Besancon and Paris (France), in 2000 and 2002. Also, he wrote theatre music for the companies outside Belgrade: Toša Jovanović in Zrenjanin, Sterija in Vršac, National Theatre and Children’s Theatre in Subotica, National Theatre in Banja Luka. He also composed theatre music for the scene Holdvilag in Budapest (in 1998), and was a member of the Yugoslav/German theatre coproduction in Erlangen (Germany) in 2000. In January 2006. he wrote the music for the play Amadeus, directed by Alisa Stojanović, and he is a member of the chamber ensemble which performs this music live during the play.

From 1999 to 2005. he worked as a teacher of the music analysis in the Secondary Music School Mokranjac in Belgrade, and since the academic year 2005/06. he has been working as the assistant lecturer at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, at the Department for Music Theory.

He was awarded Mokranjac Prize for the year 2004, for his work When the Curtain Raises

Seven Times, for symphony orchestra.

- Cavatina

The piece was originally written for solo harp in 2004 and the first performance took place the same year at the first Chinchfestival in Belgrade. Soon after that the composer made an arrangement for violin and strings, having in mind the string orchestra of the students of the School of Music Mokranjac, where he worked at the time. He dedicated this version to the students of Mokranjac. While making this arrangement of the Cavatina, the composer wanted to spread the ‘tender’ emotions (which occured as a result of a painfull loss) throughout the wide spectrum of string instruments, which was not possible in the version for solo harp. The piece is under the strong influence of Cavatina by Stanley Myers, composed in the seventies of the last century.