Ivan Božičević (1961, Serbia/Croatia), composer, organist, pianist, arranger and jazz musician. He studied composition in Belgrade with A. Obradović and organ in Frankfurt with E. Krapp. He lives in Split as a composition professor at the Academy of Arts. His opus encompasses four symphonic works, as well as nu-merous chamber, choral, soloistic and electronic compositions. He is interested in a variety of genres (baroque, electronic, jazz, world music) and the possibil-ity of “cross-fertilizations“ between those genres. His works are performed and recorded all over Europe and the USA , issued at 17 CD-s, printed by several US publishers (Walton Music, EC Schirmer, Abundant Silence, Hinshaw) and in Germany (Schott).
Along with the recognitions at home (Stevan Hristić Award, Silver Medal of the Belgrade University of Arts), Božičević has received numerous composition prizes abroad – ArtsLink Fellowship Award, Garth Newel Composition Award, Third Millenium Ensemble Award, Alienor Harpsichord Composition Award, Asylum Saxophone Quartet Prize, AGO/ECS Publishing Prize, AGO/Marilyn Ma-son Prize, Random Access Music Award, International Clarinet Association Prize, (USA), Trio Anima Mundi Prize (Australia), John Clare Society Award, Invitation to Composers Project (Great Britain), award at the Prague Philhar-monic Choir Competition (Czech Republic), „Sofia soloists ensem-ble” award (Bulgaria), Premio Cristóbal Halffter (Spain).

Ibis for flute, violoncello and piano
In Ancient Egypt, the ibis was revered as a holy bird and a symbol of bril-liance and splendour. It was regarded as an embodiment of Thoth, god of wis-dom and reason, and thus of truth, knowledge, learning, writing and mathe-matics. Other sources cite the ibis as the first bird that Noah released from the Ark as a symbol of fertility. So this bird seems to have it all – from wisdom, knowledge and mathematics to fertility; could one wish for more?
In my four-movement suite I rely both on reason (strict minimalistic proce-dures in the development of form, mainly in the piano part) and vitality (free-flowing lines of flute and cello), hoping to capture and express the riches that this magnificent bird symbolizes.