Stanislava Gajić (1980, Serbia) studied composition at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad in the classes of professors Miroslav Štatkić and Zoran Mulić. She received her master’s and doctoral degrees from the Faculty of Music in Belgrade in the class of academician Isidora Žebeljan. In 2007, she was awarded the Charter of Vasilije Mokranjac at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. In 2014, the first prize at the international competition Donna in Musica went to her composition Echoes of Žutibor, and in 2015 the second prize at the international competition Donne in Musica was awarded to her composition Corridon and Tirzis. Works by Stanislava Gajić were performed throughout Serbia, in Croatia, Republika Srpska, Germany, Italy, Spain, England, Argentina, USA and China, and were performed by: Symphony Orchestra of the Serbian National Theater, Symphony Orchestra of the Novi Sad Academy of Arts, Symphony Orchestra of Pula, Camerata Academica, Ensemble Gradilište, Ensemble de cuerdas San Juan, Chamber Orchestra Orfelin, as well as soloists: Milijana Nikolić, Marko Miletić, Mateja Marinković, Lidija Knajp, Branko Džinović and others. Stanislava Gajić is an assistant professor at the Department of Composition at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad.

About the work

Raga i Igra (Raga and Dance)(2019) was composed for accordionist Branko Džinović and cellist Marko Miletić. As these two musicians did not know each other personally until the composition was created, the idea was to base the theme for Raga/Igra on the tones obtained from their names, so that, by combining them, I would get the alchemy for the creation of this work. The theme consists of tones: Mi (e) -La (a) -Mi (e) and Si (b) -Re (d) -La (a) -Sol (g). A kind of dualism from the theme is transferred to the character between the Raga section and the section in which the Dance character is. Raga and Dance are in themselves contrasts within which we have the opportunity to see how, in different ways in each of them, the same initial thematic material develops. Thus, based on the principle of contrast, the tempo changes (slower and faster – playful) and in the end both characters of the theme appear at the same time, merging into an inseparable whole, which with this process of unification of the two themes gained its full strength and significance, both in the musical and polyphonic sense.