Stanko Simić (b. 1987, Serbia) completed undergraduate studies (the class of Vlastimir Trajković) and master studies of composition (the class of Zoran Erić) at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade in 2015. At the same time, he earned a master’s degree in piano (the class of Lidija Stanković, 2011) and he was awarded the Slobodanka Milošević Savić Foundation Prize in 2010 for his academic achievements. Three years later, he won the Josip Slavenski Foundation Award of the Composition Department, for his work Talasi (Waves, 2013). He is currently attending the final year of the Doctoral academic studies of composition in the class of Zoran Erić.

Over the past several years Stanko Simić took part in courses of eminent professors such as Luca Francesconi, Larry Alan Smith, Rokus de Groot, Nils Henrik Asheim, Clemens Gadenstatter, and Yann Robin. He was a finalist at the 2012 Krzysztof Penderecki International Composers’ Competition (Arboretum, Poland), as well as the 2014 Città di Udine Composition Competition (Italy). His works were performed by numerous ensembles and soloists including the RTS Symphony Orchestra with conductor Bojan Suđić, Ensemble Metamorphosis, St George Strings, Bizjak Piano Duo, Trio Singidunum, Novi Sad Wind Quintet, Aratos Trio and others. He co-authored the project of digitization of the entire piano opus of the academician Vasilije Mokranjac.

About the piece

Besides international composers whose music I love to listen, to play, to analize and to reflect upon it, several Serbian composers also had a considerable influence on my creativity – during the academic studies as well as today. When I composed Fanfare, I did not intend to invoke anyones compositional poetics in particular – the music was flowing from my fingers ’on its own’ – however certain personalities inevitably influenced my musical language: these include, perhaps more than anything, the piano sound of Vasilije Mokranjac, Vlastimir Trajković’s understanding of musical time, Ognjen Bogdanović’s repetitive style and use of polymetry, and more recently the systematicness of counterpoint writing of Dragan Latinčić. What was of particular interest to me while composing this piece (but also several earlier works) was the relationship between even and odd pulsation and limitless possibilities of their combinations – but in a suitable manner. Also, by making a sequence of seemingly unrelated music materials – ’fanfares’ – I played with the perception of an imaginary listener, without any preconcieved intentions. The piece was written for my soloist concert Inspiracije – muzika za klavir which took place in 2019.