Smiljana Vlajić (b. 1971, Serbia) is a composer, doctor of arts and full professor at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. Besides her work in the fields of composition and music pedagogy, she is also active as a music theorist and researcher of contemporary artistic currents. As a director of the Cultural Center of Vojvodina Miloš Crnjanski she currates and produces numerous concerts, conferences, workshops and other cultural programmes in Serbia and abroad. She is very involved in collaboration with the organisations of Serbian people in diaspora and with national associations in South African Republic, Timisoara, Budapest, Vienna, Paris… creating collaborative programmes.

She is a visiting professor at several arts academies in Serbia and abroad.

Her most frequently performed works include Trio for oboe, clarinet and bassoon; Variations for oboe, clarinet and bassoon; String Quartet; Igra volhova for violin and cello; Tabula smaragdina for mixed choir, orchestra and electronics; symphonic poems Igra utrnule stvarnosti and Opus Alchemicum; Kuća odbeglih ideja for string orchestra; Devana for flute and string orchestra; Perun je samo na kratko zaspao, multimedia project; Ladina kletva for piano; etc.

About the piece

The piece Devana (vilinsko kolo) [Devana, Elven reel dance], for flute and string orchestra is inspired by the pre-Christian old Slavic mythology and it is dedicated to the godess of forests, hunting, rivers and lakes – Devana, the wife of the old Slavic god Veles.

The work takes us to the times of old when in the eyes of men all nature was spiritual, and all world, living and still, was considered equal and valuable. The times when life had a meaning only if everything that existed had a soul and thought, and when it functioned in harmony with its surroundings. The times when the world of nature, men and spirits was one and the same, and when everyone could find their place in the measure that was predetermined for them by their very nature, to live a life to the fullest …