Svetlana Maraš (b. 1985) is composer and artist active in the field of experimental music. Her work encompasses variety of formats such as live performance, electro-acoustic composition, sound installations and works for the radio.

Maraš has presented her work internationally, at venues, festivals and events such as Kunstmuseum (Basel), Haus der Kunst (Munich), Ruhr Triennial, CTM (Berlin), Ars Electronica (Linz), Wien Modern, House of Electronic Arts (Basel), Espace Multimedia Gantner (Bourogne), Musikprotokoll (Graz), Heroines of Sound (Berlin), Onassis Cultural Centre (Athens), Stadttheater (Bern), Museum of Contemporary Art (Belgrade), Izlog Suvremenog Zvuka (Zagreb), Blurred edges (Hamburg), ICMC (New York), International Rostrum of Composers (Wroclaw), ISEA (Dubai), International Music Institute (Darmstadt), Orpheus Institute (Ghent) and many other places. Her music was used in theatre plays, experimental and documentary films and presented at places like MOMA (New York), Aubagne International Film Festival and Bitef theatre (Belgrade).

From 2016-2021, she was composer in residence and artistic director at Radio Belgrade’s Electronic studio, where she established numerous programs such as artistic residencies, educational courses and most notably, restoration of EMS Synthi 100.

Maraš is Professor of Creative Music Technology and Co-head of Electronic Studio at Hochschule für Musik FHNW, Basel. She is the winner of the most prestigious Serbian composition prize “Stevan Mokranjac”, awarded by the Serbian Composers’ Association.

About the piece

Chamber music for accordion with electronics and cello represents the continuous development of the principles of aleatoric composition in which the electronic part is given the task to expand the expressive possibilities of the accordion, following up on the existing sounds of the instrument and widening the sound spectrum of the piece.

The cello, accordion and electronic sounds exchange roles in a micro-collage structure, creating a unifying sound composed of quick quasi-improvisatory passages up to scattered noises and very brief, profiled motives. The particularity of the sound image is achieved by the precise definition of certain parameters of sound, and by notatin ght edetails which are incorporated in the music current, the time structure of which is flexible and dependent on the musicians’ interpretation.

The piece exists in two versions – the one with an interface in the form of a MIDI controler manipulated by the accordion player, and another with sampled sounds.