Svetlana Maksimović (1948) completed her education in Belgrade, and she obtained her PhD in Toronto (Canada). Over the years she has written music for various ensembles, including a dozen of works for solo piano, violin and cello, as well as several pieces for large symphony orchestra. Her music has been performed many times at the International Review of Composers in Belgrade, in portrait concerts of her music in Belgrade and other Serbian towns, as well as abroad (Canada, USA, France, italy). Her wide musical interests include old traditions, Asian and European, Old Church Slavonic, and she shows an affinity towards modal scales. In shaping music material, she searches for its immanent expression, not concerned solely with any chosen technique or any chosen concept of form or language. This approach characterises her music as a whole, even though she has gone through several stages of her creative development. She taught harmony and counterpoint, and she has written about certain aspects of music and selected works of other contemporary composers.

About the piece

The music in the piece Iz međulužja [From Međulužje] tries to capture the essence of the poetic-linguistic expression of Momčilo Nastasijević. The essence, which “sings” in archaic Serbian langauge. Nastasijević evokes images of landscapes, melancholy and a little bit of hopelessness, but then also a strange life line of survival within weepy, sombre, but sometimes regreened areas of new births.