Milan Mihajlović b.1945) retired in 2010 as a full professor of composition at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. He is one of the founders of the International Review of Composers (1992), and he was also the director of the festival until 2002. He was the president of the Composers Association of Serbia Srbije (1987–2002), secretary and then head of the Chair for music theory of the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, and Dean of the same Faculty (2002–2009).

Mihajlović won numerous awards for his works: the “Stevan Hristić” Award (1970), the BEMUS Award (1972), the October Prize of the City of Belgrade (1984), two first prizes at the International Review of Composers (in 1992 and 1996), “Stevan Mokranjac” Award (1994), and the April Award of the City of Belgrade (2003). His works are often performed at home and abroad, at venues such as the Tonhalle in Zurich, Carnegie Hall in New York, the hall of the Berlin Philharmonic, Steinway Hall in London, Hall of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Opéra de Dijon and others.

He was the composer in residence at the Chamber Music Festival in Kempten, Germany (2014), where five of his works were performed. In 2015 his piece Revolt was premiered in Germany, and in 2016 he was the composer in residence at the Chamber Music Festival in Dijon, France. In 2017, his work Melancholy had its performance in Finland, and he was invited to visit the Music academy in Pula (Croatia) where the recording of his portrait concert with the Belgrade Philharmonic was discussed. Mihajlović’s planned residency in Germany in April 2020 had to be postponed due to the pandemics.

His works are published in Germany. In 2018, Howard Griffits recorded Mihajlović’s music on CD (CPO) with the Brandenburg State Orchestra, and held a concert with Mihajlović’s works in Frankfurt an der Oder.

About the piece

In Praise of Solitude was written in 2018 and it was subsequently dedicated to the victims of the pandemics. It is a set of variations on motives from my chamber piece Melancholy, which was commissioned by the festival in Kempten (Germany). The piece was recorded this spring at the Radio Belgrade, exquisitely interpreted by Ivana Dakić (English horn), conductor Olivera Sekulić-Barac and RTS Symphony Orchestra. This is the first public performance of the piece.