Mateja Nikolić (b. 1997) became interested in music from an early age. He enrolled in the School of Music “Dr Vojislav Vučković” in Belgrade, where he studied instrumental performance – cello. He attended masterclasses of eminent cellists such as Marcio Carneiro, Ksenija Janković, Dragan Đorđević, Denis Shapovalov… After graduating from secondary music school, he began studies of composition at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade with Branka Popović.

He has written music ranging from solo pieces to works for symphony orchestra, but he is also active as a composer of incidental music, and as a music producer. He graduated from the Faculty of Music in 2021 with the piece U tamnom vilajetu. He is also interested in popular music, which has influenced his artistic output.

About the piece

The inspiration for the piece Inharmonični sjaj[Inharmonic splendour] came from an interesting aspect of sound which is inharmonicity. It represents the departure of certain harmonics from their standard order in the harmonic series. While listening to bells, which possess this characteristic in their sound, it occurred to me that perhaps many other phenomena in the nature are not so perfect as they may seem, but that this very imperfection is the source of their particular charm.