https://anja-music.com/

Aleksandra Anja Djordjevic was born in Belgrade. She graduated at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, where she obtained M.A. degree at the Department of Composing, in class held by prof.  Vlastimir Trajkovic. Attended advanced training studies under the tutorship of prof. Zoran Eric.

From 1994, she performed with double-bass player Vojin Draskoci, within Musical Synthesis project. During the 1990s, on several occasions, she cooperated with Goran Bregovic, both as singer and musical arranger. In the period from 2000 until 2004, she was a member of Balkan music ensemble Marsija, founded by Žorž Grujić. The ensemble recorded an album entitled High Tree, which was published in 2003 by PGPRTS. In 2003, together with fellow composers Božidar Obradinović (piano) and Vladimir Pejković (bass), she founded Flat Sky Trio, which performed its original written music with minimum improvisation. She performed on various festivals, such as Ring-Ring, Belgrade Summer Festival (BELEF), Belgrade Music Festival (BEMUS), Kanjiza Jazz festival, Interzone, Exit, International Composers Festival, Ulm festival (Germany) etc.

She composed music for numerous theatrical plays, including Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, Leonid Andreyev’s Dog Waltz, Thomas Bernhard’s Before Retirement, Biljana Srbljanović’s Barbelo, of dogs end kids, Lazarević’s Švabica at Yugoslav Drama Theatre (JDP Belgrade), Goran Stefanovski’s Everyman, Tena Stivicic’s Ya Can’t Run Away from Sunday, Dea Loher’s Innocence at Atelje 212 Belgrade, Indifference at Spoleto, Italy, collaboration with La MaMa Umbria International, Goldoni’s Servant of two masters on Venice Biennale etc.

She composed music for a number of contemporary dance plays: Elevator, The Snow Queen, Self-Erase, The Road to Damask.

She also composed music for several documentaries (Accidentally Alone, directed by Goran Radovanovic, Djindjic – Ein Leben, directed by Christoph Sodemann, Mairin Thomais, documentary for Irish TV directed by Elizabeta Zemljic), as well as for exhibitions, installations and other multimedia art forms (44th October Expo, Positive-Negative etc).

Her music art is essentially focused on vocal music and musical theatre. With this purpose, she made many songs and cycles: opera Narcissus and Echo, stage cantata Atlas, three songs dedicated to Nikola Tesla (Total Reflection, Enemy Time, Niagara), Si me quitaran, Heat, Shark, Spray of Evian, multimedia performance Classifieds, musical Life of Jevrem, Tesla-total reflexion etc. Some of her compositions were inspired with old Serbian music (Rondo for female voice, double-bass and viola, Am I to Die in My Prime? for female voice, double-bass, viola, zurla and tapan, What’s That Shining over There? for female voice, double-bass and viola, kaval, piano and tapan).
In 2005, she was composer in residence at Visby, Gotland, Sweden.

Wrote music reviews for Politika daily newspaper.
She lives and works as a freelance composer in Belgrade

Awards:

In 2003, she won Stevan Mokranjac annual award for her opera “Narcissus and Echo”.

Works (selection):

• “Narcissus and Echo”, opera
• “Atlas”, stage cantata, for string quintet, clarinet (bass clarinet), bassoon, french horn, piano, percussion, female voice and narrator
• “Tesla songs”  (Total Reflection, Enemy Time, Niagara ), for electronic and voice
• “Abduction of Europa”, for symphonic orchestra
• “Chaste Welcome”, for string quartet and tape
• “Bog Grada” (Der Gott Der Stadt, Georg Heym) for mixed choir and string orchestra
• “Spray of Evian”, for string quartet, bass clarinet, bassoon, piano, percussion and female voice
• “Shark”, for two violins, viola, piano, percussion and female voice
• “Heat” (Jara), for string quintet, piano, percussion and female voice