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Tuesday, 10 November 2015 at 8 pm
City Hall

CEBEF at the 12th International Festival
HARPSICHORD, LIVING ART

PATH OF CYRIL AND METHODIUS (815–2015)

Smiljka Isaković, harpsichord
Dragomir Milenković, guitar
Andrija Sagić, percussion
 
ROME
Antonio Valente (1520-1590): La Romanesca
Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643): Aria detta la Frescobalda
Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757): Fandango

VENICE
Marco Facoli (16th Century): Aria della Signora Cinthia
                                          Tedesca dita la Proficia
Anonimus (16th Century):     Fusi pavana piana
                                        Saltarello del Re

MORAVIA AND PANNONIA
Leoš Janáček (1854-1928): Moravian Folk Songs
György (Đuro) Arnold (1781-1848): Verbunkos in e, in F
Isidor Bajić (1878-1915): Na izvoru

BULGARIA AND KHAZARS
Gencho Genchev (1942): Suite By the River
Dragomir Milenković (1954): Izgubljeni prsten cara Konstantina

MALA AZIJA, GRČKA – SOLUN
Mikis Teodorakis (1925): May Day (zeibetiko)
Dimitris Themelis (1931): Small Prelude and Chassapiko, op. 17
Stavros Xarchakos (1939): Ipomoni


Smiljka Isaković (Belgrade) is often described as “the Queen of the Harpsichord” and the “First Lady of the Harpsichord” by foreign music critics. She took her Master degrees in Piano from the Faculty of Music in Belgrade and Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, and in Harpsichord from Royal Music Conservatory in Madrid. Her music education continued with harpsichord specialist studies in Venice, Bilbao, Santiago de Compostela and Granada. Smiljka Isaković’s performances throughout Europe, the USA, South and Central America have been highly appraised. In the former Yugoslavia, she frequently performed at all major festivals. Today she performs throughout Serbia, carrying her harpsichord with her.
Her professional biography includes several LPs and CDs for the most eminent music labels in the country and the USA, recordings for Yugoslav Radio Television and numerous foreign broadcasting networks, harpsichord master classes, music essays and reviews, interviews, articles on music and travel reports etc. In 2008 she did her PhD thesis on Art Management, which she teaches at the Faculty of Culture and Media, Megatrend University in Belgrade.
In 2007, Prometej Publishing House from Novi Sad released her book, Zubati osmeh Maksa Grafa (Max Graf’s Large Smile), which contains over 700 music reviews and articles. It has been nominated for the Annual Award of the City of Belgrade, the Isidora Sekulić Award and the Journalists’ Association of Serbia Annual Award.
Smiljka Isaković was included in International Who is Who in Music – an international encyclopaedia of eminent musicians (edited in Cambridge for twenty years now). American Biographical Institute (ABI) put her in 5000 Personalities of the World as the “First Lady of the Harpsichord”. She is also included in Who is Who in Serbia and International Encyclopaedia of Harpsichordists and Organists (St. Petersburg, Russia).
In 1997 she was awarded the prestigious International Tomas Masaryk Award for connecting nations through art, which Luciano Pavarotti had received before her. In 2003 she received International Musician Award 2003 in Cambridge, Great Britain and Golden Badge Award for her unselfish, dedicated and decades-long work and contribution to culture from the Serbian Community of Culture and Education two years later.

Andrija Sagić is a percussionist, composer and producer, who specializes in the interpretation of Medieval music according to authentic manuscripts. The music inspired him to seven years’ research leading to many authentic musical interpretations, through playing of different instruments such as: recorders, baglama, tombak, davoul (tapan) and darabukka. Special attention is brought to Medieval motets, Italian Ars Nova and Arabic music.

Composer and freelance musician Dragomir Milenković (1954, Trogir), has devouted his creative otput to the project of new Balkan music. He is a member of the Composers Association of Serbia,  World Music Association of Serbia and СОКОЈ (Serbian Music Authors Organisation). His music is recorded on eight CDs. He composed music for theatre and for TV programmes. With his band Hazari he took part in numerous international festivals in the country and abroad. He has collaborated with foreigh cultural centres in Belgrade, with the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia and the International Red Cross.