December 4, 2011

Ms. Isidora Žebeljan – curriculum vitae

Ms. Isidora Žebeljan was born in , , in 1967. She studied composition at the Faculty of Music of the University of Arts in Belgrade with Vlastimir Trajković, who had been a student of . She became an Associate Professor, teaching composition, at the same Faculty in 2002.

I. Žebeljan attracted international attention with her Zora D., which was commissioned by the Genesis Foundation, London, UK. The opera was premiered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 2003. It was directed by David Pountney and Nicola Raab. The same production opened the 50th season of the Vienna Chamber Opera, Austria, in 2003. The success of this opera, which was performed 22 times in four years in five European countries, was followed by numerous commissions from important institutions and festivals. They comprise the following:

2003 – Song of a Traveller in the Night, for clarinet and string quartet; commissioned by the Genesis Foundation for the opening of exhibition The Passions, by Bill Viola, at the National Gallery, London, in October 2003; performed by the members of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, London.

2004 – The Horses of St. Mark, an illumination for ; commissioned by the Venice , Italy; performed by the Orchestra Sinfonica del Friuli Venezia Giulia, conducted by Christoph Poppen, in the Teatro Piccolo Arsenale, Venice, in October 2004.

2005 – The Minstrel's Dance, for chamber orchestra; commissioned by the Genesis Foundation; written for the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields; premiered by the Academy, conducted by Isidora Žebeljan, at the Wigmore Hall, London, in February 2005.

2006 – The Ghost from the Pumpkin, a piece for brass quintet; commissioned by the London Brass; premiered by the London Brass in the Concert Hall of the Royal College of Music, London, in March 2006.

2008 – The Marathon, an opera in one act; commissioned by the Bregenzer Festspiele, Austria, and the Genesis Foundation; premiered by the soloists of the Neue Oper Wien and Žebeljan Orchestra, Belgrade, conducted by Premil Petrović and directed by Nicola Raab, in August 2008; performed afterwards in Belgrade and Vienna in October 2008.

2008 – Dance of Wooden Sticks, a piece for horn and string orchestra; commissioned by the International Horn Society, Lanai City, Hawaii, USA; premiered by hornist Boštjan Lipovšek and the Camerata Academica Orchestra of Novi Sad, Serbia, conducted by Aleksandar Kojić, in the Novi Sad Synagogue in October 2010.

2008 – Latum lalo, a piece for 12 vocal soloists, commissioned by the Dutch Chamber Choir, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; premiered by the Choir, conducted by Kaspars Putniņš, at the Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival, Norway, in September 2010.

2009 – Polomka Quartet, for string quartet; commissioned by the University of Kent, UK; written for the Brodsky Quartet, London; premiered by the Quartet in the Gulbenkian Theatre, Canterbury, UK, in May 2009.

2009 – Simon the Chosen, an opera in one act, commissioned by the Musiktheater im Revier, Gelsenkirchen, Germany; premiered by the soloists, choir and orchestra of the Theater in Essen, Germany, in June 2009.

The jury of the International Society for Contemporary Music Festival in 2009 included piece The Horses of St. Mark in the program. It was performed by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Pierre-André Valade, in Gothenburg, Sweden, in October 2009. The composition was included in the repertoire of this orchestra and was performed in Gothenburg during the 2010-2011 season. Her piece Il Circo, a piece for piano, was an obligatory composition at the International Jeunesses Musicales Competition held in Belgrade in 2009.

I. Žebeljan's compositions have been performed in Great Britain, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Spain, Ireland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, , Serbia, Montenegro, and the USA, as well as at a number of music festivals, including the , the Bregenzer Festspiele, the Radiotelevisione Italiana Nuova Musica Festival, Turin, Italy, the Festival Internazionale Settembre Musica, Milan and Turin, Italy, the West German Radio Music Festival, Cologne, Germany, the Galway Arts Festival, Ireland, the Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival, the Festival Nous Sons, Barcelona, Spain, the Festival de l'Est, Milan, the Crossing Border Festival, the Hague, the Netherlands, the Music Biennale, , Croatia, and the .

The musicians who have performed her music include: the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Turin, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra, Ostrava, the Czech Republic, the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, the Westphalia New Philharmonic Orchestra, Gelsenkirchen, the Brodsky Quartet, the London Brass, the Nieuw Ensemble, Amsterdam, the Zagros Ensemble, Helsinki, Finland, and the Sentieri Selvaggi Ensemble, Milan; conductors Christoph Poppen, Lorraine Vaillancourt, David Porcelijn, and Pierre-André Valade; hornist Stephan Dohr, clarinetist Joan Enric Lluna, and pianists Kyoko Hashimoto and Aleksandar Madžar.

The exclusive publisher of I. Žebeljan's music is Ricordi-Universal, Milan.1 Classic Production Osnabrück (CPO), Germany, has released a CD featuring her orchestral music recorded by the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra and the Žebeljan Orchestra, conducted by David Porcelijn,2 while the Brodsky Quartet has prepared a CD with her .

Her work as a composer has earned her several important awards in Serbia, including the Mokranjac Award in 2004. She was a member of the jury of the International Jeunesse Musicale Competition held in Belgrade in 2009. Also, she was the winner of the fellowship for 2005 of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, New York, USA, and was invited to be a member of the fellowship jury for 2007 of the same corporation.

In 2005, she established the Žebeljan Orchestra, which performs Serbian music and some of the most interesting or neglected music of the XX and XXI centuries, with the accent on exchange of artists and music between Serbia and other countries.

I. Žebeljan became a Corresponding Member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SASA) in 2006, at the age of 39. She was a music editor for the 170th Anniversary of SASA, celebrated in 2011, making an exclusive CD edition of music of all the composers belonging to SASA since 1841 and organizing several concerts of their works. In SASA, she has founded a board for preservation of the Serbian classical music heritage. As a member of SASA, she took part in the organization of the 100th Birthday Anniversary of Ljubica Marić, a great Serbian composer, celebrated in 2009 under the auspices of UNESCO, and arranged a CD release of all her music. I. Žebeljan also participated in the organization and was among the performers of several concerts of Lj. Marić's music in Serbia and abroad.

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She is also one of the most prominent Serbian contemporary composers of theatre and film music. So far, she has composed music for more than thirty theatre productions in all the important theatres of Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro. For her work in the field of applied music, she has been awarded three times the Sterija Award, the most prestigious theater prize in Serbia. Also, she has been awarded four times the YUSTAT Biennial of Stage Design Award, established in Belgrade, for best theatre music. Besides, she has worked on a number of film scores, including the orchestration of Goran Bregović's music for films , Arizona Dream and Underground, directed by , La Reine Margot, directed by Patrice Chéreau, and The Serpent's Kiss, directed by Philippe Rousselot. In addition, she composed the music for Miloš Radivojević's film How I was Stolen by the Germans and obtained for that the Award for Best Music at the Sopot Film Festival, Serbia, in 2011.

I. Žebeljan is a member of the Commission of Serbia for Culture, the Commission of Serbia for UNESCO, the Managing Board of Jugokoncert, a Serbian concert agency, and the Association of Composers of Serbia.

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1Websites www.ricordi.co.uk/files/contemporary1.pdf and www.ricordi.it/composers/z/isidora-zebeljan 2Website www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/art/Isidora-Zebeljan-geb-1967-Orchesterwerke/hnum/3481403

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