ABOUT DUŠICA

Dušica Mladenović

is a Serbian violinist with a particular interest in music of the 20th and 21st centuries. She has given many solo recitals and has appeared as a soloist with the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, the Belgrade Strings and St. George Strings Chamber Orchestra. She has performed works such as the Violin Concerto by Aleksandar Obradović, Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” and most notably “Socrates Ungraved” by Ian Wilson/Erik Satie, premiered in 2018 as part of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra’s “Pandemonium” cycle of chamber concerts.

Dušica has made more than 170 appearances as a member of various chamber ensembles in Serbia, Ireland, UK, France, Germany, Austria, Turkey, The Netherlands, China, etc. As a chamber musician she has performed at many music festivals such as Spitalfields Festival, Belgrade-Irish Festival, BEMUS, KOMA, Constantinus, Days of Mokranjac, the Spring Festival of Chamber Music, International Review of Composers, Front Festival, Kustendorf Klassik, Culture Night Ireland, etc. She has premiered a number of works by Ian Wilson and Dejan Despić (both of whom have composed for her and for chamber ensembles she leads), Mirjana Živković, Dušan Radić, Miloje Milojević, Draško Adžić and many other Serbian composers. In July 2019 Dušica performed with Irish harpist Tríona Marshall (of legendary Irish folk group The Chieftains) in counties Laois and Cork in Ireland and in September the same year her Anime Violin Trio made a tour of Ireland. In May 2022 Dušica performed in the “After Beethoven” series at Ireland’s National Concert Hall (Dublin) with pianist Hugh Tinney, and in September that year she premiered Ian Wilson’s music theatre work “Beside the Sea”, directed by Olivia Songer; further performances of that work were given in Ireland’s National Concert Hall, London’s Spitalfields Festival and Belgrade’s BITEF and Vuk Theatres.

Dušica has been a permanent member of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra since 2011. She has also been a member of the Belgrade Strings, St. George Strings Chamber Orchestra, the Žebeljan Orchestra and Muzikon. She is leader of the Anime String Quartet and Anime Violin Trio who released their debut CD “Refleksija” in September 2019 and have appeared at, among other venues, the Serbian Culture Centre in Beijing, China in 2023.

Dušica has made recordings for Farpoint Recordings (Ireland) – most recently playing on Ian Wilson’s portrait album “Echoes and Shadows” (2021) – Metropolis, Sequoia and RTS (Serbia), “Oboe Classics” and “Riverrun Records” (UK). Both the Serbian (RTS) and Irish (RTÉ) national radio stations have broadcast a number of Dušica’s live concerts and albums.

Dušica began playing violin at the age of six at the School for Musical Talents in Ćuprija, Serbia. She graduated from the music high school “Dr Vojislav Vučković” in Belgrade in the class of Professor Rankica Orsolić, and finished her basic and postgraduate studies at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad in the class of Professor Dejan Mihailović. She won a scholarship from the Fund for Young Talents for Professional Specialization in the EU and further developed her skills working with renowned professors such as Marina Yashvili, Igor Ozim, Ilya Grubert, Antoinette Lohmann and Marko Josifoski. At that time she was also engaged in important international culture projects for youth in Germany as a participant in the International Youth Festival in Bayreuth and as concertmaster of the German-Scandinavian Youth Orchestra.

Dušica has taught violin at a number of music schools in Belgrade over the past 20 years and her students (such as Jana Jakovljević, Marija Radovanović & Jovana Udović) have won many domestic and international prizes in competitions such as Kocian Violin Competition, Ohrid Pearls, International Festival of Musical Creativity in Yekaterinburg (Russia), and at the Moscow International Festival of Slavic Music where she won the Best Teacher prize in 2016.

Dušica presently teaches Chamber Music at the “Davorin Jenko” music school in Belgrade.