Biography

Professor Ivan Brkljačić, D.M.A.
Vice Dean of Education at the Faculty of Music

Ivan Brkljačić was born on 28th February 1977 in Belgrade. He graduated in 2001 from the Faculty of Music, Department of composition and orchestration, in the class of full-time Professor Srđan Hofman. He obtained his Master Degree in composition at the same faculty in 2005, in the class of full-time Professor Zoran Erić and in 2012 successfully defended hisdoctoral art project entitled Istar – Cycle of Nascent Music Caricatures for the Performing in a Theater Scenery, mentored by full-time Prof. Srdjan Hofman.

Ivan Brkljačić’s compositions have been performed many times in Belgrade and other towns in Serbia and three such performances have stood out recently. The premiere of IT! – piano concerto at the Kolarac Hall, with Aleksandar Šandorov, Bojan Suđić and the Symphony Orchestra of RTS, the premiere of the instrumental theater Istar in the open space of Nebojša Tower at Kalemegdan, as well as the premiere of LOVE! – sahophone concerto, with Milan Savić on alto saxophone and Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, with maestro Daniel Raiskin. Also, his compositions were performed in Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada, Sweden, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Poland, Germany, Croatia, F.Y.R. Macedonia, France, Romania, Hungary, Japan, Litvania, England, Finland, USA and Australia (in 2010 the composition Jinx, performed by Australian Modern Music Ensemble and conducted by Daryl Pratt opened The New Music Days in Sydney). He wrote commissioned compositions for Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, choir Collegium Musicum, European project MUSMA, festivals Bemus and Belef, Slovenian ensembles Slavko Osterc and 4Saxess, trio Pokret (Movement), trio Tembr, quartet Mokranjac, trio Singidunum, Construction Site New Music Ensemble, trio Donne di Belgrado, etc. He cooperated with international ensembles such as Ostravská Banda from the Czech Republic, Blindman from Belgium, L’Ensemble Portmanto from Canada, etc.

Ivan Brkljačić composed music for numerous theater plays, staged at Atelje 212, Belgrade Drama Theatre, Yugoslav Drama Theatre, The National Theatre, Bitef Theatre, etc., as well as the theaters in Zrenjanin, Vršac, Subotica, Banja Luka, Podgorica, Budapest and Erlangen in Germany.

Brkljačić is the author of music for the feature film Redemption Street (Ustanička ulica), directed by Miroslav Terzić.

From 1999 he was employed as a teacher of the music form analysis in the Secondary Music School Mokranjac in Belgrade. From the academic year 2005/06 he worked as a Teaching Assistant, from 2010/2011 as an Assistant Professor, from 2015/2016 as an Associate Professor, and since 2020/21 he has been the Full Time Professor at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, first at the Department for Music Theory, and then at the Department for Composition. Since 2015 he has been working as the Vice Dean of Education at the Faculty of Music.

He acted as the selector of the program for the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd and 24th International Review of Composers. He was the creator of the new concept of the Review which has been presented since 2007 under new slogans Retrospection, New miniatures, The echoes of space – homage to Ljubica Marić and Vasilije Mokranjac, Music and theatre, Splendour of the Voice, Musical Construction Site, Step into the unusual, Mokranjac Award Jubilee and Music Box.

He has been granted the following awards:

  • Mokranjac Prize for the year 2005, for his composition When the Curtain Rises SEVEN Times, for symphony orchestra;
  • 41st Sofest festival statuette (2012) for the best originally composed music, for the film Redemption Street;
  • The annual award of the magazine Muzika klasika (Musica Classica) for 2012 in the category of Applied Music (for the film Redemption Street).

He has been a member of Composers’ Association of Serbia since 2001.