“An Evening of Serbian Art Song” from Belgrade to Matica Srpska

From December 2021 to May 2022, Mina Ristić Jonić was piano collaborator to soprano Jasmina Trumbetaš Petrović and tenor Saša Božidarević in a series of Serbian art song concerts. The concerts took place in Belgrade, Velika Plana and Gornji Milanovac, and the series closed in the Ceremonial Hall of Matica Srpska in Novi Sad.

Serbian art song was at the centre of pianist Mina Ristić Jonić’s artistic work in the 2021/2022 season. As piano collaborator to Jasmina Trumbetaš Petrović, principal soprano of the National Theatre Opera, and tenor Saša Božidarević, she performed in a series of concerts titled “An Evening of Serbian Art Song”, which presented audiences in several towns with works by Serbian composers from Mokranjac and Binički to contemporary authors.

The first concert took place on 8 December 2021 in the hall of the Jewish Community in Belgrade, in cooperation with AnimArt and with the support of the City of Belgrade. The guest of the evening was soprano Marija Jelić, and the programme included works by Stanojlo Rajičić, Stevan Mokranjac, Stanislav Binički, Miloje Milojević, Isidor Bajić, Petar Krstić and Petar Konjović.

The same ensemble performed on 27 January 2022 at the St. Sava Academy at the “Masuka” Cultural Centre in Velika Plana, held in honour of Saint Sava, “the great benefactor, Serbian prince, monk, writer and archbishop”, as the announcement put it.

In the Great Hall of the Gornji Milanovac Cultural Centre, the trio performed on 27 April 2022 with new pieces by Serbian composers that the performers had prepared especially for the occasion. “Wonderful hosts and a wonderful audience welcomed us,” Mina Ristić Jonić wrote after the concert.

The series concluded on 11 May 2022 in the Ceremonial Hall of Matica Srpska in Novi Sad, as part of the “Musical Evenings of Matica Srpska” series. The sixteen-number programme included art songs by Miroljub Aranđelović Rasinski, Stanojlo Rajičić, Isidor Bajić, Stanislav Binički, Miloje Milojević, Stevan Mokranjac, Dimitrije Golemović, Milan Prebanda, Petar Konjović and Petar Krstić. In addition to accompanying all the vocal numbers, Mina Ristić Jonić also appeared as a soloist, performing Aleksandar Simić’s “Tango for Her”.

The concert at Matica Srpska was recorded and published on the Matica Srpska YouTube channel, with the support of the City Administration for Culture of Novi Sad. This series of concerts marked the beginning of a longer partnership between Mina Ristić Jonić and Jasmina Trumbetaš Petrović in the Serbian art song repertoire, which continued with the concerts “Zora zori, poj se budi” and “Gradina” in the autumn of 2022.