About the victory of fireflies over darkness

Composer Milica Đorđević (1984, Belgrade) may be your future most important musical discovery, without even knowing it. A former student piano during the 1990s, and then a student of composition at Belgrade's FMU, she left for Europe shortly after graduation, to acquire additional knowledge and hone her author's voice in France and Germany. Today, Milica Đorđević lives and creates in Cologne as a winner of the most prestigious European music awards, such as the Berlin Philharmonic's "Claudio Abbado" award in 2020, the "Ernst von Siemens" award in 2016, the "Belmont" biennial award in 2015 and many others. The work of this contemporary artist of our roots and an impressive biography - Little firefly, fiercely irradiated and terrified by unbearable beauty - will be performed by our Belgrade Philharmonic at its concert at the end of February.

"WEATHER" We will soon have the opportunity to attend the Serbian premiere of your work Little firefly, fiercely irradiated and terrified by unbearable beauty, performed by the Belgrade Philharmonic. This composition has already been, premier, performed by the Berlin Philharmonic under the direction of Gustave Dudamel, in October 2023. Tell us where this name comes from., what served as inspiration for the creation of the work and how you experienced its world premiere?

MILICA ĐORDJEVIC: Work Little firefly, fiercely irradiated and terrified by unbearable beauty was created as an order from the Berlin Philharmonic on the occasion of the celebration of 60 years since the opening of the new building of the Philharmonic in Berlin. It was originally planned that the concert would be conducted by Zubin Mehta, and that is what directly brought me back to Belgrade, to my childhood. I remember that my parents tried in every possible way to get tickets for his performances, which I went to as a pilgrimage, because we remember that he was one of the few big names that came to our place.

Also, Mehta's close friendship with the Belgrade Philharmonic and with Belgrade in general is something that in waves of strong emotions returned to my whole being. That's how the strong connection "my Belgrade - my Berlin" reawakened and, even if I wanted to, I couldn't escape it. Therefore, these memories and emotions brought me back to my last composition that I wrote in Belgrade - Firefly in a jar - a really personal work, I can freely say an autobiographical one, a cry, a cry. On that note, I wanted to revisit mine now Svica and I see how it is. I reconnected with my phantasm of the miraculous bioluminescence by which the weakest specimens of the living world on our planet defeat the darkness and communicate with each other. In the end, the fascination with the firefly that is "small, terrified, sealed in a jar, illuminated and flickering" is a fairy-tale non-musical narrative that contains something of the dreamy atmosphere of childhood and the unbridled imagination of a child. By the way, the firefly is for me a symbolic and mythical animal, almost a totemic protector, as the wonderful Zorica Premate once correctly said.

On the other hand, we can see this composition as a kind of expression of activism, because scrolls, like a living species, are on the verge of extinction due to light pollution and pesticide poisoning. In one short part, therefore, we have immediate memories of summer evenings in the countryside, enchanted by the magical pulsation of fireflies, a personal emotional story that spans several decades from Belgrade, through Berlin, to Cologne, an ecological warning and also a literary recommendation, which is Firefly Miroslav Antic. Just before the premiere, Maestro Mehta fell ill and Gustavo Dudamel, chief conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and new chief conductor of the New York Philharmonic, heroically took his place, whose musicality, fantastic energy and similar temperament were actually a perfect match for my music. And as the work was performed three nights in a row, it seemed to me that the impossible was happening and that they managed to overcome themselves every time.

How did you get in touch with the Belgrade Philharmonic about the performance? Svica? How did it go? "author's" acquaintance and recognition on this occasion?

Program manager Danica Maksimović wrote to me that they would like to put the work in the repertoire, which made me very happy. The Belgrade Philharmonic is a fantastic orchestra that marked my growing up, and my former neighbors, schoolmates and colleagues from the university play in it, so it has a special weight and brings indescribable joy.

When did your musical education begin?? Which music school did you attend in Belgrade?, in which department and in whose class? How did composition studies at FMU continue??

First of all I have to ask you if you believe in miracles and do you like fairy tales? I believe and this story is exactly that. I met my first piano teacher, the genius Mira Pavlović, in my yard, which she visited out of curiosity, because we lived right across the street from the "Vladimir Đorđević" Music School. There, Mira ran into a girl who questioned her about who she was, what she was and what she was looking for, commenting that she shouldn't talk to strangers, but when Mira revealed that she was a piano teacher, her guard dropped. She looked at my hands, took me across the street to the school to test hearing and rhythm, and I happily ran home and told my parents that I play the piano!

I spent the bombardment playing all day and holding concerts for the neighborhood. In this way, I prepared a very demanding program that was more than enough to enroll in the piano department at "Mokranjec". However, I really liked science, I believe that I was talented, and I went to the Fifth Belgrade High School at the same time. The love for science has never left me and it is something that is still an integral part of my life, I managed to include that love in my artistic work. For example, the work The Death of a Star Suspect, petrified echoes of epitaphs in the kicked crystal of time for a string quartet from 2008, on a musical level deals with the idea of ​​the existence of time crystals - it was a thought experiment for me at the time. To my surprise, in 2012, that is, four years later, the term appears for the first time in science time crystals, and physicist Frank Wilczek from MIT, who introduced the concept, receives the Nobel Prize. I would like to meet once for coffee and talk about our time crystals.

I entered the Faculty of Music in Belgrade after the third year of high school as the first on the list. During my studies, I organized a series of concerts with my colleague Ana Gnjatović, and together we founded the KoMA festival, which still exists today. During my senior year at FMU, I was accepted for master's studies at the National Conservatory in Strasbourg and I am leaving for France. After a few years, an invitation follows from the Irkham Institute in Paris, founded by Pierre Boulez, and I stay there for a year, dealing with electronic and computer music. To be honest, what hurt me for a long time was that I never left Serbia to leave, but to I am perfecting i from I'll be back.. But all my attempts to return failed for various reasons. I went to Berlin at the invitation of Hanspeter Kiburac and found my Belgrade in Berlin.

How did you get interested in composing in the first place? Do you remember any particular piece and composer that encouraged you to express yourself through this personal way?, author's creation? How it all started, in short?

Even as a child I loved to experiment and improvise on the piano. Somehow, it was always more exciting for me than practicing other people's compositions, so I wrote my first piece at the age of 8 - it was for my class, for the "Most Sung Class Community" competition. It probably sounds like a cliché, but what stuck with me forever was when I heard it for the first time quite by accident The Rite of Spring Igor Stravinsky. Since then, there has been no turning back.

How do you remember Serbia when you were growing up?? In the teenage years "happened" Are you from the nineties?, like your entire generation, and you finished your studies in Belgrade with the dawn of democratic changes, but also by the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić.

I remember very few carefree days, some smells, colors, sensations from my early childhood until 1990, around the time I started school. My childhood, as well as the childhood of my whole and close generations - was stolen. Stolen, then destroyed, in a very painful way. I remember inflation and waiting in line for bread, while saleswoman Milanka from the local grocery store hides milk for families with children under the counter. I remember my parents who worked several jobs in order to somehow survive, and always tried to make us feel as little as possible the horror of that time and the weight of the situation from which the spirit and bones burst - literally. I remember the endless sea of ​​improvised stalls made of cardboard boxes along almost the entire Boulevard of the Revolution - the current Boulevard of King Alexander, I remember the demonstrations and my parents sending humanitarian aid. My generation, instead of going to bed after watching cartoons in front of Dnevnik, banged pots and blew whistles together with their parents. It is not childhood, it is the continuous collective trauma of several generations.

photo: astrid ackermann

How did your creative path unfold after that?? What was the composition scene like when you left Serbia??

When I went to Strasbourg for my master's studies, the first year I felt like I was in a wonderland. The way composition, literature, pedagogical approach was taught - something that was drastically different from what I had in Belgrade. Also, even though Strasbourg is a relatively small city, it is still the center of Europe and there is a big music festival where world-famous artists come and perform really contemporary music. Parisian Irkam was a technological "Disneyland" for composers with the most modern pioneering software, innovations... Nevertheless, I remained consistent with myself and my inner voice, again not obeying what was "required" or "what was needed", and after three years I realized that France was not the place for my music.

How did you get to Germany and how did the new environment affect your composing??

I went to Germany for postgraduate studies, at the invitation of Hanspeter Kiburac. At first, I didn't want that - I wanted to stay and change the world, and Germany didn't seem like a place that would suit my temperament and energy. But the professor was persistent and I thank him for that! Already on the second day in Berlin I felt at home. Berlin and my Belgrade - the one I remember and how I imagine it - have countless similarities: from the historical architecture to brutalism, the incredible energy that flows through the city and to which you cannot remain immune, to the mentality - both Berlin and Belgrade are defiant, libertarian cities with many scars, but with a huge heart. Actually, it was only in Berlin that I first experienced an instant feeling of belonging and acceptance. I was no longer a stranger, nor a black sheep. Musically, it also pleased me tremendously and enriched me indescribably. As a capital of culture, Berlin provides dozens of top art events a day, there are several major music festivals where you have the opportunity to meet the biggest names in the world music scene, and this gives you wonderful breadth. Also, the alternative scene is extremely strong.

What is it like to live in German cities today? - specifically in Cologne, Where do you live now?? What are the main topics and directions in the civic focus? The word, What is it like to be ordinary?/unusual inhabitant of this European area?

At the moment, the main topics are the upcoming elections and the fear of the rise of fascists Alternatives for Germany (AfD). It is a scourge that is slowly infecting Europe and unfortunately it is a consequence of the policies of the previous years, but I believe in society and in the system, so I am not a pessimist. Here too, people are demonstrating and my heart is full when I see that the vast majority are normal and healthy. The difference in the demonstrations is that here people are advocating for the preservation of European democratic values ​​- in circumstances where life is normal, relatively relaxed, the state is organized, we can deal with values, ideology, and in Serbia people are fighting for basic human dignity and bare life - to stop dying, either from corruption or from hunger.

What is my privilege compared to, for example, my family in Serbia - is that I can live normally and relaxed, dignified and beautiful, like other ordinary people, from my composing. What makes me a little "unusual" is the work I do: it is simultaneously a passion and a hobby and a game, and the fact that I move in some slightly different social circles. But the way I like to spend my time right now is building a Lego castle, putting together puzzles or dancing with my superheroes and best teachers Luke and Stefan.

Like the nineties of your childhood, student demonstrations flare up again these days in Serbia. How closely do you follow the political situation in your homeland?? How this exciting youth resonates in Germany, but more and more general rebellion?

I follow the political situation in Serbia and try to actively contribute to change as much as possible. The way I can do that is through my creativity, because that way the message reaches the largest number of people and a social class here, who may even have the opportunity to do something concrete. I don't think anyone has the right to remain silent anymore. Previously, my compositions were works without a specific "theme" in the classical sense of the word. In recent years, the desire to send a clear message has become more and more present, that unstoppable urge to cry out, which I thought had been lost after so much time of fatigue and disappointment with the first With a switch (in a jar). In 2022, the composition was created Jadarit for percussion and string orchestra, which premiered in the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikferain. It is a piece in which the percussionist plays on various special instruments that have symbolic weight: they are car parts, metal gasoline canisters, and the main soloist role is played by three stones from the Rhine, which, imagine, has more lithium than in the Jadra valley! In 2023, the composition was created Jadarite II with the same topic. That's my way and I think everyone should take responsibility for their life, that's what this is about. You remember that graffiti: "Who hasn't gone crazy here, isn't normal"? Let me paraphrase it: "Whoever doesn't stand by the students now is not normal".

At the time of the Serbian premiere of your work Little firefly, fiercely irradiated and terrified by unbearable beauty in the great hall of the Kolarac endowment, you receive a very important music award in Germany...

I have already been nominated for the second time for the "German Music Authors Award" in the category of orchestral composition. It is probably the most important music award in Germany, equivalent to the Grammys, and what gives it special weight is that peers nominate peers. In artistic professions, where vanity and competition are high, this recognition has a special charm and significance because it comes from the guild.

Finally, with what feelings you are waiting "domestic" the premiere of his piece performed by the renowned orchestra of the Belgrade Philharmonic? You will not be in Belgrade when the work is performed.

This is an extremely emotional and truly special performance for me because it is my Philharmonic, and although I am a citizen of the world, I am first and foremost a citizen of Belgrade and will remain so forever. I'm excited that this work will be interpreted by people I've known for a long time and with whom I share wonderful memories, which will surely add a special color to this composition. My family and friends will be at the concert, and I'm already looking forward to the new opportunity.