The Government of Serbia has appointed a conductor Bojan Sudjic for acting director Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra.
As we unofficially learn, the orchestra does not agree with the Government's choice and it is expected that they will soon publish a statement about it.
Bojan Suđić (Belgrade, 1965) is a conductor and professor of conducting at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade.
For more than a decade, he was the chief conductor of the RTS Symphony Orchestra and the artistic director of the music production of the Public Service.
The city assembly with its decisions the last sessions on December 22 brought changes to the leading positions in culture.
On predlog Jelena Medakovic, secretary for culture of Belgrade, 56 officials in boards and in leading positions of institutions were changed. Although their names have not yet been officially announced, it is known that new acting directors were given to the Theater on Terazije (opera singer Aleksandar Stamatović) and Teatar Vuk (cultural manager Milan Stojković), and that Fest, Bitef and Bemus received new boards.
Fest, Bemus, Bitef
So, for example, the president of the Fest Committee, Jelena Medaković, is the secretary for culture of Belgrade, and the members are Lazar Ristovsky, Goran Peković, Marko Novaković and Jelena Stošković.
As we found out, no one informed the members of the previous Board that they were replaced, and their mandate expires only in September.
At the head of Bemus is cellist Jelena Mihailović, better known by her stage name Jela Cello, who was also a member of parliament elected from the list of Ivica Dačić SPS - JS Dragan Marković Palma, and during an address in the Parliament she rapped.
Instead of Svetozar Cvetković, who resigned, the president of the Bitef Board is Spasoje Ž. Krunić, the new members are Uroš Mijatović and Miloš Latinović, while Ana Veljković and Srđan Obrenović remained from the last convocation of the Board.
The previous acting director of the Philharmonic was Darko Krstić, a mechanical engineer by profession. He has been at the head of the Philharmonic, as an acting director, since November 2021. During that time, he did not appear in public, except when he supported the philharmonic strike.
