I’ve always found it challenging to introduce myself professionally, and the most fitting, and simplest, word that encapsulates everything I’m passionate about and engaged in is ‘musician’. I was fortunate and blessed to discover my calling in music early on. It became my life’s compass, my joy, my refuge and, ultimately, my profession
There’s a photograph of me at the age of around three, sitting in the kitchen of our apartment in Belgrade’s Banovo Brdo neighbourhood, my feet not yet touching the floor, wearing oversized headphones and staring into the distance. Even today, I often catch myself with that same gaze on my face as I play, compose, or listen to music.
It seems that this part of me has remained unchanged for almost 40 years. I could sit still for hours, focused intently on listening – first to my father, Ljubomir, who’s also a musician, and later to various other compositions, particularly those of Mozart and Tchaikovsky, which were always within reach. My sister, Sandra, played the piano, and I recall listening with great attention as she practiced, only to later find myself playing the same pieces in high school and at university. Although this was during my early childhood—before I even became attached to a particular instrument—I had already discovered the deep yet invisible connection that would come to define my life.
My first instrument, and thus my first step in expressing myself through music, was a guitar. My father, Ljubomir, a guitarist and producer, helped me learn my first chords during a threemonth stay in Switzerland in the summer of 1992. There was another recording studio across from his, and they shared a large, soundproof rehearsal space that was filled with various instruments. Those were my toys. That was the first time I sat behind a drum kit, picked up a bass guitar and experienced the atmosphere of a music studio.
I feel incredibly grateful and fortunate to have found myself in the world of music and to have the opportunity to share my life’s journey with the world through diverse roles, genres and collaborations
I was ten years old and, looking back, that was the moment I seriously began my journey in music. I played by ear, striving to imitate Jimi Hendrix down to the most minute details, and later many other artists. I had my first live performance playing and singing with a band the following summer.
I began my formal music education at Josip Slavenski Music High School [Novi Sad] in the theory department, and a year later enrolled in the jazz department at Stanković Music School, studying under Professor Danilo Karamarković, my only guitar teacher.
Exploring jazz and classical music simultaneously led me to study composition at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, in the class of Professor Vlastimir Trajković. Composition studies somehow synthesised my musical experience— on the one hand, as a performer, and on the other, as a creator of music that was no longer confined to the guitar. This path naturally led me to conducting studies, where I trained under Biljana Radovanović, Stanko Šepić and Bojan Suđić, aiming to conduct my own compositions for various ensembles. These disciplines – performance, composition and conducting – are deeply interconnected, each enriching and deepening the others.
I feel incredibly grateful and fortunate to have found myself in the world of music and to have the opportunity to share my life’s journey with the world through diverse roles, genres and collaborations.