A great man is one who collects knowledge the way a bee collects honey and uses it to help people overcome the difficulties they endure - hunger, ignorance and disease!
- Nikola Tesla

Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.
- Franklin Roosevelt

While their territory has been devastated and their homes despoiled, the spirit of the Serbian people has not been broken.
- Woodrow Wilson

Tatjana Rankovich

Described by The New York Times as an "astonishingly good pianist", Tatjana Rankovich is committed to continuously expanding the boundaries of the traditional repertoire, constantly searching for and discovering new contemporary music and devoting her interest to performing rarely heard works of the past. An innate instinct to create a spectrum of different styles, old and new, known and unknown, is the very essence of her as an artist and it takes place with every one of her concerts.

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She is the first pianist ever to play the First, Second and Third Piano Concertos of Nicolas Flagello, recording them with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine and the Slovak Philharmonic, which were released to unanimous praise and chosen for one of the five "best of the year" recordings in 1996, 1999 and 2005, by Fanfare magazine. These premiere recordings were described as "splendid" and "superb." In his review (Classical Net, 2008), of the Naxos/Flagello Piano Concerto CD, Steve Schwartz writes: "The concerto holds no terrors for Serbian pianist Tatjana Rankovich, one of my favorite performers, who routinely takes risks on unknown repertoire. She undoubtedly knows like the back of her well-muscled hand the Russian school of piano writing Flagello makes use of. She plays with fiery power. At the end of the recording I, without giving it a thought, stood up. Imagine what she would do to a live audience."

Born in Belgrade, Serbia, Ms. Rankovich has performed throughout the USA, Canada, Europe, Central and South America and as a guest soloist many orchestras worldwide. In 2002 and again in 2006, as a recipient of the Fulbright Grant and sponsored by the US State Department, Ms. Rankovich appeared in recitals throughout Serbia and Montenegro and as a Cultural Ambassador gave master classes at the Belgrade Conservatory. She is one of the main artists performing annually at the New York Contemporary Festival "Keys To The Future", where she received only lavish praise for her many premiere performances. In the summer of 2008, Tatjana Rankovich was a recipient of the prestigious State Award, "Golden Badge", which is awarded annually by the Serbian Ministry of Diaspora in Belgrade, Serbia.

Tatjana Rankovich has recorded several acclaimed discs for Phoenix USA, Naxos, Albany, Artek, Dezil, Citadel, and most recently (released in 2010), a highly praised 3-disk set of live recordings for IBOX. The review by Jerry Dubins of Fanfare Magazine (October, 2010) reads: "My long time favorite recording (of the Shostakovich Piano Concerto #1) has been the one with Argerich… But I think this version with Rankovich now takes pride of place. It"s quite stunning…"

A laureate of many competitions, Ms. Rankovich holds Bachelors degree from the Academy of Music in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia and Bachelors and Masters degrees from the Juilliard School, where she also won the Judelson Piano Award, Gina Bachauer Scholarship and a Teaching Fellowship Grant. She studied with Arbo Valdma (Belgrade, Novi Sad), Clifton Matthews (Sion, Switzerland and NC School of the Arts), Joseph Raieff (Juilliard) and Benjamin Kaplan (London).

Besides her busy performing and teaching career Ms. Rankovich is affiliated with a non-profit organization Performance Wellness, which is dedicated to treating many of the psychological and behavioral problems that afflict musicians and other performers. As a certified Performance Wellness Trainer, she often leads Performance Wellness seminars and workshops at colleges and universities worldwide.

Ms. Rankovich has adjudicated at the International Keyboard Institute and Festival in NYC. Recently, she has joined a distinguished faculty, at a prestigious InterHarmony Summer Music Festival in Sulzbach-Rosenberg, Germany, where she will be teaching and performing in August of 2011. As a member of The Piano Teachers Congress of New York, Ms. Rankovich is the chairperson for the 20th and 21st Century Music Festival for young pianists and composers. She resides in New York City, where she is presently on the piano faculty in the Preparatory Division at the Mannes College of Music.

Source: Official Web-Site


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People Directory

Zorica Pantić

Zorica Pantic, born circa 1951 in the former Yugoslavia, is a college administrator and professor of electrical engineering. In 2005 she was appointed the fourth president of Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston.

Pantic was previously the founding Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Texas at San Antonio and was Director of the School of Engineering at San Francisco State University.

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Publishing

Western American Diocese - Annual 2013

2013 marked several momentous occasions: 50 years of the founding of the Western American Diocese, 150 years of the birth of Archimandrite Sebastian Dabovich, Holy Apostle to the Americas, 1700 years of the Edict of Milan, and a special tribute to Nikola Tesla! Our main focus during this three-day Jubilee Celebration was on the freedom to pursue our faith since the time of Constantine 1700 years ago and how to better live a spiritual life.

As a special tribute, a beautiful commemorative edition of the Annual was prepared, which reflects the History of the Western American Diocese! It is adorned with beautiful photographs and historical articles from our parishes and monateries! It also showcases the wonderful work that has been done over the past year throughout our Diocese and information about our many ongoing ministries. This publicaton also includes a Directory of Parishes.

There are two version of this publication available. Our Hardcover version sells for $15. Our Softcover version sells for $10 and includes Ads & Greetings from families and businesses throughout our Diocese.