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

Stefan Milenkovich

Awarded as Serbia's "Brand Personality of the Year" for 2010, Stefan Milenkovich is a unique artist with an extraordinary productive longevity, professionalism and creativity. His musical philosophy as well as lifestyle are a true definition of eclectic, exploring general human and musical heritage and experience in order to connect directly with the audiences and provide fun, engaging and energetic performances.

Mr. Milenkovich's 2010-11 season includes performances with Belgrade Philharmonic under the baton of Sir Neville Marriner, Radio Television Orchestra of Slovenia under conductor En Shao, Adana and Izmir Symphony Orchestras with Ibrahim Yazici. This season also features collaboration with lutist Edin Karamazov that includes extensive tour of the Balkans, as well as CD recording and appearance at the Guitar Art Festival in Belgrade. As a musician of broad stylistic interests, most recent project is intense collaboration with guitarist Vlatko Stefanovski and his trio, with Mr. Milenkovich exploring the realm of improvisation and acustic-electric violin. Other performances this season will include the world premiere of Rudolf Haken's Violin Concerto written for Mr. Milenkovich at the NOMUS Music Festival in Novi Sad, Serbia.

Mr. Milenkovich is a violinist who is recognized internationally for both exceptional artistry and his lifelong commitment to humanitarianism. His orchestral appearances include performances with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Belgrade Philharmonic, the Orchestra of Radio-France, the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Aspen Chamber Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Mexico State Symphony, the Orquestra Sinfonica de Estado de Sao Paolo in Brazil, and the Melbourne and Queensland Symphonies in Australia. An avid chamber musician, he performs regularly in the Jupiter Chamber Music Series in New York City and is the founding member of Corinthian Piano trio, as well as recently joining the Formosa Quartet.

Mr. Milenkovich is deeply committed to international humanitarian causes. Most recently, he received the 2003 "Most Humane Person" award in Belgrade, Serbia. He also participated in a number of gala concerts under the auspices of UNESCO in Paris with such artists as Placido Domingo, Lorin Maazel, Alexis Weissenberg, and Sir Yehudi Menuhin.

Mr. Milenkovich started his career at a very young age, performing with his first orchestra at the age of 6, performing his 1000th concert at age 16. By age 17, he was a prizewinner in the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis (USA), the Queen Elisabeth Competition (Belgium), Hannover Violin Competition (Germany), Tibor Varga Competition (Switzerland), Rodolfo Lipizer Competition (Italy), Paganini Competition (Italy), Ludwig Spohr Competition (Germany), and the Yehudi Menuhin Competition (England).

Mr. Milenkovich's discography includes four commercial releases on the Italian label Dynamic and numerous recordings for the Yugoslavian label, PGP. He taught in collaboration with Itzhak Perlman at the Juilliard School before accepting his current position as an Associate Professor of Violin at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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Marko V. Jaric

Marko V. Jaric was born on March 17, 1952 in Belgrade. He completed his elementary school education in Belgrade and attended the Air Force Military High School in Mostar where he graduated in 1970 as the best student of his class. Subsequently he enrolled at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics where he received a degree in physics in 1974, graduating as the best student of his generation. He received his Ph.D. in 1978 at the City University of New York with professor Joseph Birman, one of the most prominent physicists in solid-state physics, as his thesis advisor.

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Sailors of the Sky

A conversation with Fr. Stamatis Skliris and Fr. Marko Rupnik on contemporary Christian art

In these timely conversations led by Fr. Radovan Bigovic, many issues are introduced that enable the contemporary reader to deepen and expand his or her understanding of the role of art in the life of the Church. Here we find answers to questions on the crisis of contemporary ecclesiastical art in West and East; the impact of Impressionism, Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism and Abstract painting on contemporary ecclesiastical painting; and a consideration of the main distrinction between iconography and secular painting. The dialogue, while resolving some doubts about the difference between iconography, religious painting, and painting in general, reconciles the requirement to obey inconographic canons with the freedom essential to artistic creativity, demonstrating that obedience to the canons is not a threat to the vitatlity of iconography. Both artists illumine the role of prayer and ascetisicm in the art of iconography. They also mention curcial differences between iconography in the Orthodox Church and in Roman Catholicism. How important thse distinctions are when exploring the relationship between contemporary theology and art! In a time when postmodern "metaphysics' revitalizes every concept, these masters still believe that, to some extent, Post-Modernism adds to the revitatiztion of Christian art, stimulating questions about "artistic inspiration" and the essential asethetic categories of Christian painting. Their exceptionally wide, yet nonetheless deep, expertise assists their not-so-everday connections between theology, ar, and modern issues concerning society: "society" taken in its broader meaning as "civilization." Finally, the entire artistic project of Stamatis and Rupnik has important ecumenical implications that aswer a genuine longing for unity in the Christian word.

The text of this 94-page soft-bound book has been translated from the Serbian by Ivana Jakovljevic, Fr. Gregory Edwards, and Andrijana Krstic. Published by Sebastian Press, Western American Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Contemporary Christian Thought Series, number 7, First Edition, ISBN: 978-0-9719505-8-0