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

Dimitrije Vasiljević

Dimitrije Vasiljević is a New York-based award-winning pianist and composer who has been hailed by jazz masters as one of the most promising names in the jazz world. His is a new voice combining the gentle flavor of European jazz with intricate musical landscapes full of exotic rhythms and sophisticated harmony. This multi-talented pianist is today among the most exciting new artists on the NYC jazz scene.

.

From his native Serbia, where he was a member of prominent jazz ensembles and performed extensively throughout Europe, Dimitrije's journey has taken him to Berklee College of Music in Boston where he received a number of prestigious awards including the Jazz Performance Award and Piano Department Achievement Award. Dimitrije is currently completing a master's degree in Jazz Performance at NYU where he is also an adjunct professor of jazz.

Dimitrije is performing extensively at renowned jazz clubs in New York City and will have his debut at Carnegie Hall in March 2014. He released his debut album as a leader "The Path of Silvan" consisting entirely of his original compositions. Prior to moving to New York City, Dimitrije has headlined performances at many jazz venues and festivals in Europe among which are the Norrtelje Jazzdagar (Sweden), the Miskolc and the Bohem Jazz Festivals (Hungary), the Gmunden Festival (Austria) and the Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland), where in 2008 he was selected as one of twelve finalists to compete at the prestigious "Montreux Solo Jazz Piano Competition" and won both third jury prize and the audience prize. Dimitrije performed with the Alex Pinter Quintet alongside drummer Klemens Marktl. With this quintet he recorded the album "Beantown Experience" for the Austrian label Extraplatte. More recently, Dimitrije has played and recorded with Joe Lovano's NYU Artist Ensemble.

Dimitrije Vasiljević's music can be described as an original music mixture that incorporates modern jazz and traditional Balkan music resulting in a perfect synthesis of modern jazz and world music. Drawing on mythology and the past for his inspiration, Dimitrije seamlessly combines his talents as pianist, composer and arranger to create his original musical expression and contemporary sound.

From Official Web Site


SA

 

People Directory

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.

.
Read more ...

Publishing

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