Milica Djordjević

„Anyone who has ever experienced Milica Djordjević's orchestral music in the concert hall knows how much force, energy, colourfulness, shimmering, eruptions, contrasts, absorbing fusions and heightened drama this composer unleashes in her music. She is a virtuoso of orchestral forces with an exuberant sound imagination.“ 

Ecki Ramón Weber, concerti.de, September 2024

Born in Belgrade in 1984, composer Milica Djordjević has the courage to let music be pure energy. She uses the entire arsenal of contemporary sound and performance techniques to create a sonic language full of surprises, for example when she uses live electronics to transform the sounds produced by a lone cello into an acoustic storm of almost existential dimensions (FAIL, 2010) or, conversely, lets twelve percussionists immerse in the transitional field from the inaudible to the chimerical (ZAPIS, 2013). 

The current season includes world premieres in a wide variety of instrumentations: A new solo work for trumpeter Marco Blaauw will be performed at the Maerzmusik festival in Berlin in spring. In May, the Collegium Novum Zürich and the orchestra La Scintilla will premiere a composition for chamber orchestra and baroque orchestra at Zurich Opera House. This will be followed in June by a world premiere with the Ensemble Musikfabrik under Bas Wiegers at the Kölner Philharmonie.

Important world premieres in recent seasons include new pieces from her firefly series, namely Mali svitac, između dva treptaja [Little Firefly, between two blinks], premiered in 2024 by the SWR Symphonieorchester under Brad Lubman at the Eclat Festival in Stuttgart, and Mali svitac, žestoko ozaren i prestravljen nesnošljivom lepotom [Little Firefly, fiercely illuminated and terrified by unbearable beauty], performed in 2023 by the Berlin Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel. Nalet was also heard in 2023 with the Ensemble Musikfabrik under Ilan Volkov, as well as three new solo pieces for Marco Blaauw (trumpet), Carl Rosman (contra bass clarinet) and Dirk Rothbrust (percussion), which were performed as part of the ACHT BRÜCKEN festival in Cologne. 

The orchestras and ensembles that have interpreted Milica Djordjević's works also include the WDR Symphony Orchestra under Bas Wiegers, the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra under Baldur Brönnimann, the Bavarian Radio Choir and Symphony Orchestra under Johannes Kalitzke, the Munich Chamber Orchestra under Alexander Liebreich, the Ensemble Modern, the ensemble recherche, the Arditti Quartet, the JACK Quartet, the Trio Catch and the Neue Vocalsolisten. 

Milica Djordjević initially studied composition at the Academy of Music in Belgrade, where she also obtained a degree in sound and music recording and production as well as training in electronic music. In 2009, she completed her postgraduate studies at the Conservatoire National de Region de Strasbourg in the class of Ivan Fedele with distinction. As a scholarship holder of the Cité Internationale des Arts, she spent 2009/10 at IRCAM Paris before being accepted to the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin in the class of Hanspeter Kyburz. During her studies, she took part in masterclasses and festivals in Germany, Austria, Hungary, France, Switzerland, Serbia, Belgium and Israel.

As winner of the Claudio Abbado Composition Prize 2020, Milica Djordjević composed the ensemble work transfixed, which was premiered by the Karajan Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker under Enno Poppe in the main hall of the Philharmonie as part of Musikfest Berlin. Among the numerous awards she has received so far are the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation Award 2016, the Staubach Scholarship 2016 and the Belmont Prize for Contemporary Music 2015. In 2013, she won the composition competition of the 10th anniversary of the Lucerne Festival Academy, the Munich Chamber Orchestra Competition and the Berlin-Rheinsberg Composition Prize; she previously received the Nikola Tesla Award (2011) and the Alfred Toepfer Scholarship (2012).

Milica Djordjević lives and works in Cologne. A portrait CD of her works was released by WERGO in the Edition Zeitgenössische Musik of the German Music Council and received the German Record Critics' Award in 2017; BR Klassik also released a recording of four important orchestral works in summer 2024. 

Season 2024/25

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