Music

Three Curious Loves is the first posthumously released music from one of the most internationally acclaimed contemporary-classical Serbian composers. Released across a triptych and full album, the recordings showcase Isidora’s vibrant talent, exploring genres from psalms to foxtrots to theatre music, and features performances from a diverse array of international artists recorded both live and in studio settings.

Three Curious Loves concerto for violin and chamber orchestra
Commissioned by the Eduard van Beinum Foundation, Netherlands and written for violinist Daniel Rowland, who performed it for the first time at Stift Festival in 2017. The composition is one of Isidora’s most significant works and demonstrates her prowess in composing for the violin.

Psalm 78 for mixed choir
Created as a part of a project in which seven international contemporary composers were invited to write seven new works inspired by the psalms. The project brought together four leading chamber choirs (the Dutch Chamber Choir, the Trinity Choir from New York, the Norwegian Soloists and Talis Scholars from the UK) and culminated in a concert of all 150 psalms. Isidora translated psalm 78 into Portuguese because “there is a very special melody in this language”. Even though the psalm deals in holy fury, Isidora wanted the music to reflect the line in which God remembers that people are “but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.” She tried to capture that breeze as “a brief dance of changing and passing”.

When God Created Dubrovnik
Written for the Brodsky Quartet and commissioned by The City of London Festival in 2013. In Isidora’s own words, “I wanted once more to revive the verses of the Serbian poet Milan Milišić, born in Dubrovnik, who lost his life in Dubrovnik at the very beginning of the war, 1991. He was killed by a bomb fired by the Serbian army. His death is another proof of the ultimate meaninglessness of war and war dehumanization, but his songs, despite his tragic fate, last and help us to endure, to survive, to be saved”.

Dark velvet In memory of Gustav Mahler, for solo piano
Created for Thomas Bernhard’s theater play, 'Hero's Square’. The work is a homage to the musical culture of Central Europe, embodied in the authors of the former Austro-Hungarian monarchy, and their attempt to conquer ‘previously unknown areas of the soul'.

Sarabande for English horn, violin and harp
Originally composed for Jean Paul Sartre’s drama, Dirty Hands, staged in Belgrade in 2000. The dignified nature of this miniature echoes Spanish Renaissance music, as represented through Isidora’s distinctive melody and use of minimal harmonic means. This is one of Isidora’s most popular and frequently performed miniatures.

Tears are O. K.
Born out of music for Mirjana Bobić Mojsilović’s theatre play of the same namesake. Elements of jazz and popular music are present throughout the diptych.

Leda
Originated from music for the homonymous play by Miroslav Krleža, in a Belgrade production, 2001. The movements of the suite are inspired by dances popular in different
parts of the world in the 1930s. Under the influence of Isidora's imagination, the dances become enriched with lucid rhythms and sudden turns in unusual sonic combinations.

Hum Away, Strings! for violin and piano
Commissioned by Stift Festival in the Netherlands in 2014 and written for violinist Daniel Rowland. Taking The Magic Flute Overture as a starting point, Isidora’s work is melodically and rhythmically rich, requiring virtuosic playing from the performer.

Bačka Melancholy for english horn and harp
The miniature’s gentle, touching melody is closely tied to Bačka folk songs.