Who?

I was born in 1966 in Sarajevo (then in Yugoslavia, now capital of  Bosnia). My father, a jazz musician, encouraged me to start making sounds on the piano from the very early age.  At the age of six I entered the formal classical music education system in which I stayed for around 10 years. When I reached the equivalent of the piano grade 8 and rebellious teenage years I turned my back to classical music and joined the rock band. Until 1992, I actively participated in the local pop / rock / jazz music scene as a keyboard player, composer and arranger. Then came a period of straight forward survival, reconstruction of the life in the UK, a    career in IT and family ...

After brewing somewhere inside for many years music burst back into my life in the mid Noughties when I rediscovered a world of contemporary music and a need to learn, listen and write. I enrolled a course in Music Composition at Birkbeck, University of London, where I studied with Mark Wilderspin, David Sutton-Anderson and Paul Sarcich and got a diploma. Currently, I am doing Masters in Music Composition at Goldsmiths College London with Roger Redgate.

Music

I am interested in the extremes of destructive and binding forces in a human life, chaos and order, and their relationships. New music should reflect us in a present time and therefore always be relevant and fresh.  Music should not need external translation to be enjoyed by a human being. 

My Balkanoid background is deeply woven into my texture and, I believe, is clearly recognisable in my music.

As conscious or unconscious influences I would list Bartok’s passion for ethnic, Stravinsky’s savagery, Ligeti's innovatory genius, Lutoslawsky’s aleatory textures, Turnage’s London flavoured jazziness, George Benjamin's sound world ...

I am also interested in the application of a computer technology as a tool which (is) will change the way we make, perform and listen to music.

Downloads

Pick 'n' Mix
Score, Format: pdf, Size: 90 KB
Instrumentation: Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Alto Sax,Trumpet, Tenor Trombone, Piano
Exploration of odd Balkanic rhytmical textures using aleatory build-up where conductor decides the timing of a given patterns. Improvisation on a provided theme and style is required from the flute and piano.

Let's Talk
Score, Format: pdf, Size: 45 KB, Instrumentation: Piano and 4 hands
Conversation of two perfromers, 4 hands, leading to conflict and resolution. Dedicated to my wife.

K'o Chochek
Score, Format: pdf, Size: 45 KB, Instrumentation: Piano
2 part Invention for piano inspired by the Balkan folk dance rhythms and harmonic possibilities of the octatonic scale.

Please contact me on: slavko@newmusiccomposition.com if you would like to use these scores for live performances or recordings.