Isidora Žebeljan

ISIDORA ŽEBELJAN (Belgrade, 1967-2020) attracted international attention with her opera Zora D. which was commissioned by the Genesis Foundation from London. The opera was premiered in Amsterdam in 2003 and directed by David Pountney and Nicola Raab. The same production opened the 50 th season of the Vienna Chamber Opera in 2003. Žebeljan studied Composition at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade with Vlastimir Trajković (a student of Olivier Messiaen and Vasilije Mokranjac). She had been Professor of Composition at the same Faculty since 2002. Her work as a composer earned her several significant awards in her country, including the Mokranjac Award in 2004. She was the winner of the New York Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship for 2005. In 2006 she was elected to the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (full member since 2012) and in 2012 she was elected to the World Academy of Arts and Sciences (WAAS). She got in 2014 a Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean Award for her achievement in art. Isidora Žebeljan was also one of the most prominent Serbian contemporary composers of theatre and film music. She composed music for more than thirty theatre productions in all significant theatres in Norway, Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro. For her work in the field of theatre music she was awarded the Sterija Award three times. She was also awarded the Yustat Biennial of Stage Design Award for best theatre music four times. In addition, Isidora Žebeljan worked on a number of film scores, including the orchestration of Goran Bregović’s music for the films Time of the Gypsies, Arizona Dream and Underground (directed by Emir Kusturica), La Reine Margot (directed by Patrice Chéreau) and The Serpent’s Kiss (directed by Philippe Rousselot). She composed the music for Miloš Radivojević’s film How I was Stolen by the Germans. For this score she was awarded the Prize of the Film Festival in Sopot in 2011 (Serbia) and the FIPRESCI Prize of the Serbian Film Association in 2012. She got commissions from important institutions and festivals such as the Berlin Philharmonic Foundation, Venice Biennale, Bregenz Festival and many others. Isidora Žebeljan also regularly appeared as a performer (conductor and pianist) of her own works and of the works by other, mainly Serbian composers.