DARA'S REGULUS

Wednesday, August 14
St. Paul's Church, 9 p.m.
DARA'S REGULUS

Collegium musicum Academic Choir
D. A. Dragana Jovanović, author and conductor

A kaleidoscope is an optical device in the shape of a tube, containing multiple flat mirrors positioned at specific angles. These mirrors reflect colorful stones, beads, paper, or glass pieces placed inside, creating many symmetrical patterns. The device is used by rotating the tube towards the light, allowing the viewer to observe how the objects inside mix and form different visual shapes. The word kaleidoscope comes from the Greek words kalos (καλός) – beautiful, eidos (είδος) – shape, and scopeo (σκοπέω) – to look at. Similarly, this year’s artistic project by the Collegium Musicum Academic Choir is conceived in three sound images formed by the visual transformation of the choir, acoustically framed by the inspiring acoustics of St. Paul’s Church. In the immediate vicinity of the listeners, the voices of the singers will “reflect” at various angles during their interactions, aiming to create the most complex interpretative images guided by the conductor.
    The concept of presenting choral music through a contemporary and exploratory approach is certainly one of the “reguli” of Darinka Matić Marović (1937-2020), the renowned Kotor native and long-time conductor of the Collegium Musicum Academic Choir. This year, we remember her unique personality and pay tribute to her vision of the choir as a musical and visual phenomenon that is equally experienced through listening and watching. Another important lesson from the professor was the significance of the connection with the audience, as she never forgot that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
    Therefore, the program of this year’s edition of Dara’s Regulus remains a secret until the event itself. Compositions by the most representative authors of the region, like the colorful glass pieces of a kaleidoscope, will materialize in the ears and eyes of the audience according to the perspective they choose.

It is not I who mix the colors but your own vision.
I only place them next to one another on the wall in their natural state,
it is the observer who mixes the colors in his own eye, like porridge.
Therein lies the secret. The better the porridge, the better the painting,
but you cannot make good porridge from bad buckwheat.
Therefore, faith in seeing, listening, and reading is more important than faith in painting, singing, or writing..

Milorad Pavić, Dictionary of the Khazars

The Collegium musicum Academic Choire was founded in 1971 and comprises female students from the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. Two of the most authoritative figures in the field of choral performance in the region, Vojislav Ilić and Darinka Matić Marović, have infused their knowledge and energy into the the ensemble's decades-long history. Since 1999, Dr. Dragana Jovanović has served as the assistant conductor, and since 2002, as the choir's conductor. To date, approximately 500 female students of the Faculty of Music have sung in the ensemble. Recognized as one of the most prestigious choirs in Serbia, it has received numerous awards and accolades both domestically and internationally. The choir was awarded the Gold Medal for outstanding merits in preserving the tradition of choral singing and promoting national culture worldwide by decree of the President of the Republic of Serbia. The ensemble has performed over three thousand concerts across the country and in more than forty countries. Its repertoire includes works from various epochs and styles, as well as premiere performances of more than 200 works. The choir has collaborated with numerous distinguished orchestras in Serbia and the region and with eminent conductors. In recent years, the choir has been paying special attention to developing a visual-scenic identity in choral performance, achieving concert-performances such as: Sirens, Document: WATER, Mokranjac 1914–2014, The Snake Groom, Shklovsky, Motion Stop – Reviving the Sound, and Inter Nos.

D.A. Dragana Jovanović, Associate Professor of Choral Singing and Conducting and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, graduated, earned her master's degree, and completed her doctorate in Conducting at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, under the mentorship of Professor Darinka Matić Marović. She began her conducting career during her studies and continued as an assistant conductor and conductor of the Obilić Academic Choir of the Branko Krsmanović Academic Cultural and Artistic Society, the Mixed Choir of the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, the Mixed Choir of Radio Television Serbia, and as chief conductor of the Orchestra of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia. Her artistic work is most closely associated with the Collegium Musicum Academic Choir, with which she performs a wide range of programs in Serbia and worldwide. In the last decade, Dragana Jovanović has focused on authorial and co-authorial artistic projects that explore choral and conducting performance in conjunction with movement, mise-en-scène, space, light, electronics, dramaturgy, and visuals. She is the author of books, professional papers, seminars, and workshops in the field of conducting interpretation and choral singing. Dragana Jovanović has received numerous accolades and is the first laureate of the Darinka Matić Marović Award for outstanding personality in the field of music, established by KotorArt. She is the Artistic Director of the Tivat Music Festival.