Svjetlana Bukvich is an American/Bosnian-Herzegovinian music composer, music producer, and media performance artist best known for her blending of classical music, media and electronic music. She has received numerous awards and her works have been featured at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Kennedy Center,[1] and by the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.[2]

Svjetlana Bukvich
Bukvich in 2015
Bukvich in 2015
Background information
BornSarajevo, Yugoslavia (today Bosnia and Herzegovina
Genres
  • Classical
  • electronic music
Occupations
  • Composer
  • music producer
  • media performance artist
  • pianist
  • music educator
Instruments
  • piano
  • analog and digital synthesizers
  • voice
Labels
  • Navona
  • Big Round Records
  • Innova
Websitesvjetlanamusic.com

Career

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Svjetlana Bukvich's music has been described as acoustic and performer-driven to electronic and theatrical, and often includes visual arts and microtonality, with tunings of her own design. She is one the few female composers from Bosnia and Herzegovina working and performing in the U.S. and incorporates musical and cultural influences of both.[3] She has received awards from the American Composers Forum, New England Foundation for the Arts, and the Institute On The Arts and Civic Dialogue at Harvard University, and others.[4] Bukvich was recognized by the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) with a Fellowship in Music/Sound in 2013.[5]

Bukvich performed her breakthrough piece Before and After the Tekke for electronics, keyboard, voice, and amplified violin at the Congress of the International Alliance for Women in Music in Beijing in 2008. That same year the piece was awarded First prize in the International Chamber Music Festival in Sarajevo.[6] She has presented her productions internationally, and in 2019 she held two concerts in Sarajevo in collaboration with the Sarajevo Music Academy, the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Bosnian-Herzegovinian American Academy of Arts and Sciences (BHAAAS). In 2020 her work was featured at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with the Ethel (string quartet) as part of Balcony Bar From Home - Ethel and Friends.[7] Her compositions and albums have received favorable reviews in the press.[8]

"Wherever we approach the music of this disc we will find that Miss Bukvich is a composer who is a true musical Epicurean, but whose sound of music is not only prolonged in the sensualist realm but also arouses in us a feeling of hope that is quite palpable" - Raul da Gama, World Music Report.[9]

"Bukvich is one of the notable musicians who have embraced the energetic complexity of prog-rock via contemporary composition. Her trademarks are sonority, color, texture, and a feeling for the metaphysical, and her collaboration with Carolyn Dorfman has earned raves" - The Brooklyn Rail.[10]

  • Writing

Bukvich contributed one chapter, Women in Audio: Trends in New York Through the Perspective of a Civil War Survivor, to the book Gender in Music Production, released in 2020[11] and is a contributor in Modern Diplomacy, reviewing music.[12]

Discography

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  • 2014 - EVOLUTION[13]
  • 2015 - Big Round Sound, VOL I [14]
  • 2015 - THE NYFA COLLECTION, VOL II[15]
  • 2020 - EXTENSION [16]

Education

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Svjetlana holds a B.A. in musical composition, a B.A. in musicology from Sarajevo University's Academy of Music and an M.F.A. in integrated electronic arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. She taught music technology at New York University,[17][18] Pratt Institute,[4] and is assistant professor at City University of New York.[19] She is also faculty at the Microtonal University (MU)[20] and is on the board of directors at the American Festival of Microtonal Music (AFMM).[21]

References

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  1. ^ "Composition Today Interviews Violinist Ana Milosavljevic". Composition Today. Retrieved January 18, 2022.
  2. ^ "Bh. kompozitorica i producentica u New Yorku: Znanja trebamo donositi u BiH by ŽIVOTNE PRIČE". Mojabih. April 8, 2019. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
  3. ^ "Od Sarajeva do New Yorka: Veliko priznanje za profesoricu kompozicije Svjetlanu Bukvić by Vijesti". Mojabih. January 15, 2021. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
  4. ^ a b "Fall Faces/Places". ASCAP Playback. Retrieved January 18, 2022.
  5. ^ "Artist News: October". New York Foundation For the Arts. October 7, 2016. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
  6. ^ In Her Own Words: Conversations with Composers in the United States Chapter 11. University of Illinois Press. June 2013. ISBN 978-0-252-09483-5. Retrieved January 17, 2022.
  7. ^ "Trostruka svjetska premijera u programu Metropolitan muzeja u Njujorku kompozitorke bh. porijekla Svjetlane Bukvić". Dijaspora. August 14, 2020. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
  8. ^ "Defying Category With Svjetlana Bukvich's Rich, Dramatic Compositions by delarue". New York Music Daily. May 14, 2020. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
  9. ^ "Svjetlana Bukvich: Extension by Raul da Gama". World Music Reports. April 13, 2020. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
  10. ^ "Brooklyn Rail Highly Selective Music Events April 2016". The Brooklyn Rail. 6 April 2016. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
  11. ^ Hepworth-Sawyer, Russ; Hodgson, Jay; King, Liesl; Marrington, Mark, eds. (April 28, 2020). Gender in Music Production. Taylor & Francis. doi:10.4324/9780429464515. ISBN 9780429464515. S2CID 226394383.
  12. ^ "Violinist Tim Fain and Composers Concordance do it right with an all new concert in New York By Svjetlana Bukvich". Modern Diplomacy. December 7, 2015. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
  13. ^ "Svjetlana Bukvich - EVOLUTION". Big Round Records. Retrieved January 9, 2022.
  14. ^ "Big Round Sound VOL I". Big Round Records. July 10, 2015. Retrieved January 9, 2022.
  15. ^ "The NYFA COLLECTION VOL II". New York Foundation for the Arts. November 13, 2015. Retrieved January 9, 2022.
  16. ^ "Svjetlana Bukvich - EXTENSION". Navona Records. Retrieved January 9, 2022.
  17. ^ "Evolving With Your Favorite Song By Sierra Jackson". NYU News. April 10, 2017. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
  18. ^ "Svjetlana Bukvich (New York)". Anatomy of Sound. April 1, 2014. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
  19. ^ "Svjetlana Bukvich". CUNY. Retrieved March 1, 2022.
  20. ^ "Microtonal University (MU)" (PDF). Anaphoria. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
  21. ^ "Board of Directors". American Festival of Microtonal Music (AFMM). Retrieved January 17, 2022.