Artist in Residence Programme Zvjezdane staze [Mijakovići, BiH]
SELECTED ARTISTS
From July 3 to September 30, 2024, the first edition of the Zvjezdane staze artistic residency is taking place, under the motto “Dreams to Come True”.
For the first time in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a project is being carried out under the auspices of the European Union’s “Culture Moves Europe” program, presenting five artists who were selected in an international open call to which 46 candidates from 24 countries applied: composer Marta Kowalczuk (Poland), composer and pianist Manuel Pessoa de Lima (Brazil), pianist and composer Roman Stolyar (Russia), writer and dramaturge Minja Jovičin (Serbia) and composer Damjan Jovičin (Serbia).
MANUEL PESSOA DE LIMA
COMPOSER – PERFORMER
Manuel Pessoa de Lima (1981) // Brazilian composer-performer based in Berlin. Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) by CalArts (2017) has been pursuing an artistic career outside of academia for the past years, developing a great number of unique performances, mixing his self-doubting humorous persona with political questionings and experimentation in sound, light, text and video. Many of his works challenge seriousness and self-importance in sites of contemporary practice, destabilizing the performance space with accidents. His ongoing solo The Failed Pianist was presented in international Music Festivals like Send and Receive (CA) and BAM Musiktheater Festival (DE). His latest album Realejo was released on vinyl by BlackTruffle Records. Received awards in Brazil, the United States and Europe, circulated through art residencies such as Q-02 (BE), AirKrems (AT), Villa Straulli (CH), Civitella (IT) and Cabin Studio (CZ). Had a work commissioned by the Tectonics Festival (BBC Scotland) in 2021. In Brazil, collaborated with numerous theatre and dance companies, and in Berlin worked as a sound operator in the CIA Ligia Lewis contemporary dance company in Berlin. Has published writings on the topics of experimental music, whiteness, and lecture performance as an independent researcher outside of academia.
Her work and compositions have received various awards, including the Publicity Prize 2019 (SKE Fund), Austrian State Scholarship for Composition 2014 and 2024 (Federal Chancellery of the Republic of Austria), Work Scholarship for Composition of the City of Vienna 2024, I z S Art & Culture Prize (Ingrid zu Solms Foundation), International Work Scholarship “Composer in Residence – Women Composers to Frankfurt (Archiv Frau und Musik).
ROMAN STOLYAR
COMPOSER – PIANIST
Roman Stolyar (1967) // Berlin-based Russian composer and pianist Roman Stolyar is often called one of key figures in Russian improvised music. He has performed in 27 countries collaborating with a number of internationally renowned improvisers, including Dominic Duval, William Parker, Vinny Golya, Oliver Lake, Susan Allen, Thomas Buckner, Weasel Walter, Assif Tsahar, Martin Kuchen, Glen Hall, and many others. His improvisational workshops have garnered him an international reputation, and have led to many invitations to create and implement workshops for organizations and universities around the world, including the University of Michigan, Mannes College NY, the California Institute of the Arts, Music Academy Basel, Chateu d’Oex Music School in Switzerland, Frescobaldi State Conservatory in Ferrara, Italy and the Versailles Conservatory, France. He is an author of the first Russian book on teaching free improvisation. In 2016, during his staying in SAPH art residency in Shanghai, he created the first Chinese orchestra of improvisers.
Being actively involved into theatrical activity, he has composed music for more than 40 theater shows, working with leading drama directors of Russia – Boris Pavlovich, Veniamin Filshtinsky, Yelena Nevezhina, Larissa Alexandrova, Vera Popova, and many others. Roman Stolyar is a member of Russian Composers Union and International Association of Schools of Jazz, and an Advisory Board member of the International Society for Improvised Music.
He is currently living and working in Berlin, collaborating with a number of Berlin-based musicians– Edith Steyer, Meinrad Kneer, Korhan Erel, Vincent Laju, Lina Allemano, Anna Kaluza, and many others. Together with Argentinian saxophonist Camila Nebbia he is a co-founder of IDENTITIES Quintet which unites improvisers of various nations living in Berlin. He is continuing his anti-war activity as a composer; his composition B – Ut – C – H – A dedicated to victims of the massacre in Butcha, Ukraine, was performed in 2022-2023 in USA and the Netherlands. He is currently working on the audiovisual project LIBERA ME, initiated together with Bosnian actress Maja Zeco, in which voices of witnesses of two wars – in Bosnia and Ukraine – are mixed with music and sounds in a powerful soundtrack realized in a spatial acoustic.
MARTA KOWALCZUK
COMPOSER – VIOLINIST/BAROQUE VIOLINIST
Marta Kowalczuk (1995) // Marta Kowalczuk studied composition with Michael Obst in Weimar, with Gordon Kampe in Hamburg and Baroque violin at the Academy of Music in Wrocław (Poland).
As a composer and baroque violinist, she creates a bridge between past and present. Her focus is on combining baroque instruments with historical performance practice, while also experimenting with diverse tones and textures. Inspired by spectral music, she expands the sonic possibilities of her compositions.
Marta actively engages in musical life in Germany and abroad, collaborating with esteemed orchestras, ensembles, conductors, and musicians like Staatskapelle Weimar, KNM Berlin, Ensemble via nova, MDR Sinfonieorchester, Ensemble Garage, Kent Nagano, Dennis Russell Davies, and Ensemble Resonanz. She has received numerous awards, including the Frost School of Music Ensemble Ibis Competition (2021, Miami USA), German Film Music Award (2022), and Flute New Music Consortium Composition Competition (2023). Marta was a fellow at Künstlerhof Schreyahn (2022/2023) and the Fleetstreet Residency Hamburg in February 2023.
DAMJAN JOVIČIN
COMPOSER – PIANIST
Damjan Jovičin (1995) // Composer and pianist. He finished his Bachelor and Master studies at Faculty of Music in Belgrade, and is currently studying PhD studies in the class of professor Zoran Erić. He spent one semester at Franz List Academy of Music in Budapest as a part of ERASMUS program. He is an active participant of many national and international festivals where his compositions were premiered. Some of them include: Darmstädter Ferienkurse (Germany), ISA Festival (Austria), Time of Music (Finland), Soundmine (Belgium), Walden Creative Musicians Retreat (USA), BEMUS (Serbia), International Composer’s Review (Serbia), KoMA (Serbia), FESTUM (Serbia), CEME Festival (Israel)… He received the comission for the 49th edition of Belgrade Music Festival and composed an orchestral piece Mathematical Dream which was premiered by RTS symphony orchestra at Kolarac endownment. Besides concert music, he leads a gamelan ensemble, traditional singing group, composes music for multimedia art and performes as a pianist and conductor.
MINJA JOVIČIN
WRITER
Minja Jovičin (1999) // Minja Jovičin completed her master’s in art history at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade in 2023 with a thesis titled “Rastko Petrović: The Burden of the White Man – Rastko Petrović’s Artistic Testimony on Africa.” So far, she has published a poetry collection titled “Three Years of November” (Presing, 2021), dramas: “Milk” (Presing, 2023) and “Atlas Mountains” (2024), as well as a lyrical collection titled “Wall Paintings of the House of the Melancholiy God” (2024). In her work, she strives to integrate poetry and drama with the ancient and mythological art models.