Serbian artists, mezzo-soprano Ljubica Vraneš, bass Dragoljub Bajić, and pianist Natalija Mijailović, will perform a concert tonight at 9 PM in the Church of “St. Sophia” as part of the Serbian Evening at the “Ohrid Summer” festival.
Mezzo-soprano Ljubica Vraneš, a soloist at the National Theatre in Belgrade, graduated from the Faculty of Music Arts in Belgrade under the mentorship of Professor Radmila Bakočević, with whom she also completed her master’s degree. She is the recipient of the first prize and the award for the best mezzo-soprano at the “Nikola Cvejić” competition, as well as the first prize at the international competition “Petar Konjović.” She has been a member of the opera studio at the National Theatre, led by Professor Nikola Kitanovski, and the opera studio “Borislav Popović,” managed by Professor Radmila Bakočević and Maestro Dejan Savić. She is a member of the opera ensemble at the National Theatre in Belgrade. Vraneš made her debut in the role of Fenena in Verdi’s opera “Nabucco” at the Timișoara Opera House, after which she began performing on stages across Romania. She appeared in the first historic performance of the rock-opera “Carmen” in Craiova, and subsequently in productions of “Carmen” in Timișoara, Bucharest, Tirana, Plovdiv, and others. She has also performed in productions of operas such as “Otello,” “Don Carlo,” “Rigoletto,” “Nabucco,” “Cavalleria Rusticana,” “Samson and Delilah,” and more.
Dragoljub Bajić began studying singing at the “Stanković” music school under Professor Ljubica Živković and soon became a member of the opera studio at the National Theatre in Belgrade. He completed his studies in solo singing at the Faculty of Music Arts under Professor Nikola Mijailović, with whom he earned his doctorate in 2023, and later became an assistant professor at this faculty. Bajić has won numerous awards in Serbia and abroad, including three first prizes at the competitions: “Voislav Vučković,” “Petar Konjović,” and “Lazar Jovanović.” He was the laureate of the national soloist competition in 2003, and also received the award for the best performance of a set piece at the International Competition of Musical Youth in Belgrade in 2008, as well as at the “Elena Teodorini” competition in Craiova. From 2006 to 2008, he was a scholarship holder of the “Musical Theatre” foundation in Vienna as the most promising voice from the Balkans. In 2009, he collaborated with one of today’s greatest conductors, Riccardo Muti, performing several concerts in Salzburg, Ravenna, and Florence, followed by an engagement with the Vienna State Opera in the 2009/10 season. Bajić has performed in opera houses and concert halls in Vienna, Cannes, Copenhagen, Timișoara, Sarajevo, Skopje, Dubai, Seoul, and Moscow, and is currently a regular guest at the National Theatre in Bucharest. He has been a soloist at the National Theatre in Belgrade since 2004 and became a principal singer of this opera in 2017, where he successfully performs leading roles in his operatic repertoire.
Natalija Mijailović was born in 2003 in Belgrade and began her musical education at the age of five. She completed her secondary education at the “Mokranjac” music school and is currently a student at the Faculty of Music Arts in Belgrade in the class of Professor Maja Rajković. Mijailović has won numerous awards at national and international competitions, including the laureate of the “Mokranjac” competition, first prize at the “Slavenski” and “Petar Konjović” piano competitions, as well as awards from the “Nikolai Rubinstein” competition in Paris, and the “Open Music Competition” and “Constantine the Great” competitions. She has participated in numerous festivals and attended a seminar on the interpretation of Italian chamber music and operatic repertoire in Turin. Mijailović is engaged as a répétiteur by the Belgrade Opera and has performed solo at the “Raša Plaović” stage of the National Theatre, at “Kolarac” in Belgrade, at the Russian House, at “Guarnerius,” at the Italian Cultural Centre, and in the National Theatre Museum, among other venues.