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ON THE COVER
the Société de musique contemporaine
du Québec is
putting the spotlight on composer
Ana Sokolović this
year for the third season of
their Série Hommage, previously devoted to
Claude Vivier and Gilles Tremblay.
Born in Belgrade in 1968, the composer
grew up in a creatively and culturally rich
environment that gave her the opportunity,
while still very young, to learn ballet, take
piano lessons and act. She has been composing
music for the theatre since her teen
years.
After studying composition at the University
of Novi Sad and at the University of
Belgrade, she taught for a few years before
deciding to emigrate to Canada in 1992. She
completed a Master’s Degree in composition
at the Université de Montréal with José
Evangelista and married Jean Lesage, a fellow
composer.
For this neo-Quebecoise, Montreal is an
ideal environment for new music to flourish.
“Here, we are very closely linked to Europe,
but there is a liberty in North America that
Europeans do not have. The burden of tradition
and judgment weighs little here; there
is an extraordinary open-mindedness that
doesn’t exist anywhere else in the West. I am
extremely happy to be able to work here.”
Ana Sokolović’s work is rich and diverse;
opera, chamber music, theatre and dance
music, and pieces for solo instruments have
all crossed her creative path. Many prestigious
ensembles and soloists, for example
the MSO and the Ensemble contemporain
de Montréal, have commissioned pieces
from her and performed her works.
The public will discover Sokolović’s colourful and original
music, infused with the cultural baggage of her native country,
thanks to more than 80 concerts and activities across the country
that are part of the Série Hommage.
Opera, the universal language
Ana Sokolović has already written three operas, all of which
were premiered in Toronto by the Queen of Puddings Music
Theatre company.
For her most recent opera, Svadba, which means “marriage”
in Serbian, she drew on the model of Stravinsky’s Noces, which
tells the story of a peasant marriage in Russia. In this work for
six female voices, Sokolović concentrates on the moments that
come before the marriage, on what we call a bridal shower in
North America. Her primary source: songs and texts related to
this ritual at different times in the history of her native Serbia.
“It was very difficult to find texts, but I did succeed in finding,
for example, a song used while
the hair of the bride was coloured.
I wrote the libretto myself, drawing
on my research. I learned
that the ritual of preparation for
Ana Sokolović
A Chronology
1968: Birth in Belgrade
1979: Actress at the National
Yugoslav Theatre
1980-1981: Television program
presenter
1986-1990: Studies in music at
the University of Novi Sad
1992: Move to Montreal
1993-1995: Master’s Degree in
composition at the Université
de Montréal
1995-1996: First professional
concerts in Montreal
1996 à 2011: Composition and
premieres of around forty works
in Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg,
London, Halifax, and Banff
marriage lasted seven days, so there are seven scenes in my
opera. They include everything that can happen when you’re
very nervous during the preparation for an important event:
funny moments, touching ones, confrontation.”
The work was premiered last summer in Toronto. Sung a
cappella in Serbian, with English surtitles, it was described as
a tour de force by critics and was very well received in general.
“Even if it’s in Serbian, the theme is very universal,” says the
composer. “There are surtitles, of course. Nevertheless, what
matters most is not whether one understands all the words but
whether one understands emotionally what is going on. I incorporate
made-up language and onomatopoeia into the piece.
I play extensively on the rhythms of the language; its colour and
DECEMBER 2011 / JANUARY 2012 5