Description
Nikola Starcevic (1980-), “Asiana V”
- First Price in the 2007 JoAnn Falleta Composition Competition for Guitar
- Skill Level: Advanced
- With Standard Notation
- BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES:
Nikola Starcevic was born in 1980 in Loznica (Serbia). A student of Professor Vera Ogrizovic, he is a graduate of the Belgrade Music Academy and now lives in Belgrade (Serbia) and works as a classical guitar teacher. He plays and composes very different kinds of music for guitar, chamber and symphonic orchestra. He uses a wide range of musical languages — neo-baroque, neo-classical, neo-romantic, jazz, world music, and the most characteristically in his pieces — Balkan style. Situated as he is in the center of the Balkans, surrounded by countries with a rich culture, Starcevic’ music is influenced by the unstable region, colored by nostalgia and strange sadness, but brimming with energy.The music is like a handwoven carpet, colorful and full of beautiful ornaments, but when you look more carefully and closely, you will see all the beauty of colors and art of every single pattern, thread and string woven in. Many of his pieces are written combining classical and Balkan musical style, harmony, form and structure. Nikola won a few important prizes for composition, like the USA Songwriting Competition in 2005 in the World Music category with a piece for 3 guitars entitled Water-mill, the JoAnn Falletta International Composition Competition for Guitar 2007 Buffalo, New York, with “Asiana V”.The composer says: “Asiana V is a part of a cycle called ASIANA which consists of five solo guitar pieces written in a similar style. As the title suggest, there are some elements of Asian music, recognizable in the use of the pentatonic scale. It is actually a fusion of a few styles: neo-classical, neo-romantic and jazz. Except for a lyrical part, the piece is dynamic, effective, with a lot of strong accents, especially on chords. The harmony is tonal. This piece requires a good technique, a powerful sound and a disciplined use of articulation”.
