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Horizon

Dalibor Bukvić composer

Brevis Vocal Ensemble
The Women’s Choir of the Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek
Antoaneta Radočaj-Jerković conductor
Anja Papa soprano
Davor Dedić piano

Release Date: October 25, 2024
Catalog #: NV6669
Format: Digital
21st Century
Vocal Music
Choir
Piano
Voice

If one could have recorded an ancient culture, how would it have sounded? Croatian conductor Antoaneta Radočaj-Jerković and two all-female choirs under her lead pursue this question. The result is HORIZON, a haunting performance of the eponymous work by contemporary composer Dalibor Bukvić.

HORIZON is meant to evoke the ambiance of the prehistoric Vučedol culture, which flourished between 3000 and 2200 B.C. in what is now (mostly) Croatia. And in this endeavor, it succeeds with unsettling precision: Bukvić’s work and the choirs’ impeccable performance conjure images of hermetic settlements, starry skies, pagan rituals, and an ever-present consciousness of impending extinction. An ethereal experience.

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Track Listing & Credits

# Title Composer Performer
01 Cassiopeia Dalibor Bukvić Brevis Vocal Ensemble; The Women’s Choir of the Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek | Antoaneta Radočaj-Jerković, conductor 3:48
02 Songs of Enchantment Dalibor Bukvić Dalibor Bukvić, lyricist; Brevis Vocal Ensemble; The Women’s Choir of the Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek | Antoaneta Radočaj-Jerković, conductor; Davor Dedić, piano 3:51
03 Musica Perfecta Dalibor Bukvić Dalibor Bukvić, lyricist; Brevis Vocal Ensemble; The Women’s Choir of the Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek | Antoaneta Radočaj-Jerković, conductor; Ana Dora Bajto, narrator 2:42
04 Orion Dalibor Bukvić Dalibor Bukvić, lyricist; Brevis Vocal Ensemble; The Women’s Choir of the Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek | Antoaneta Radočaj-Jerković, conductor 4:18
05 Songs of Reminiscence Dalibor Bukvić Brevis Vocal Ensemble; The Women’s Choir of the Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek | Antoaneta Radočaj-Jerković, conductor; Davor Dedić, piano 2:13
06 Horizon Dalibor Bukvić Dalibor Bukvić, lyricist; Brevis Vocal Ensemble; The Women’s Choir of the Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek | Antoaneta Radočaj-Jerković, conductor 9:46
07 Songs of Extinction Dalibor Bukvić Brevis Vocal Ensemble; The Women’s Choir of the Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek | Antoaneta Radočaj-Jerković, conductor; Anja Papa Peranović, soprano 3:12

Recorded June 16 & December 7, 2022 at Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek, Croatia
Recording Session Producer & Engineer Davor Dedić
Editing & Mixing Davor Dedić
Mastering Melanie Montgomery

Executive Producer Bob Lord

VP of A&R Brandon MacNeil
A&R Danielle Sullivan

VP of Production Jan Košulič
Audio Director Lucas Paquette

VP, Design & Marketing Brett Picknell
Art Director Ryan Harrison
Design Edward A. Fleming
Publicity Kacie Brown
Digital Marketing Manager Brett Iannucci

Artist Information

Dalibor Bukvić

Composer

Composer Dalibor Bukvić (b. 1968) graduated from the Department of Composition at the Academy of Music in Zagreb under the mentorship of Stanko Horvat in 1995. He received the French government’s scholarship for the Paris Conservatory (Department of Electro-Acoustics, class of Laurent Cuniot, 1996–1997). He attended the National Conservatory of Boulogne, in the class of Michel Zbar (1996–1998), and the IRCAM’s Summer Academy in Paris in 1997. He perfected his skills on the summer course in Darmstadt with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luca Lombardi in 1996. From 2002 to 2008, he worked in Paris as a professor of music theory, piano, and improvisation and as an accompanist at several conservatories in Paris and at the Conservatories in Ivry-sur-Seine and Fontenay-aux-Roses. Since 2008, he has been living in Zagreb and working as a professor at the Academy of Music in Zagreb, lecturing theoretical and musical courses.

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Brevis Vocal Ensemble

ensemble

The Brevis Vocal Ensemble is a pre-eminent female choir and a long-standing artistic project of the conductor Dr. Antoaneta Radočaj-Jerković and piano accompanist Davor Dedić. Brevis is one of the most renowned Croatian choirs, which is evidenced by numerous recognitions and prizes awarded to the choir, artistic projects and collaborations, and numerous international concert appearances. The choir’s artistic identity encompasses the singers’ high-level vocal abilities, a recognizable choir sound, original and proactive repertoire selection and interpretation, and a unique, appealing style and charm presented on the stage rounding off the ensemble’s impressive artistic performance. Such an artistic activity design affects intensely and deeply the experience and connection of the ensemble with the audience.

All choir members are singers with many years of solo singing and choral experience, many of whom are professional musicians. Since its establishment in 1996, the ensemble has become distinctive as a significant actor in the cultural life of Osijek and Croatia, taking the lead in developing and enriching the Croatian and world choral arts. The choir has championed a varied repertoire style ranging from Renaissance to contemporary composers, featuring vocal and interpretation authenticity and the program’s aspiration towards integrating the repertoire into a broader artistic concept. Performing at prestigious festivals worldwide and winning the highest awards at competitions in Croatia, Greece, Italy, Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Great Britain, Austria, France, Sweden, Russia, Canada, China, the United States, Australia, South Korea, and elsewhere constitute the ensemble’s outstanding achievements. The ensemble has also released several recordings, out of which the most recent recording, titled Choral Journey through the Centuries, published by Croatia Records (2020), stands out.

The Brevis Vocal Ensemble considers the unforgettable concerts in the world’s most prestigious concert halls to be their greatest successes: Carnegie Hall, Grand Philharmonic Hall in St. Petersburg, and Sydney Opera House. Brevis regularly performs at national and international choir competitions and has won the following awards: Gold plaque and the prestigious title of Winner of the category at the Helsingborgs choir festival (Sweden, 2004); Gold medal at the 4th World choir games (China, 2006); gold plaque and first place at the Llangollen musical Eisteddfod (United Kingdom, 2011); Gold plaque and first place and special award of the Bulgarian society of composers at the 35th International choral competition Prof. Georgi Dimitrov (Bulgaria, 2014); Gold plaque and special award of the expert jury at the World Choral Championship for Children and Youth Choirs in St. Petersburg (Russia, 2016); Gold plaque at the 28th Australian International Music Festival, Sydney (Australia, 2017); Bronze plaque at the 48th Florilège Vocal de Tours (France, 2019); first place and special award for the best performance of a composition from the Romantic period at the Lege Artis International Choir Championship (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2020); Grand prix and special award for the best performance of a composition from the Renaissance period at the Melodianum International Choir Festival (Serbia, 2020); Gold medal at the 12th World Choir Games (South Korea, 2023).

More information about the ensemble is available at brevis-osijek.com

The Women’s Choir of the Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek

choir

The Women’s Choir of the Academy of Arts and Culture mainly performs as part of a mixed choir and occasionally independently. It is the oldest and most representative art ensemble of the academy. The choir was founded in 1985 when the music study program was introduced at the University of Osijek. The choir has carried out a significant number of different and important projects, resulting in international concert tours and collaborations worldwide (Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Italy, China, Poland), performances in joint projects with other ensembles, prizes at international and national choral competitions, solo concerts, performances in operas, operettas, and dramas, recording of audio material, and others.

In 2022, the choir released the album Adalbert Marković: Dvije mise in cooperation with the Cantus record company. It has also cooperated with renowned orchestras, conductors, and soloists from Croatia, Hungary, and Serbia, some of which are the Pannonian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Symphony Wind Orchestra of the Croatian Army, the Opera Ensemble of the Croatian National Theatre in Osijek, and the University of Pécs Orchestra.

The choir has performed the following major classical music works: A. Bruckner: Mass in E minor, F. Schubert: Deutsche Messe, J. S. Bach: Christmas Oratorio, W. A. ​​Mozart: Krönungsmesse, A. Bruckner: Requiem in D minor, B. Britten: A Ceremony of Carols, G. Fauré: Requiem, A. Ramirez: Missa Criolla, L. van Beethoven: Symphony No. 9, C. Orff: Carmina Burana, Z. Grgošević: Okolo žnjačkoga venca – cycle, D. Bobić: oratory Izaija, D. Bobić: Cantata Jericho, B. Britten: The World of the Spirit, J. Trotta: Septem ultima verba, J. Rutter: Magnificat, J. Rutter: Mass of the Children, A. L’ Estange: Cantata Zimbe, G. B. Pergolesi: Magnificat, G. B. Pergolesi: Stabat Mater, and G. Puccini: Messa di Gloria. The choir has also taken part in the stage productions of the operas Cosi fan tutte and Die Zauberflöte by W.A. ​​Mozart, L’elisir d’amore by G. Donizetti, Carmen by G. Bizet, and operettas and musicals by J. Strauss Jr.: Die Fledermaus; Trenk Cabaret; Prince Eugene, and others.

The choir has won several important awards: two first prizes, one of which was for the best performance of a work by a Croatian author from the Croatian Composers’ Society, and the second prize at the Cro Patria festival in Split, first place and a gold and special award for the best performance of a contemporary composition, a medal at the 19th international competition of chamber choirs in Pécs (Hungary), a silver medal at the 4th World Choir Games in Xiamen (China), silver medal at the international choir competition Anton Bruckner in Linz (Austria). From 1985 to 2006, the choir was conducted by Art. Josip Jerković, and since 2006 by Antoaneta Radočaj-Jerković.

Antoaneta Radočaj-Jerković

conductor

Conductor Antoaneta Radočaj-Jerković is a versatile Croatian artist who finds inspiration both in her work with the choir as a conventional and innovative form of artistic ensemble, cherishing a historically and stylistically mindfully selected repertoire, and in experimenting with contemporary music by incorporating elements from other arts such as movement, acting, dance, and multimedia. Radočaj-Jerković has been a longstanding artistic director and conductor of several different singing ensembles: female, mixed, and children choirs. Her broad musical education has rendered her approach to working with choirs fourfold — from conducting, singing, pedagogic, and scientific-research perspectives.

She graduated in Choral Conducting from the Faculty of Music and Visual Arts in Pécs, in Voice from the Music Academy in Zagreb, and in Musical Culture from the Faculty of Education in Osijek, having earned a Master’s Degree in Music Pedagogy from the Music Academy in Zagreb and a Ph.D. from the University of Zagreb. She perfected her conducting competence at prestigious music academies in Germany and the United States. She is a full time professor, employed at the Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek.

For her outstanding achievements in higher education, she has received the Ivan Filipović State Award and has been honoured with the public acknowledgment of the City of Osijek for her exceptional contribution to the music culture and art in the city of Osijek. She has been awarded over 30 prizes at national and international choir competitions, the most significant of which are gold medals at international competitions in St. Petersburg (Russia), Llangollen (United Kingdom), Helsingborg (Sweden), Xiamen (China), Varna (Bulgaria), Sydney (Australia), Gangneung (South Korea), and others. She has received special prizes for the best young conductors at competitions in Sweden and Italy. She has performed in some of the most prestigious concert halls in the world, such as Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, the Grand Philharmonic Hall, and the State Academic Capella in St. Petersburg.

She has recorded for radio and television and released 12 recordings, out of which the most recent ones stand out: Zborsko putovanje kroz stoljeća, (Croatia Records 2020); Adalbert Marković Dvije mise, (Cantus 2022), and Franjo Štefanović Šumska kraljica, an opera for children (Croatia Records 2022). Her recordings are included in many compilation releases, many of which have become an integral part of the music syllabus for primary and secondary schools.

She has prepared choirs and soloists for operas, operettas, and musicals such as Carmen, La Boheme, Tosca, The Little Sweep, Countess Maritza, L’Elisir d’Amore, The Magic Flute, Così fan tutte etc.

She has published two books, Singing in Music Teaching and Choir Singing in Teaching and Education. She is a member of national and international juries at choral music competitions and regularly gives lectures and seminars and runs workshops for choirmasters. She acts as a Croatian representative in the World Choir Council of the global choral organization Interkultur. More information about Radočaj-Jerković, including audio and video recordings of earlier releases, is available at antoanetaradocaj.com

Anja Papa

soprano

Anja Papa Peranović (1994) feels as much at home singing opera as she does on lied and concert podiums. In her artistic and professional work, she has been equally successful in opera and concert repertoires. She graduated in Voice summa cum laude in the class of Berislav Jerković and in Piano from the Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek, Croatia, obtaining the academic degree of Master of Music. She is currently employed as a Teaching Assistant at the Department of Music of the Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek and is enrolled in the Postgraduate Interdisciplinary University Study of Culture and Arts at J.J. Strossmayer University of Osijek.

Her opera appearances have included the roles of Despina in Cosi fan tutte (Mozart), Gianetta in L’elisir d’amore (Donizetti), Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro (Mozart), Musetta in La Bohème (Puccini), Nella in Gianni Schicchi (Puccini), Pamina in Die Zauberflöte (Mozart), Donna Anna in Don Giovanni (Mozart), Serpina in La Serva Padrona (Pergolesi), and Armida in Rinaldo (Händel). She has participated in renowned international festivals in the country and abroad in collaboration with famous conductors such as Sándor Gyüdi (Hungary), Balázs Kocsár (Hungary), and director Magdalene Minnaar (Cape Town, South Africa), as well as with prominent orchestras: the Szeged Philharmonic Orchestra, the Pécs Philharmonic Orchestra, the New Trinity Baroque Orchestra, the Luka Sorkočević Chamber Orchestra, etc. In addition to opera, she has a great passion for lied, oratorio, and concert repertoire. In the field of concert repertoire, she excelled as a soprano soloist in Orff’s cantata Carmina Burana and the oratorio of the Croatian contemporary composer Bruno Vlahek, Stabat Mater. By performing the main role (Ružica), she recorded the CD of the first Croatian children’s opera, Šumska kraljica, composed by Franjo Štefanović. The opera was recorded with soloists and choirs under the baton of the conductor Antoaneta Radočaj-Jerković and accompanied by the pianist Davor Dedić of the Institute for Choral Music Polifonija, Osijek. The CD was released by the Croatian recording house, Croatia Records. She has won a number of awards at national and international singing competitions. For her artistic achievements during her studies, she received the Dean’s and Rector’s awards. She attended the master classes with Michele Creider at Mozarteum University in Salzburg, with Claudia Visca at the International Youngmasters singing master class in Samobor, and with Nicholas Clapton, Kathy Price, as well as the famous sopranos Chen Reiss and Anna Samuil. She regularly performs as an opera, choral, and concert soloist in Croatia and abroad (Italy, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Serbia, Jordan, Spain, France, etc.).

Davor Dedić

piano

Davor Dedić is an established Croatian musician, pianist, and pedagogue active in diverse artistic fields of music performance, sound design, and production, as well as in arranging for choral ensembles. For more than 25 years, he has been working as a piano accompanist for the Brevis Vocal Ensemble and the Osječki Zumbići Children’s Choir, both of which are renowned Croatian choirs. With these choirs, he has won a number of national and international awards, recorded numerous audio and video recordings, and performed in hundreds of concerts at national and international stages including the concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York in 2013 and the Sydney Opera House in 2017. As a piano accompanist with these ensembles, he has won many national and international awards and recognitions.

He has been personally awarded several times for his successful piano collaborations. In addition to the classical education he acquired at the University of Josip Juraj Strossmayer in Osijek, he expanded his activities to include jazz and popular music through artistic training in Croatia and abroad. As a jazz pianist, he collaborated with a large number of musicians and ensembles, and from 2002 to 2015, he was the pianist of the HGM Jazz Orchestra. With the orchestra, he performed at a number of notable concerts, made international guest appearances, and recorded numerous video and audio materials for Croatian Radio and Croatian Television. He recorded five studio albums, of which HGM Plays the Music of Ivo Robić (2013) was awarded the Porin national discography award. In the field of sound design for theater plays and films, he has carried out the following projects: Pretapanja (2008), Crtači (2015), Školarina (2017) Ni na nebu, ni na zemlji (2023) Sanjareva priča (2023). He has authored original music for Brana Crlenjak’s documentary films: Umjesto fotografija, kotlić (2013), Crtaći (2015), and short feature films Školarina (2017), Ni na nebu, ni na zemlji (2023). He has produced two albums of classical music. Currently, he is employed at the Department of Music of the Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek.

Ensemble and Choir Members

Irena Bogdanović
Nika Boras
Maja Cvijanović
Anja Jovanovac
Vanessa Kovačević
Nives Lazar
Majda Milinović
Anja Papa
Vedrana Kuti
Tena Labuhar
Tena Mijić
Donatela Milić
Martina Proleta
Lucija Uglik
Martina Štenc
Silvija Dulić
Lucija Kuleš
Ivana Popović
Vlatka Ratković
Ivana Sabolek
Dora Šalić
Karla Bertić
Tia Galjer
Magdalena Glavica
Dunja Hajduković
Dunja Keža
Lucija Krišto
Lorena Miličević
Doris Rukavina
Petra Španić
Matea Vadlja

Notes

HORIZON by the Croatian composer Dalibor Bukvić, performed by the Brevis Vocal Ensemble and The Women’s Choir of the Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek, conducted by Antoaneta Radočaj-Jerković, takes listeners on a mystical journey through time. This album by renowned Croatian artists exudes the authentic sounds of modern times, immersed in the motif of the ancient past. Using astral symbolism and ritual shamanism in the names of the movements, the composer and the performers evoke the memory of the ancient prehistoric Vučedol culture, whose one of the most important archaeological sites is located in the area of ​​the Croatian Danube region where the performers come from. The work, scored for female choir, soprano solo, narrator, and piano, premiered in 2022. It consists of seven movements:

1. “Cassiopeia”
2. “Songs of Enchantments”
3. “Musica perfecta”
4. “Orion”
5. “Songs of Reminiscence”
6. “Horizon”
7. “Songs of Extinction”

Composer Dalibor Bukvić is one of the most important Croatian composers of the middle generation. On HORIZON, he masters contemporary compositional techniques, often using clusters and aleatoric elements with which he contrasts pentatonic patterns and unison (chanting) singing, while symbolically emphasizing the atmospheric nature of the work by erasing the boundaries between modern and occasional archaic consonances. The composer completes and enriches this subtle, mainly a cappella score with almost cinematically seductive motifs in the movements with piano accompaniment (Songs of Enchantments and Songs of Reminiscence). Most of the movements do not have a poetic background, which underlines the vocal colors and the universal sonority of the score. In few movements (Musica Perfecta and Horizon) in which the text does appear, the composer, in the role of the author of the text in Latin, evokes thoughts about the transience of time and, in the manner of an ancient Greek chorus, conveys a message to the listener about the significance of the moment in which civilisation as we know it exists. Humanity is at a turning point that could easily take the human race in either direction — toward unthinkable possibilities or toward an unimaginable disaster.

“Totum tempus nostrum est quasi simile vertici, cuius versatio appropinquat fundo crateris.
Omnia visa sunt. Progredi significet repetere, at regredi non possumus. Utrum in limine ipsius finis sumus an initii novi – unius plane novi gradus sicut partis cycli evolutionis, in quo nobis aperiuntur novae, inopinatae facultates? Credamus haec altera!…
…At alicubi in ultimis, in ipso, fine nostri itineris, alicubi illic in temporali infinitate perfectae concinnitatis, inter sidera, in momento inegrae perfectionis et unitatis totius Universi, sonabun etiam musica perfecta, illa quibus non erit perfectiora se ipsis – SILENTIUM” (Dalibor Bukvić).

Conductor Antoaneta Radočaj-Jerković and the ensemble deliver an expressive and inspired interpretation of the piece, complemented by the confident piano performance of Davor Dedić and the impressive solo performance of soprano Anja Papa Peranović. The sonority, harmony, and refinement of young female voices blend perfectly with the subtle sounds of nature and birdsong, which were used to highlight the symbolism of the unity of man, nature, and time. The performers mastered the complex score with ease and conviction, confirming their pre-eminent position in the choral world.

The release of this album was supported by the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, Osijek-Baranja County and Institute of Choral Music Polifonija.

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Antoaneta Radočaj-Jerković, conductor; photo: Tomislav Šilovinac

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Radočaj-Jerković with choir; photo: Tomislav Šilovinac

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photo: Tomislav Šilovinac