29.09.2016.
Concert on the occasion of the Day of Binicki Ensemble
Performing a concert in the Great Hall of Kolarac Endowment building, Stanislav Binicki Artistic Ensemble of the Ministry of Defence has marked this evening 117 years since its founding.In honour of that anniversary, within the whole evening programme, during which the work of artistic and popular music alternated, the audience had opportunity to enjoy the performances of the Chorus of the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces, vocal soloists Jadranka Jovanovic, Nikola Kitanovski, Nevena Matic, Dragutin Matic, Danka Stojiljkovic, instrumental soloists Nevena Zivkovic and Nebojsa Buric, as well as performances of actresses of the Theatre on Terazije: Mina Lazarevic, Ivana Knezevic and Dusica Novakovic.
Accompanied by Symphony Orchestra of the Stanislav Binicki Artistic Ensemble, under the batons of Pavle Medakovic, Igor Mitrovic, Aleksandar Djurov, Katarina Bozic and Vojkan Borisavljevic, friends of the Ensemble with their musical bravura performances picked up numerous applauses of the audience at Kolarac.
The crown of the tonight’s festive concert was the performance of the "Wine song" from Verdi's "La Traviata" and the "March on the Drina" by which the members of the ensemble and guests, rewarded with a standing ovation, took leave of the audience.
Tonight's musical feast was an opportunity for the Head of the Binicki Ensemble, Commander Svetozar Vasileski, to present letters of gratitude for the successful cooperation in the previous period, and a special curiosity of tonight's jubilee is that the Ensemble was cheered from the audience by probably the oldest military musician Zorko Franc who was once a member of the orchestra of the Tito’s Guard, who is 101 years old.The Day of Binicki ensemble is celebrated in memory of 26th September 1899, when the first symphony "Belgrade military orchestra" was formed by Order of King Alexander I Obrenovic which operated directly under the minister of war. One of the founders of this orchestra was Stanislav Binicki, a composer, a military bandmaster, organizer of musical life in Serbia, the author of the first Serbian opera "Na uranku (At reveille)" and patriotically inspired "March on the Drina", and who, as a conductor, led the "Belgrade Military Orchestra", which is a predecessor of the Artistic Ensemble of the Ministry of Defence.
Binicki Ensemble decently bears his name, continuing the noble mission for decades, affirming music from our and the world music heritage. It is, in fact, the first organized form of musical creativity in Serbia, from which, a few decades later, other orchestras derived as well, such as: Belgrade Opera Orchestra (1920), the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra (1923) and the Radio Orchestra (1927). Music performed by the Ensemble was recorded at more than 300 gramophone records, cassettes and compact discs, on which more than 2,000 diverse compositions were saved from oblivion, making a kind of musical anthology.
