Richard Barrett and Milana Zarić In Residence Presented by 113
April 20-22, 2023 at 7 p.m. Studio Z: 275 E. 4th Street, Suite 200, St. Paul Free
113 Collective hosts composer Richard Barrett and harpist Milana Zarić in a 3-day residency at Studio Z, featuring performances by Zarić, Fonema Consort, Zeitgeist, Nina Dante, Kyle Hutchins, Maja Radovanlija and Adam Zahller.
April 20: Richard Barrett Portrait Concert featuring performances by Milana Zarić and Fonema Consort "codex XXIV" "hylozoon" "pektis" "until you are that ghost" "codex XXV"
April 21: New Chamber Music I featuring performances by Milana Zarić, Zeitgeist, Nina Dante, Kyle Hutchins, and Maja Radovanlija conducted by Adam Zahller "Approximations" by Anna-Louise Walton "Quest" by George Crumb "Drömbokken" by Tiffany M. Skidmore
April 22: New Chamber Music II featuring performances by Zeitgeist and 113 "The Witness" by Pauline Oliveros "The Red Hills" by Douglas Ewart "Artificial Life" by George Lewis
Richard Barrett (born in Swansea in 1959) is internationally active as composer and performer, and also teaches at the Institute of Sonology at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague and at the Academy for Creative and Performing Arts at the University of Leiden. His work encompasses a range from free improvisation to intricately-notated scores, and from acoustic chamber music to innovative uses of digital technology. It has been performed by orchestras such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the orchestras of the Bavarian Radio and SWR; ensembles such as Ensemble Modern, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble InterContemporain, L’Itinéraire, London Sinfonietta, Musikfabrik, Cikada, KNM Berlin, Mosaik, Studio6, L’Imaginaire and Champ d’Action; the Arditti, Pellegrini, Diotima and Kairos string quartets; and many leading soloists. Particularly important is his continuing thirty-year collaboration with the Elision Ensemble of Melbourne, which has resulted in several evening-length works as well as numerous others. Ongoing performative collaborations include with Paul Obermayer (in FURT), Evan Parker, and several other improvising ensembles such as SKEIN (with Achim Kaufmann, Frank Gratkowski, Wilbert de Joode and others) and Colophony (with Jon Rose and Meinrad Kneer). Richard Barrett’s principal composition teacher was Peter Wiegold, and he currently resides in Belgrade. His work as composer and performer is documented on over forty CDs, including seven discs devoted to his compositions and nine by FURT. His book Music of Possibility was published by Vision Edition in 2019.
Milana Zarić has been principal harpist at the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra since 2005, performing regularly under top international conductors and soloists. The orchestra has toured the United States, (Carnegie Hall included), Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Austria, Oman and ex-Yugoslavian countries. In April 2014, Milana has appeared as soloist with the BPO in Belgrade.Milana is active as a soloist and chamber musician, having been the founding member of several chamber groups based in Serbia and The Netherlands, such as Trio Timbre (flute, viola and harp) and Ensemble Echoes (plucked string instruments and percussion). She has regularly performed in a variety of chamber ensembles, such as Atlas Ensemble in Amsterdam, Ensemble Metamorphosis in Belgrade, Žebeljan Ensemble.
Since 2010, Milana has commissioned new solo harp works from composers James Erber, Richard Barrett, Hugo Morales Murguia, Falk Huebner, Teodora Stepančić and Ana Gnjatović. The piece tendril, for harp with optional electronics, written for her by Richard Barrett, has so far been performed in duet with Richard, in Belgrade, Zagreb, Melbourne, Singapore, London, New York City, Minnesota, Los Angeles and Birmingham, UK. Milana regularly collaborates with Richard in their unique electroacoustic duo, performing original music. They released an album Mirage in 2021 on their Bandcamp label Strange Strings.
From 2009 to 2011, Milana was doing research in contemporary music for harp and improvisation, at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. Upon her return to Belgrade, she co-founded a contemporary music collective and ensemble Studio6. Project highlights include a performance of Heiner Goebbels’ Songs of wars I have seen in Belgrade in 2013, conceptual project Intimate rituals, combining original music by Eastern European maverick composers Ernö Király and Horațiu Rădulescu, as well as electro acoustic work for 6 players in 6 parts close up, by Richard Barrett. Studio 6 has collaborated with composers, instrumentalists, sound artists, visual artists, improvisers Katalin Ladik, Jonas Kocher, Agusti Fernandez, Vinko Globokar, Ensembles proton and Phoenix Basel, and have recently toured the UK and Switzerland.
Milana is also the principal harpist of No borders orchestra (NBO), a symphony orchestra consisting of musicians from all the republics of ex-Yugoslavia. NBO’s debut CD Opening, has been released by Deutsche Grammophon in 2015.
Being actively involved in education projects, Milana is also giving harp workshops and masterclasses for students, composers and improvisers. She was a guest lecturer at Cal Arts in Los Angeles, University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Birmingham Conservatoire, Guildhall School for Music and Drama in London, University of York, RNCM in Manchester, and music school in Singapore. She is also a sought after harp teacher, whose students won numerous international competitions, and are studying at prestigious European conservatoires, such as CNSM in Paris.
Milana collaborates regularly with composers and has given first performances of many works (solo and ensemble). As one of the major Serbian proponents of modern and contemporary music, Milana has given Serbian premieres of solo and ensemble pieces from composers as diverse as L.Berio, S.Bussotti, K.Saariaho, F. Donatoni, J. Cage, M.Kagel, S. Steen-Andersen, T.Rai, R. Murray Schafer, K. Stockhausen and C. Wolff. Through her artistic leadership of Ensemble Studio6, as well as her activities as soloist, she has encouraged, commissioned and performed works by Serbian composers Svetlana Maraš, Sonja Mutić, Jasna Veličković, Jug Marković, Nemanja Radivojević, Vladan Kulišić, Branka Popović, Svetozar Nešić, Isidora Žebeljan and many others.
Apart from her involvement in contemporary composed music, she is an active free improviser, often in various groups or in a duet with Richard Barrett. Improvisers with whom she has worked with include Frances-Marie Uitti, Elisabeth Harnik, Agusti Fernandez, Chris Cutler, Paul Pignon, Annie Gosfield, Butch Morris, Rhodri Davies, Yedo Gibson, Anne la Berge, Zsolt Sőrés, Peter van Bergen, Peter Evans. She was one of the founders of Collective for improvised music ImprovE2, organisers of regular monthly events in Belgrade between 2012 and 2015, with over a hundred musicians and sound artists involved. Milana regularly collaborates with improvisers in projects throughout the Balkans.
Festival appearances include Culturescapes Basel, November Music, Den Bosch, Rotterdam Operadagen, BEAM Festival, London, Music Biennale Zagreb, BEMUS, BITEF, Ring Ring Festival and International review of composers in Belgrade, Richard Barrett@Spectrum festival in New York City, as well as Audiograft festival in Oxford, UK. Milana holds degrees from University of Arts in Belgrade (Bachelor studies in 2000); Trinity College of Music, London (Postgraduate Advanced Diploma in 2002, with Gabriella dall’Olio, Imogen Barford and Sioned Williams ); and Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, Netherlands with Ernestine Stoop (Master of music in 2011).