The summer edition of the Bar Summer annual will offer eight music concerts every Saturday, selected by world renown Bojan Suđić from Belgrade. Maestro Suđić points out that he wanted to be involved in the Bar Festival because the festival location felt "like his own," reports Vijesti on April 5, 2018.
"And what is more natural than helping your own in building a quality music festival? In my career, I worked with many top local and international artists, so I don't think that it will be too difficult to create a quality selection that even the larger and more developed cities than Bar would find appealing. The basic parameters of the lineup will be based on the quality, diversity and communicativeness of the music. Our budget does not allow large-scale productions and multiple-member ensembles, but the bar will be high, and the audience will be delighted by artists with vast biographies and the involvement in many great music scenes," says Suđić.
Suđić adds that he wishes for guests from Montenegro, Serbia, the region, "or any musically developed country" will experience this music program and use it as a motive to plan their summer vacation. He hopes that the audience will attend one of the programs and recall that the beginnings of tourism on the Montenegrin coast in the 20th century "are tied precisely to the intellectual and artistic elite of that era".
"The musical choice of the Bar annual will aim to attract the most demanding audience but will be open and accessible to those who have never been to a concert of art music. I believe that they will be pleasantly surprised. It is important to recognize the spirit of the time and constantly seek new solutions to maintain and expand the interest in art. Real art and how to find the way to the audience depends on if we are trying to get closer to the people in the right way. Today's pace of life and consumer civilization implies the need for art to be advertised and sold in the same way as a new hair shampoo or nail polish, resulting in fraud and bad products packed in glossy paper. That is why it is important to promote true values without mediocrity, which will be the idea of the festival's leading music selection," notes the distinguished Belgrade conductor.
Commenting on a statement that his professors at the Academy and his work with young people have completely changed him as an artist, Suđić says that this can be said similarly to how a parental role changes a person - "if they approach the role responsibly." In light of responsibility and dedication, one should also interpret their role to see themselves in a professional sense as "a servant in the temple of music".
"A modern man cries out to fill the emptiness he feels within himself, in addition to the more comfortable life he is leading, and art music is a supreme expression of the human spirit that exalts existential and all other questions and directly connects it with the creator. Old civilizations also knew the power of music to influence and change people and moods, with a more unique and modest musical expression than today. The question is only our commitment - are we ready and able to find and discover a higher sense and order than the elemental struggle for material and comfort?" Suđić concluded.
Suđić is the chief conductor of the Symphony Orchestra and RTS chorus, the executive and artistic director of the Music Production of RTS, and works as a professor and chief conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of the Faculty of Music Arts in Belgrade. He has been an opera conductor since 1993 for the leading ensemble of the National Theater Opera in Belgrade, where he was also the general director of music. In 1998 he became a guest conductor of the Royal Opera in Stockholm, where he has been a resident conductor since 2000.
This article was translated from an article by Radomir Petrić on Vijesti.me Values without mediocrity
