Donata Premeru


Donata Premeru is a musicologist, broadcaster, music writer, journalist, lecturer and historian of Arts.

Biography and career

After graduation at Musicology and History of Arts in Zagreb, she did postgraduate studies of Early and Contemporary Music at London University. Donata started as student lecturer and broadcaster at Radio Zagreb and continued as Music Editor of Stereorama programme on Radio Belgrade. In 1965 she was invited to start the Radio Beograd Third Programme as its first musicologist, and in 1983 its first stereo weekend Music Programme Stereorama, which was closed down in November 2015, while celebrating the 50th anniversary of its III Programme.
One of the most acclaimed broadcasts of her Music Matters, often thematically or in cycles: "European Cities of Culture 1985-2012"; "Early Music Centers in the 17th and 18th-century – from Venice to Mannheim"; "Entartete Musik series"; "Tragically Ended Careers of Young Musicians"; "Contemporary Music Scene Worldwide; Women Composers 2000-2012 "; "Unknown/Forgotten Composers of the 20th Century"; "Romantic Piano Concertos"; "Composers of the 21st Century"; "Dialogues – between Early and Contemporary Music"; "Notable Anniversaries"; "Writers in Music"; "Accordion on the classical music scene XIX-XXI century"; "Music written for film"; etc.
The composer, writer and artist Dušan Radić in his book Tragovi balkanske vrleti-vreme-život-muzika dedicated a whole section to Donata Premeru and her broadcast programme Music Matters. For after 20 years of his absence from the musical scene, she interrupted this silence and invited him in her radio programme regarding his 75th birthday on April 10, 2004. In 2016, book Film and Music – Temptations of great composers – based on 14 radio programmes – was published with her guest, Borislav Stojkov.

Other biographical listings

Numerous appearances on Radio and TV Stations ; Lecturer: Zagreb/Belgrade and Rome, Italy. She is a member of the International Jury Torneo Internazionale di musica, finals in Rome 1990-1999. In 2006 she was chairman of the Jury for Vasilije Mokranjac Piano Music Competition in Novi Sad.

Honours and awards