Suzana Kostić


Suzana Kostić is a Serbian conductor, music educator and music scholar. Her performance specialties are choral music and large-scale works for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra. She is also known for the premiere performances of works by contemporary Balkan composers.

Education

She completed all her academic degrees at Faculty of Music, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje. Kostić holds two B.M. degrees: in music theory and pedagogy, and in conducting, working with composer Toma Prošev, and conductor :mk:Фимчо Муратовски|Fimcho Muratovski as her primary advisors. She studied with :mk:Драган Шуплевски|Dragan Šuplevski and earned her M.M. in choral conducting in 1991, and received a D.M.A. in conducting in 2008 under the supervision of Fimcho Muratovski and Dimitrije Bužarovski.

Conducting

During her undergraduate studies she started working as an assistant conductor of the choir “Mirce Acev” in Skopje, led by :mk:Александар Лековски|Aleksandar Lekovski. She later established the children's choir AGM and became leader of the Youth Choir of the Cultural Center of Leskovac. Prior to joining the Academic Choir of the :sr:Студентски културни центар Ниш|Student Cultural Center of Niš led by Milorad Veljković-Špaja, she worked with the choir EI, KUD Stanko Paunović as assistant of Radojica Milosavljević-Ica. She took over the leadership of the Academic Choir SKC in 1999.
Kostić conducted the Academic Choir SKC for thirteen years, and as a leader of this ensemble she realized numerous performances in Italy, France, Portugal, Poland, Austria, Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Slovenia, the Republic of Srpska, Ukraine and Russia. Moscow Radio Orfey often broadcast the live recording of the concert of this choir with Orthodox spiritual music held in Rachmaninov Concert Hall of the Moscow State Conservatoire in 2005. Her career as conductor of the Academic Choir SKC is documented on 5 CDs in edition of Student Cultural Centre of Niš, and in more than 50 audio and video recordings by public broadcasting services in Serbia and abroad.
She has collaborated with diverse soloists and music ensembles, and has also given performances with Niš Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony Orchestra and Choir of The National Radio Television of Serbia.
Kostić has performed extensive choral repertoire ranging from Renaissance to works by contemporary composers, with special interest in works by composers from the Balkans. Besides staging of Orff's Catulli Carmina and Carmina Burana, Stravinsky's Les Noces, Sviridov's Pushkin’s garland, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and Mozart's Coronation Mass, she has conducted the first performances of the following compositions:
She has also given performances with orchestral music repertoire, among them: Brahms's Symphony no. 3, Beethoven's Leonore Overture No. 3, Mozart's Piano concerto in D-major, and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and Concerto in F.
Kostić frequently collaborates with the National Theater of Niš and the Puppet Theater of Niš.

Teaching

Kostić has been a professor in the University of Niš Faculty of Arts, teaching: conducting, choral singing, choir and orchestra, since the establishment of the school in 2002. Previously Kostić held a teaching position in the College of Music of Niš, which was predecessor school of the Faculty of Arts.
She also taught piano accompaniment and orchestra playing at the music school “Stanislav Binički” in Leskovac, worked as music journalist in Radio Leskovac, and has been a visiting professor at the College of Teachers in Jagodina and the Faculty of Music, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje.

Writings

Her scholarly opus includes several textbooks for choral singing and conducting, as well as the monographs on International Choral Festival of Niš and ICF Score Collection – Mirror of the Festival. She has been editor of the music magazine Aperto nuovo , editor-in-chief of the Facta Universitatis peer-reviewed international journal, Series Visual Arts and Music , and associate editor of the Encyclopedia of City of Niš, volume 5: Culture by the Serbian Academy of Science and Arts and the Lexicon of the City of Niš . Suzana Kostić published the choral scores along with Academic Choir SKC CD, by the first composer from Niš, Stojan Andrić, in 2010.
In addition, she has been the editor of International Choral Festival of Niš catalogues in 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010.

Professional and community service

Kostić was one of the founders of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Niš, vice-dean of the school, and currently she holds the position of the Dean of the School.
She was a member of the Program board of the International Choral Festival of Niš from 2002 to 2008, and from 2004 to 2010, its artistic director. In addition she has been member of the program board of the NIMUS festival, Mokranjčevi dani festival, and vice-president of the management board of Niš Symphony Orchestra.
She has also served as vice-president od City Council for Culture in 2003, and has been a member of the Scholarship Board of City of Niš in 2006.
She has been frequently invited as a jury member of music competitions in Serbia and abroad.

Awards

For her achievements she has been awarded with: