Dejan Despić

Serbian composer, music theoretician and pedagogue Dejan Despić (b. 1930) studied composition with Marko Tajčević and conducting with Mihajlo Vukdragović between 1950 and 1955 at the Music Academy in Belgrade. After that, he devoted himself to composing and teaching. From 1956 to 1965, he was teacher at Mokranjac Music School in Belgrade and from 1956 to 1995 he worked as a Professor at the Belgrade Music Academy (FMU). Despić is a full member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU). He is the author of more than 240 compositions - with a special penchant for concertante genres and chamber music – and an opera, in addition to several scientific and theoretical studies, and numerous textbooks (music theory, harmony, harmony analysis, orchestration). Despić has won many awards for his music. His Manchester Trio for flute, violoncello, and piano, Op. 93, composed specifically for a Manchester performance, and Diptih, Op. 166, for English horn and chamber orchestra, for which he won the Mokranjac Award, have been particularly singled out.