2024/07/03 by Laura Emmery · 1 voice
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Balkan and Eastern European Studies
paper · doi:10.1080/07494467.2025.2523697
openalex publication_date 2024/07/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/15
In 1977, Miloš Raičković assembled a group of friends from the Faculty of Music (FMU) in Belgrade and took centre stage at the Student Cultural Center (SKC). The ensemble would soon become known as Ensemble for Different New Music, a group that played a pivotal role in promoting music by Yugoslav minimalist composers. Raičković, like his peers—Milimir Drašković, Miodrag Lazarov Pashu, Miroslav Savić, and Vladimir Tošić, who would go on to form a composer collective Opus 4—found no support at their home institution (FMU). Rather than succumbing to the ‘dogmatic and conservative’ leanings of academia, these rebellious students turned towards American experimentalism and minimalism. They found a new, welcoming, and progressive home for their experimentation and exploration: the Student Cultural Center. As self-managed editors of the music division at the SKC, they organised international festivals and quickly propelled their music, vision, and the SKC to international stardom. This article illustrates the pivotal role the SKC played in promoting a unique brand of Yugoslav minimalism, which ultimately defined a new era of avant-garde music in the country.