Jasna Dimitrijević, director of Kolarac Endowment
If art is an integral, essential or accompanying part of our lives to such an extent, then the 85 years of the existence and operation of Kolarac Endowment can also be marked as – giving light as a gift. Because, no matter to what extent we may reference figures and statistics, there is no way for us to count all those souls that have been permeated with the light of the beauty, knowledge and skillfulness of the programs presented on the Kolarac stages.
All that taken together is the reasons for which the Endowment of Ilija M. Kolarac has been awarded the Feast of the Presentation Order of the 2nd Class, which is delivered by the President of the Republic of Serbia, this year. We are talking with Jasna Dimitrijević, directress of Kolarac Endowment, about the award, history, plans, values and life of the Endowment.
-This is yet another important and significant acknowledgement in the year in which we were particularly visible when our programs, initiatives and activities are concerned. Prior to receiving this acknowledgment, in the previous decades, Kolarac was awarded with all the most important national acknowledgements for its activity and work, such as Vuk’s Award, Golden Ring, Order of St. Sava, Dositej Obradović Belgrade Award, Order of Merits for the Nation with the Golden Star… It is our attitude that the awards and acknowledgements that the Endowment has received are important because they represent the highlighting of the national values in culture and art which are recognized by a broader social community and the state, which is certainly a stimulus and occasion for us to persevere in pursuing the mission we have.
How would you quite briefly explain the essence of and the place that Kolarac Endowment has in Serbia’s culture policy?
-This year, Kolarac Endowment celebrates the 139th anniversary of its existence, as well as the 85 years of the existence of the oldest cultural-educational institution in Serbia – Kolarac People’s University. In every country, people’s universities have their own character and purpose. The richer a society is, the greater the awareness of ktetorship and the larger the number of endowments are. From its establishment to date, Kolarac People’s University has been accomplishing its major task: to expand the cultural movement by opening new roads to knowledge and education, to moral and spiritual values, by elevating people’s love for progress, culture and knowledge, with the aim of satisfying the scientific, cultural and artistic interests of different generations. The idea of ktetorship means to permanently do good, and it is connected with the basic principles of philanthropy.
The history of Kolarac Endowment records imposing fact. On the stage of the Big Concert Hall and at the Music Gallery so far, more than 20,000 concerts have been held and about 14,000 soloists and over 3,500 ensembles with about 1,500 conductors have performed. More than 40,000 different compositions have been played. How are you creating the programs today?
–During the year, under the roof of the concert hall, more than 300 different music programs, recitals, lectures and ceremonial academies are held, and the same number of the other educational programs, forums, exhibitions, conferences, professional gatherings etc. Over 100,000 visitors attend those program events. For almost four decades now Kolarac Endowment’s Music Center has been organizing promenade concerts at 11:00 hours on Sundays within the Kolarac Stage of Chamber Music Cycle, which is permanently dedicated to the promotion of chamber ensembles and cherishing the audience. For that reason, the concerts are free of charge, as an additional education of the visitors of different generations of its own kind, based on the promotion of first of all our national artists. As an addendum to that tradition, the Great Performers of the Music Scene and Kolarac, Your World of Music concert cycles that have been held for almost 20 years, and within which the biggest stars, soloists, ensembles and symphonic orchestras from Europe and worldwide, have enabled us to ensure the status of a representative concert hall not only in this country of ours, but in the world as well. The most significant great performers of the world music scene have performed at Kolarac. I’ll only say that Sergei Prokofiev, Nikolai Lugansky, Julian Rachlin, Sara Chang, Elena Obraztsova, Zoran Todorović, Yehudi Menuhin, Jacques Thibaud, David Garret, Aleksandar Madžar, Richard Galliano, Natalia Gutman, Yves Montand, Boris Berezovsky, Grigorij Sokolov, Ivo Pogorelić, Arthur Rubinstein, Zubin Mehta, Karajan, Basmet, etc. have performed on the stage of Kolarac Endowment. All the most significant world symphonic orchestras are also part of the history of our concert hall. This concert season began with an excellent Nemanja Radulović and Double Sense Ensemble’s concert.
To what extent are the programs of Kolarac Endowment adapted to the younger audience?
– Kolarac has paid a special attention to animating the new and juvenile audience by creating a few programs in the las year, namely: “How a Concert is Listened to”, for children of the younger school age; “A Concert for Babies”, dedicated to the youngest ones of up to three years of age. We have also organized a few music workshops and programs of additional education for pupils attending music schools and the students of the Faculty of Drama Art, all that in cooperation with our artists who work abroad. During the season, we presented the programs whose creators were the members of the Council of the Young of Kolarac, within the TAKE OVER Project and our partner participation in the Creative Europe 2014-2020 Program. That cooperation, as well as the TAKE OVER Festival, which we organized in November last year, is a novel and precious experience in exchanging ideas with the young.
The celebration of the 85 years of the existence of the Endowment is really quite a significant jubilee. On that occasion, do you have any special ideas for the year 2017?
– Of course. We certainly want to buy a new concert piano. By performing the “Concerts for Kolarac” in America and Europe, as well as the donors’ concert in our hall, we have collected something about one-third of the needed funds. It is our wish to continue with the donors’ activities with the support of the Republic and the City, and to also ensure financial participation, as was the case in the previous decades.
How do you see the position of Kolarac Endowment in the tourism promotion of Belgrade and Serbia?
– Tourists have increasingly been aspiring towards gaining an experience in their satisfaction of their own needs for traveling and becoming familiar with new destinations through organizing active rest, filled with creative programs. Younger generations of tourists don’t like to be guided, but rather prefer to research, recognize new cultural values, the specificities of a cultural heritage, take part in artistic and other kinds of programs… Therefore, we have thought out the A Walk Along Kolarac Tour at Kolarac as a new product. There is always a big interest in yet another experience this institution offers – through a story about the music, scientific and visual-art history of our nation. The Music Fair is also one of the programs that was exceptionally visited, and its goal was to present a new product as an additional tourist offer of Belgrade. A large number of foreign guests buy as a souvenir the paintings at our Visual Arts Gallery; there is also a big interest of foreign tourists in the music discs of artistic and ethno-music. All these are the positive examples for some new programs that we have to take into consideration as an institution keeping abreast of the trends in culture and tourism.
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