Rajko Maksimović

Rajko Maksimović (Serbian Cyrillic: Рајкo Максимовић; July 27, 1935, Belgrade) is a composer, writer, and music pedagogue. One of the most significant Serbian composers of our time, Maksimović has been and remains active in creating works for different ensembles.

Rajko Maksimović graduated in 1961, and in 1965 received a master’s degree in composition from the Music Academy in Belgrade (today Faculty of Music, University of Arts in Belgrade (FMU)) in the class of Professor Predrag Milošević. Following the completion of his master’s program and as a recipient of a Fulbright grant, he attended Princeton University, New Jersey, with a main focus on electronic music. In 1963 Maksimović was appointed an assistant professor, and in 1967 a docent at the Department for Composition and Orchestration at the Belgrade Music Academy. He retired in 2001 as Professor of Music Composition. Rajko Maksimović is a recipient of numerous awards and his works are performed nationally and abroad. Three monographic concerts devoted exclusively to his oeuvre took place during his career, and most of his works have been recorded. Among the recordings, a particular emphasis belongs to a triple CD from 2002, two CDs from 2009, and The Saint Prince Lazarus Passion DVD from 2012—all on the PGP RTS label (Radio Television of Serbia record label). In 1995, Radio Television Novi Sad produced a fifty-minute program about this composer and his work. Maksimović also authored a memoirist autobiographical trilogy entitled That’s the Way It Was ((Tako je to bilo), 1998, 2001, and 2002).

Rajko Maksimović composed numerous vocal-instrumental, orchestral, chamber, choral, and soloist works, as well as pieces devoted to children. Among his most significant compositions are: vocal-instrumental When the Living Envied the Dead (1963), an epic partita for mixed choir and reduced orchestra, Three Haiku (1967) for female choir and twenty-four instruments, The Uprising against the Dahias (1978/2004), a dramatic oratorio for two actors, mixed and children’s choirs, orchestra, and tape, The Testament of Petar Petrović Njegoš, Bishop of Montenegro (1986) for bass, choir, orchestra, and tape, and The Saint Prince Lazarus Passion (1989) for narrator, four vocal soloists, two choirs, and orchestra; orchestral Piano Concerto (1961/2003), Musique de Devenir (1965), and Diptych for orchestra (1970); chamber pieces After the Scent of a Blossomed Cherry (1981) five haiku for soprano and chamber ensemble, Prélude "á l'avant-midi d'un faune" (1994/2011) for flute and strings, and She Sleeps Perhaps (1992/2005), a soloist cantata for mezzo-soprano and chamber orchestra; choral Chants out of the Darkness (1975), a book of six madrigals for various a cappella choirs, and I Go calmly (from the Testament, 1986), Funeral (from the Passion, 1989), Our Father (from Temptation, 1994), and We Praise Thee, O God (2008), all for mixed a cappella choir.

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