Rastko Popović, DMA
Rastko Popović (DMA) completed his education in music performance (viola) at the Faculty of Music, University of Arts in Belgrade, Serbia (BA, Postgraduate and Artistic doctorate), and at the University of Stavanger, Norway (MA) with the highest grades. He has won several prizes at national and international music youth competitions, among others, the second prize on the Jeunesses Musicales International Competition in Skopje, Macedonia in 2004. He was a member of the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra, and played as a substitute viola player in St. George Strings, Symphony Orchestra of the Serbian Broadcasting Company, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra (Norway) and Camerata Serbica. From 2008 to 2015 he worked as a viola teacher in music school Josip Slavenski in Belgrade.
He performs regularly, appearing both on national and international concert stages. In 2009. he founded ensemble Musikkens retning: nord-sør as medium to promote Norwegian and Serbian artistic music in these two countries. Since 2013 he plays regularly with Marijana Savov-Stojanović, exploring various segments of repertoire for viola and piano. He is actively interested in historically informed performance practice of the 17th and 18th century music as a member of the Belgrade Baroque, one of the first ensembles of its kind in Serbia. Since 2006 Rastko also explores the world of contemporary and alternative music by experimenting with electric viola within his I’m my own merry-go-round artistic project. He performs with Jasna Jovićević Quinary ensemble since 2018, appearing on several recording albums. He is especially interested in the field of artistic research in music, and combined practical and theoretical approach to music performance and music teaching practices, thus regularly presenting papers at national and international conferences.
Rastko Popović has been appointed an associate professor at the Cathedra for String Instruments, Faculty of Music, University of Arts in Belgrade.