Wind Department student concerts take place at 6 p.m. on the first and last Thursday of each month. Entrance to these concerts is free.
HISTORY OF THE WIND DEPARTMENT
An outstanding musician, cellist, and pedagogue, Mr. Anton Tot recognized the lack of, and thus the need for establishing, a new department within Isidor Bajić Music School, of which he was the Principal at the time. It was the academic year of 1946/1947 when Tot, upon the suggestion of Anton Eberst, and buttressed by the strength of his reputation and personal convictions, approached the local authorities, who agreed to support the idea, issuing the necessary agreement for the establishment of the Wind Department.
An agile clarinetist, Anton Eberst proceeded to take upon himself all of the work related to the founding and organizing of the new department, resulting in the the clarinet studio being the first studio of its kind opened at the school, offering two educational cycles to its students: two preparatory level grades and four high school level grades.
Within a short amount of time, Professor Eberst succeeded in animating and gathering a number of highly-esteemed wind instrumentalists around the idea of further development of the department. The establishment of a number of studios followed in quick succession:
- flute and trumpet studios opened during the academic year of 1947/1948;
- a bassoon studio opened during the academic year of 1948/1949;
- a trombone studio opened during the academic of 1949/1950;
- a horn studio opened during the academic of 1950/1951;
- a oboe studio opened during the academic of 1951/1952
During these years, many teachers taught at the school for varying lenghths of time and the list of their names is long. Acknowledging that in doing so we risk the chance of omitting an important name or two, we would like to pay tribute to those respected colleagues who served as the original impulse for the development of the department and have therefore influenced the form and outlook it holds today; the cultivating of a nursery of excellent musicians who continue to be raised by the very students of those first involved in the department, “the pioneers“, if we may call them. In addition to Professor Eberst, this list must also include Professors Marijan Egić, Vinko Valenčić, Mihajlo Kelbli, Dragoljub Lazarević, Žužana Egić, and Dubravko Marković, who’ve served not only as devoted pedagogues, but also as active performers, often appearing at concert podiums, and, in such a way, establishing a fine example for their students, knowingly directing them and further stimulating their musical development. Looking back, we can proudly declare that such an approach has resulted in an uninterrupted continuity in every studio: a generational succession of musical “parent-child“ relationships has led to “great-grandchildren“ currently teaching at the school, successfully nurturing the next generation of musical great-great-grandchildren according to the high standards set by those who came before.
Our former students have gone on to become successful pedagogues and recognized performers, while also becoming involved in many other capacities with various cultural institutions in our city (the Novi Sad Academy of Arts, the Serbian National Theater, the Vojvodina Philharmonic Orchestra, Radio and Television of Vojvodina) and beyond, with a large number developing significant professional careers abroad.
It has been already stated that the teachers of the Wind Department have crafted respectable personal and professional examples for their students by encouraging them to perform in their crafts as frequently as possible, either as soloists or as members of various orchestras and chamber ensembles. The practice of students following up on such examples through active performance endures to this day. Just as students from the 1950s served as members of the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, which gave a live performance of Tijardović’s operetta Split’s Kavarel, and the then newly founded Symphony Orchestra at the school, whose repertoire included Weber’s Ouverture Oberon and the 9th Symphony by Franz Schubert in 1959, our current students have contributed to the remarkably successful concert performance of Isidor Bajić’s opera Duke Ivo of Semberija and of Orff’s Carmina Burana, a tradition in which we continue to take pride. The sheer number of successful student performances since the establishment of the Wind Department is staggering, whether students were featured as soloists or serving as members of chamber ensembles or orchestras, and equally impressive is the number of prizes they have won at competitions within the country and abroad. The fact that our teachers frequently take part as jury members in the most prestigious wind competitions speaks volumes about the respectability of the Department.
We are proud to conclude that since the establishment of the Wind Department in 1946, we all have, the teachers and the students, contributed to the shaping of the Wind Department’s unique identity, and with each new success we continue to contribute to the reputation of Isidor Bajić Music School in its entirety, and to the glory of its visionary founder, while we ceaselessly strive to achieve yet more than that which has already been accomplished, as we believe such an attitude is a necessary precondition for continued development and advancement.