The gentle strum of acoustic guitar strings hummed throughout Auer Hall Wednesday night as Jacobs School of Music invited Bosnian composer and guitarist Vojislav Ivanović to share his repertoire in concert form with the school.
The concert featured duets with Ivanović and his wife, Aleksandra, a solo from Jacobs doctoral student Mihailo Dašić, a multi-instrumental Jacobs faculty ensemble and a student guitarist ensemble.
The performance was the culmination of Ivanović’s week-long residency as a guest composer with Jacobs. During this residency, he worked with undergraduates, taught a masterclass and held a career talk, ending with the concert Wednesday.
Beginning the performance, Vojislav and Aleksandra Ivanović sat together on the stage, both with one foot standing on a small stool, lightly leaning the guitar upwards as it sits on their knees.
The couple began Vojislav Ivanović’s song “Simple Music” (1987), delicately plucking and strumming the guitar strings to reveal a soft melody that featured slow, thoughtful pauses.
Dropping the sheet music for “Simple Music” onto the ground next to them, the couple began the light, mystical melody of a guitar duet arrangement of Claude Debussy’s “Clair de lune” filled the room, almost as a lullaby to the audience.
Slowly standing, the couple accepted applause as Vojislav Ivanović began to explain the significance of the next song, “Waltzing with Debby” (2011), which he arranged from Bill Evans’ original piece for Aleksandra as a wedding present. Instead of a traditional first dance at their wedding, the couple put on a 30-minute concert for their families and close friends.
“I made this arrangement, arrangement such impression, as I call it, because it’s not just an arrangement, and I made it as a wedding gift for my wife,” Vojislav Ivanović said.
After the couple shared the fast and repetitive “Waltzing with Debby” with the audience, they performed two more songs before Vojislav Ivanović handed the stage off to Aleksandra for a solo performance of his composition “Café 5. Nostalgia,” from “Six pièces de café” (1986).
Continuing “Six pièces de café,” Dašić took to the stage after Aleksandra, performing three more dynamic movements of the piece: “Café 1. Tango-Café,” “Café 2. Café-Tear Prelude” and “Café 4. A Funny Valse.”
Dašić ended the last movement with a slow strum of his right hand against the thin strings of the guitar, accepting the applause from the audience as the Jacobs faculty ensemble set up onstage behind him.
The Jacobs faculty ensemble featured four members: guitarist and flutist Daniel Duarte, guitarist Petar Jankovic, bassist Natalie Boeyink and percussionist Andy Miller. The group performed an arrangement made by Duarte, “Lazar’s Morning” (1997) and “Balkan Express” (2005).
Duarte combined the piece with a Brazilian song, “Carnival Morning,” to bridge the Brazilian and Balkan style.
“We use that piece to like, be a bridge between Balkans,” Jankovic said. “So, first part is the way he composed it. The second part moves into Brazilian style, and then it comes back to the original form.”
Six Jacobs undergraduates performed after the faculty ensemble, playing the world premiere of “Danza de las dos peninsulas” (2026), which Ivanović wrote specifically for the event. The students in the ensemble were picked by Duarte, who worked with Ivanović when rehearsing the song.
“We worked together anyway for a while, and now this is a beautiful encounter,” Duarte said. “The last piece we heard, like, he wrote for our students to play, that was very special.”
