2025 CHOIR COMPETITION WINNERS’ CONCERT
SCS Jedinstvo, Banja Luka
Concert guests: Choir of the Priests of the Diocese of Banja Luka
Conductor: Nemanja Savić
The Serbian singing society Jedinstvo (Banja Luka) is one of the oldest in the Republic of Srpska. It was founded in 1893 and operated, with an interruption during World War I, until 1941, when the occupation authorities banned its work. It was renewed in 1992 at the initiative of Archpriest-stavrophor Ratko Radujković and Prof. Nemanja Savić, M.A., who also initiated the formation of the Children’s choir at the end of 1995. The mixed ensemble quickly became one of the best choirs in the Republic of Srpska and former Yugoslavia. As an ambassador of the culture and spirituality of the Republic of Srpska and Bosnia and Herzegovina, it performed in numerous European countries, as well as Russia, North America, Australia and China. At choir festivals and competitions it won more than 40 first places and gold medals, the most significant being the Yugoslav Choir Festivals in Niš, the Golden Fairy in Prijedor, the competitions In Canto Sul Garda and Orlando di Lasso, the Choir Olympics in Xiamen, and the 59th Days of Mokranjac.
The choir regularly participates in liturgies and cultural events, it has recorded a number of radio and TV shows, and released nine independent and 10 joint CDs. It is the holder of the Order of Saint Sava, the Order of Njegoš, First Class, the Order of Saint Andrew, and the Charter of the City of Banja Luka. Thanks to its decades-long activities and importance for the cultural life of the city and the Republic of Srpska, Jedinstvo has the status of a cultural institution.
The Choir of Priests of the Diocese of Banja Luka was established in the 1970s, but its more intensive work began in 2010 under the leadership of Prof. Nemanja Savić. The ensemble consists of twenty priests of the Diocese of Banja Luka. It regularly participates in the St. Sava Academies, the International Banja Luka Choir Meetings, Christmas, Easter, and other concerts. It has also released two CDs and two DVDs, and it’s repertoire includes more than forty spiritual and patriotic compositions.
Nemanja Savić (Banja Luka, 1957) graduated and received his master’s degree in conducting from the Belgrade Academy of Music. He is a full professor of the subject Choir and Choral Conducting at the Academy of Arts in Banja Luka and the conductor of several Banja Luka choral ensembles. He has performed all across Europe, Russia, China, Australia and North America, led several choir ateliers and seminars, and participated in the work of numerous juries. He is the initiator, organizer and participant of a number of festivals, competitions, reviews and cultural events and the winner of significant awards (Golden Badge of the Yugoslav Choir Festivals, the Order of Njegoš, Vuk Award). He is the author of collections of choirs and choral vocalizations (Choirs of Vlada Milošević, Songs of my Homeland, Choirs of Contemporary Serbian Authors, Serbian Choral Music, To Freedom – Songs of Krajina…) and more than 200 compositions, harmonizations, stylizations and arrangements, among which works inspired by Krajina folklore form a regular part of the repertoire of numerous choral ensembles.