Happy 100th birthday Bubiša – RTS Big Band
Get your tickets for the big birthday musical spectacle in time! The Big Band of Radio and Television of Serbia, together with its Chief conductor Stjepko Gut, invite you to celebrate together the 100th birthday of the great Serbian jazz legend – Vojislav Bubiša Simić. Bubiša is an artist who always emphasized: “Live, enjoy life and what you do and be lively”, and he was always lively and joyful because, as he himself said – jazz lives on!
It will be the same at the concert, on March 19, in the MTS hall, where some of the most famous compositions, and arrangements of Vojislav Bubiša Simić, will be performed, such as “Salute to Count Basie”, “The Return”, “Waltz for Andrea”, “Milkina house”, Great Choceka game” and others.
Tickets are on sale via mtsdvorana.rs
Vojislav Bubiša Simić, composer, arranger, and conductor, was born on March 18, 1924., in Belgrade. He studied composition at the Music Academy with Stanojlo Rajičić and conducting with Predrag Milošević, in whose classes he graduated in 1954.
In 1946, he founded the amateur jazz orchestra “Dinamo” which was the first big band ensemble in Serbia. Two years later, in 1948, he began cooperation with the Entertainment Orchestra of Radio Belgrade.
In 1953, he started working as a conductor of the Belgrade Radio Television Jazz Orchestra, which he headed until his retirement in 1985. He traveled all over Europe with this orchestra.
In 1960, at the jazz festival in Juan Le Pen in France, he received first prize for the composition “Salute to Count Basie” in the big band category. Under his leadership, the Belgrade Radio Television Jazz Orchestra collaborated with many musicians and bands not only, from Yugoslavia at the time but also Europe and the world.
For more than forty years, he was the guest conductor of the Theater in Terazije. He often performed with the JNA Symphony Orchestra. From 1986 to 1992, he led the senior choir of KUD “Branko Krsmanović” for which he wrote a huge number of arrangements and compositions, evergreen and old Serbian patriotic songs.
He composed the music of various genres: children’s, choral, entertainment, jazz, and symphonic. He is one of the pioneers of ethno-jazz in Serbian music. He is the author of applied music for a huge number of television series, feature films, and documentaries.
He is the recipient of a large number of awards and recognitions, including the Golden Beočug of the City of Belgrade, the Lifetime Achievement Award of RTV Serbia, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Nišvil Jazz Festival, the Order of Labor with a Golden Wreath, the Order of Merit for the People with Silver Rays and the October Award of the City of Belgrade.
In the ninth decade of his life, he also tried his hand as a publicist. In 2005, he published the book “Meetings and Memories”, and soon after “Happy traveling” (2006). The books “Sentimental Journey” (2010) and “Untold Stories” (2014) followed.