Tivat Music Festival
2025

July 23 2025, 10 a.m.
A Children’s Park in the City Center

OPERAS FOR CHILDREN

THE VISOKO C [HIGHC] ASSOCIATION OF ARTISTS

PROGRAM
Marija Cvijić, soprano
Branislav Cvijić, tenor
Marina Mikić, piano
Marija Cvijić (1986) / Branislav Cvijić (1977)

The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish, an opera for children The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish, a children’s opera, is an adaptation inspired by Pushkin’s fairy tale of the same name. The central message of both the tale and the opera is that greed always comes at a cost. The idea that one should be content with what they have is an important lesson for children. The performance is presented in a humorous tone, tailored to a young audience, making the moral easier for children to understand. The opera alternates between sung and spoken parts to maintain children’s attention, and includes ensemble scenes with piano accompaniment, vivid costumes, and engaging set design that brings the story to life.

Artists

Marija Cvijić, coloratura soprano, has been cultivating her love for singing and music ever since childhood, when she was a member of the Bajićevi Slavuji Choir [Bajić’s Nightingales]. After completing Isidor Bajić Secondary Music School, she graduated in Vocal Arts from the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, under Professor Vera Kovač-Vitkai. She has participated in many vocal arts competitions and has won numerous prizes, including twice being a recipient of the Melanija Bugarinović and her Daughter Mirjana Kalinović-Kalin Fund for Talented Young Singers Scholarship. In 2013, she became a permanent member of the Serbian National Theater Opera, taking on the role of a soloist in 2019. At this institution, she has performed in operas by Lortzing, Gotovac, Cimarosa, and Despić, as well as in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte in one of the most demanding coloratura roles, The Queen of the Night. With Branislav Cvijić, Marjia Cvijić has performed at thematic concerts in Sombor, Zrenjanin, Ruma, and Novi Sad. In operas for children realized by the Visoko C (High C) Association of Artists, which she founded together with her husband, she has appeared in more than 400 performances throughout Vojvodina, singing the leading roles in operas such as Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Marriage of the Bear, Hedgehog’s Home, Bastien und Bastienne, Cinderella, and Stories from a Grange.

Branislav Cvijić, tenor, graduated from the Faculty of Music in Belgrade in the Department of Vocal Studies, under Professor Zvonimir Krnetić, and continued his education with Dragoslav Ilić, soloist-tenor of the National Theater in Belgrade. He has won first prizes at the Republic and Federal competitions in Serbia and was a competition laureate in Moscow in 2008. He has realized more than twenty solo concerts, over two hundred solo performances, and dozens of performances with chamber ensembles. Since 2003, he has served a member of the Serbian National Theater Opera in Novi Sad, becoming a soloist and a permanent member in 2016. Branislav Cvijić has realized over twenty opera roles in such works as Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, Jenko’s Seoski lola [A Town’s Barfly], Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, Shostakovich’s Katerina Izmailova, Logar’s Pokondirena tikva [A Would-be Lady], Suppé’s Die Schöne Galathée, Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, Verdi’s Nabucco, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Despić’s Pop Ćira i pop Spira [Priest Ćira and Priest Spira], and P. I. Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. Since 2005, he has been a member of the Chamber Music Association. In 2015, he founded the Visoko C (High C) Association of Artists, whose aim is to promote national and international music culture, primarily opera and youth arts education.

Marina Mikić, piano, completed music school in Herceg-Novi, under Professor Zoran Redžić. She graduated from the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad under Professor Kemal Gekić. During her studies, she won several Republic and Federal prizes in Serbia. Marina has continued her education through participation in numerous master classes held by renowned pedagogues, such as Igor Lazko, Vladimir Krpan, Konstantin Bogino, Aleksey Nasedkin, Jelena Richter, Jokuthon Mihailović, Dorian Leljak, and Arbo Valdma, among others. She has recorded for both Serbian and Montenegrin RTV. Beginning with her first solo recital, held at the age of eleven, Marina has been developing and expanding her piano repertoire, which today encompasses a wide range of solo, chamber, and orchestral pieces. She has performed in Slovenia, Austria, Montenegro, Croatia, Italy, Slovakia, and Serbia. Marina is currently employed as a Collaborative Pianist at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. In addition to her concert, collaborative, and pedagogical activities, she has been engaged in positions with various organizations: serving as Assistant of the KotorArt International Festival’s Artistic Director for eight years, as a board member of the Sombor Music Festivities, and as a board member of the Novi Sad Academy of Arts’ A Fest.