dejana sekulić is a violinist, sound+silence explorer, composer-performer, and indisciplinary artist, born at 43°18’58.5”N 21°54’39.5”E. A passionate advocate for the music of our time, dejana holds a PhD from the University of Huddersfield (UK), where she conducted her doctoral studies at the Centre for Research in New Music (CeReNeM) and the Research Centre for Performance Practices (ReCePP), under the guidance of Philip Thomas, Aaron Cassidy, and Mary Bellamy. dejana's dissertation, titled “Temporality of the Impossible”, focuses on the multifaceted process of preparation of complex pieces from the late 20th and 21st centuries. In February 2022 NMC/Huddersfield Contemporary Records released her solo violin CD baring the same title. dejana obtained her bachelor’s degree at the Faculty of Art University of Niš (Serbia), followed by Masters studies and Post Master specialisation in music at the Royal Conservatory Brussels (with Igor Oistrakh, Valery Oistrakh, and Bart Bouckaert), and an advanced program for contemporary music lead by ICTUS (Brussels) and Spectra (Gent) ensembles at the School of Arts Gent (Belgium).
dejana actively performs as a soloist, regularly premiering new pieces both from solo violin contemporary repertoire, and chamber music and ensemble repertoire. She is part of a violin and live electronics duo with Gilles Doneux, violinist of LAPS Ensemble, as well as a regular guest and member of the artistic board of Contemporary Insights, and is part of the art and education research collective People Coming from NowHere.
Besides composing instrumental music, dejana also creates and develops works in the fields of interactive sound installations and multimedia. In addition to her own works, she collaborated in these capacities with Jasmina Cibic, on occasions of “NADA: Act I” (as performer, composer, and instrument design), “The Gift” (as performer and composer), and "Beacons" (as performer and composer), as well with Johannes Kreidler in “Selbstausloeser” and “20:21 Rhythms of History” (as stage designer, 3d animation/CGI, and performer).
She learned, worked, and collaborated with musicians and composers (in different occasions and capacities) such as Igor Oistrakh, Valery Oistrakh, Ruggiero Ricci, Vladimir Spivakov, Eugenia Tchugayeva, Graeme Jeannings, Barbara Maurer, Tom Pauwels, Peter Ablinger, Filip Rathé, Philip Thomas, Catherine Milliken, Liza Lim, Clara Iannotta, Rebecca Saunders, Johannes Kreidler, Aaron Cassidy, Dario Buccino, Claude Ledoux, Jean-Luc Fafchamps. During this time, she has been performing regularly in Belgium, as well as in Germany, Switzerland, UK, France, Italy, Slovenia, Serbia, Austria, Spain, Bulgaria, Portugal, USA, and China. Her recent performances include concerts at the hcmf// festival (UK), the “ArsMusica” International Contemporary Music Festival (Belgium), Darmstädter Ferienkurse (Germany), LOOP Festival (Belgium), TRANSIT Festival (Belgium), “Museum Night Fever” (Belgium), BigBang Festival (with ICTUS+GAME).