Duo Dragorad is a chamber ensemble consisting of violist Miljana Stamenić and cellist Aleksandra Bengin. As longtime friends and collaborators, Miljana and Aleksandra decided to form this band with the aim of researching and popularizing the music written for this non-standard band.
Program:
Carl Stamitz
Duo for viola and cello in C major
Allegro
Grazioso
Rondo – Allegro
Roman Haas
Variations on a folk song theme for viola and cello
Introduction and Theme
Var. 1
Var. 2
Var. 3
Var. 4 (Czardasz)
Rebecca Clarke
Two Pieces for viola and cello
Lullaby
Grotesque
Aleksandra Bengin
Journey
Roman Haas
Suite for viola and cello
Preludium
Ostinato
Interludium
Bolero
Finale
Biographies:
Miljana Stamenić (1993) finished primary and secondary music school at Kosta Manojlović Elementary School in Zemun, in the class of Professor Mihajlo Mihajlović. During that period, she won prizes at national competitions and gained orchestral experience performing in the country and abroad (Munich, Moscow, Budapest, Sarajevo, Kotor, Podgorica, Corfu).
For two seasons in a row, she performed as a member of the CEI – Youth Orchestra with the best young musicians of Europe, with whom she performed throughout Italy (Assisi, Milan, Caorso, Catania…). In 2010, she became a student of the talent department of the Kosta Manojlović School of Music and began working with professor Panta Veličković, in whose class she graduated and completed her master’s studies at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade.
She was a member of BGO Dušan Skovran, with whom she performed as a soloist in Kolarac (2016). Together with her colleagues, she founded the string quartet Vae soli, with which she performed notable performances in Serbia and Montenegro.
She took courses with Igor Coretti-Curet, Urlich von Vroem, Aleksandar Milosev, Aleksandar Zemtsov, Mateo Zuc and Gareth Lube. He cooperates with several chamber and symphony orchestras (Chamber Ensemble of 13 Strings, BGO Dušan Skovran, Jewish Chamber Orchestra, Belgrade Symphony Orchestra, Kamerata Serbika, Symphony Orchestra of the Bolshoi Festival, SO Makris, Belgrade Chamber Orchestra, Belgrade Philharmonic, Montenegrin Symphony Orchestra). Since 2014, he has been a member of the RTS Symphony Orchestra.
Aleksandra Bengin (1992) acquired basic musical education at the Josif Marinković Elementary Music School in Vršac in several departments (piano, cello, percussion). She graduated from secondary music school in Belgrade (all three instruments). She studied at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, where she completed bachelor piano studies in the class of Aleksandra Pavlović, as well as bachelor, master’s and specialist cello studies in the class of professor Sandra Belić. She took master classes with renowned cellists such as Natalia Gutman, Valentin Radutiu, Vashti Hunter, Evgeniy Rumyantsev, Maja Bogdanović and Leonid Gorokhov.
As a cellist, she played in numerous orchestras and chamber ensembles. Since 2022, he has been an associate and member of the RTS Symphony Orchestra. He actively plays and performs as a member of the Dragorad duo, the Bengin&Predolac duo, the BLISS chamber ensemble and as a member of the Belgrade Youth National Orchestra (BONO). As a pedagogue, she worked as a cello teacher at the music schools Stevan Mokranjac in Požarevac and Petar Stojanović in Ub, and also as a piano teacher at the Josif Marinković Elementary Music School in Vršac.