Svjetlana Bukvić went to New York, driven by the desire to gain knowledge and musical training. She had her first performance in her homeland in 2008.
Written by: Ema Džananović
Svjetlana is a professor at New York University, where she teaches music business, electronic music and composition, and sound for film. For years she taught at NYU, one of the best universities in the world, where she had the opportunity to learn how to be a professor but also to help young people. She performed with her productions all over the world and recently held two concerts in Sarajevo in cooperation with the Sarajevo Academy of Music, the Sarajevo Philharmonic, and the Bosnian-Herzegovinian-American Academy of Arts and Sciences (BHAAAS). Brega's advice Svjetlana studied and graduated in composition and musicology at the Academy of Music in Sarajevo. After completing her studies in composition, Professor Josip Magdić praised her graduate work and told her that she should continue her studies abroad. To make things more interesting, going outside was not only recommended by Svetlana's professor. She received the same comment from Goran Bregović. - I had the opportunity to play my works in pop and rock to Goran Bregović, who came to the philharmonic concert, where I played Beethoven's concerto for piano and orchestra. I was 16 at the time, and I was already building bridges between different genres and ways of expression. Brega, after listening to my early works, told me after the concert, "I think you should go outside.". 
She studied and graduated in composition and musicology at the Academy of Music in Sarajevo/Robert Herman. [/caption] Guided by the advice of experienced musicians but also by her own ambitions and intuition, Svjetlana applied to universities that, she says, indicated the future in which she would be the creator of his and his musical future. In search of colleges that offered the opportunity to merge the old with the new, she applied and was accepted to New York's Rensselaer Polytechnic University, which was then establishing America's first multimedia arts program. Her expensive school fees were paid by the university, and Svjetlana did not give up on leaving, even though what made the journey difficult was the war. The realization of the dream was made possible by luck and human kindness. Namely, after the goodwill of the driver entered the bus that was supposed to take artists from abroad out of the country due to the state of emergency in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Svjetlana set off on the difficult journey to New York. After a tiring eight hours of leaving the city, shooting, stopping, and searching, the bus finally left the city and arrived in Belgrade. There, through the mediation of a university in New York that expected her to appear at the beginning of the school year, she received a one-way ticket from the Soros Foundation. - I found a job in Belgrade, considering that I left Sarajevo with 30 German marks that my parents gave me. I thought that I would return to Sarajevo after I got my visa, that everything would calm down, and I would be able to say goodbye to my parents. However, it was not like that. Belgrade was completely crazy then, like Rome before its fall. Nobody knew and believed anything. I, who loved Belgrade, Zagreb, and Ljubljana because I cooperated with all of them, suddenly saw a new face in this city. Arriving in NY After going through a tortuous journey, Svjetlana finally arrived at her dream destination—New York City. She finished her studies on time, and was among the best students, and she cites the opportunity to work with the best artists in NY as a major advantage of this program. - I managed to make something positive out of everything and move on. I arrived on time for my studies; I finished my studies on time; I was one of the best. The greatest value of that program was that students were allowed to work with the best artists in NY who came to our university. I learned what it means to be an artist on the spot in NY, what it looks like, and how they imagine, create, and collaborate. She left her native Sarajevo because of her desire to learn and produce music, intending to return to her hometown, opening a studio, being a producer and composer, and dealing with electroacoustic music, which she still does in New York. Given that she has not returned, she contributes to her homeland by cooperating with the people who live there. - What gives me satisfaction as an artist are the results and benefits achieved through the exchange of energy, knowledge, and inspiration. I think that all of us who are out there (and there are 1.7 million of us) should bring about and co-create what will eventually be. The contribution is in the result and performance. Advice and theorizing about the causes of any process is not what brings the result, but we need to look at the situation as it is and do the best we can with the people we work with.
After listening to my early works, Brega said to me after the concert, I think you should go outside to collaborate with famous artists. After completing her studies, she established relationships and collaborations, among which one very famous name stands out. I was very lucky to collaborate with Philip Glass, a composer of contemporary music in New York, who made a small miracle in his career because he managed to make sophisticated and virtuosic music, phenomenologically speaking, loved even by those who are not into music. He became a name like Goran Bregović here in a broader sense. The fact that Svjetlana's works still lacked only an electronic palette throughout her college education is also evidenced by her experience with a woman who included Svjetlana in her book among the 25 most innovative and significant women composers in the United States of America. - Jennifer Kelly heard me in China at the World Congress of Women in Music, where I performed my composition "Before and after the tekke," inspired by the tekke on the Buna River. After the convention, she visited me in my studio in New York to interview me. She looked at my old works from the academy in Sarajevo and said: "When I look at these scores, I also hear electronic sound." I did it intuitively, but I was very glad to hear that it existed in my works already at the age of 18. The recognition that had the greatest resonance in Svjetlana's career was the award from the New York Foundation for the Arts for the collection of works entitled "Evolution." Svjetlana signs on this album as composer, lyricist, producer, co-mixer, and co-executive producer. A city for extremes Although she traveled a lot and lived in other places as well, New York was and remains her greatest inspiration. It is architecturally fascinating, but what makes New York New York, says Svjetlana, are the people who live, think, and create in it. People from all over the world gather here with different initiatives. New York City energetically takes a lot from men but also gives a lot. It is not a city for everyone, but a city for people who are capable of extremes, and we, Bosnians and Herzegovinans, are you. At this moment, Sarajevo is also made of extremes—when it's good, it's fascinatingly good, and when it's bad, it's fascinatingly bad. New York suits us Sarajevo people, but also Sarajevo suits New Yorkers. They love coming here, absorbing different energies, people, and ways of thinking. They feel at home in Sarajevo, and this city must not lose that. Sarajevo is a bouquet that must not wither. As much as the world sees this area as transitional, which is true, they do not see the potential of these areas. And that is quite clear to me, and that is one of the reasons why I come to work here. If Sarajevo is stable for another 10 years, small and big miracles will begin to happen. The potential success of the Sarajevo Philharmonic could be influenced by Svjetlana through her involvement with Universal Studios in Los Angeles. Given that they expressed interest in hearing her new collection of works, Svjetlana pointed out that the Philharmonic is also a part of this story and that it would be extraordinary if it remained so. - I intend that this vibrant orchestra, which has not faltered all these years, will receive recognition for its unique historical and current position in society. They carry a heavy burden, and they don't even have their own home. The experience with them was very short, but I liked the instrumentalists both as musicians and as people. I don't know that all the philharmonics in the world could give a composer that experience in 48 hours. 
The realization of the dream was made possible by luck and human kindness. [/caption] Svjetlana gave her first performance in her homeland in 2008 when her composition won the anonymous competition of the international chamber music festival in Sarajevo. At that time, it was the only electroacoustic composition in the competition, and the violinist for that occasion was the excellent Violeta Smailović. In the last five years, she collaborated with the National Theater in Sarajevo, the Sarajevo Winter Festival, and the already-mentioned Sarajevo Philharmonic. The aforementioned collaborations, visits to Sarajevo, and performances took place outside the context in which Svjetlana arrived in Sarajevo in June. The Bosnian-Herzegovinian-American Academy of Arts and Sciences (BHAAAS) and the 11th BHAAAS days are responsible for this arrival. It is a young organization that connects our people in America and Canada with the homeland. Doctors, scientists, and artists who come to BiH on this occasion selflessly help our country with faith in a better tomorrow and are aware of the value of exchanging knowledge and artistic ideas. While the number of artists who are part of this organization was very small in the beginning, today it is around 20, and among them, in addition to Svjetlana, are Aleksandar Hemon, Amila Buturović, and Adis Fejzić. It is very nice to experience positive stories here. I was amazed by the maturity of the musicians I chose this time: flutist Hanan Hadžajlić, violinist Milina Lorena, mezzo-soprano Amila Ravkić, baritone Erol Ramadanović, and sound engineer Armin Hodžić, Ammar Jazić, and Zdenko Bevanda did a lot in a very short time. Those of us who have made careers out there in any field have worked hard; that is unquestionable. We are especially glad when the results of that work can be seen in our country and not only where we achieved that success. Svjetlana is currently working on a new album that will be released in March 2020 by PARMA Records, and she is planning projects in major opera houses. Given that her first collection of works was in the running for a Grammy, Svjetlana will not give up this great recognition even now. (https://mojabih.oslobodjenje.ba/)
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