03.02.2017.
Concert of the British and Serbian Military Bands
The joint concert of Stanislav Binički Artistic Ensemble of the Ministry of Defence and the Band of the Prince of Wales's Division was held last night at the Central Military Club.
Inspired military musicians, under the batons of conductors Paul Collis-Smith and Pavle Medaković, performed popular pieces of film and classical music by Serbian, British and world authors, and Vladimir Mustajbašić appeared as a special guest conductor.
In his address, the United Kingdom Ambassador in Belgrade, Mr Denis Keefe, pointed out that he was thrilled to attend the first joint concert of the military bands of the two countries. In addition to expressing gratitude to the hosts for the opportunity presented, he reminded that the military music has very long history both in the Serbian and the British Armed Forces.
– The first Serbian military symphony orchestra was founded at the initiative of Aleksandar Obrenović in 1899, and one of the key founders was the famous Serbian composer Stanislav Binički, who gave his name to the band, and the author of the first Serbian opera “At Dawn” (“Na uranku”) – said the Ambassador and added that, although the British military band had been established much later, its roots could be traced to several regiments of the British army which had existed earlier, since the beginning of the 18th century.
– Today the orchestra makes part of the corpus of military music and the British Armed Forces, which is the greatest employer of musicians in the UK – said the Ambassador of the United Kingdom in Belgrade, Mr Denis Keefe.
State Secretary at the Ministry of Defence, Mr Nenad Nerić, greeting the guests and musicians emphasised that the Stanislav Binički Artistic ensemble of the Ministry of Defence had a true pleasure of hosting and performing together with the British Band of the Prince of Wales's Division, which has been cherishing the tradition of British military music for more than 300 years.
– Our ensemble has been developing a successful cooperation with foreign military bands for many years now, so that in the period behind us, the audience in several Serbian cities had an opportunity to enjoy joint performances of our military band with their military guests from Greece, Switzerland, Macedonia, the United States and Russia – Mr Nerić reminded and added that the concerts, though quite diverse in terms of the composition of bands, musical genre and programme, had always had one common feature and that was the fact that the professional musicians from different armed forces quickly reached common ground – the universal language of notes and music which is always is easily recognised and that knows no borders.
