Serbia - Germany, 1980
cvetic, kucica.../la lugubre gondola
Winner Gaudeamus Musicweek 2010

Marko Nikodijević studied composition at the University of Arts in Belgrade with Srdjan Hofman and Zoran Erić from 1997 to 2003. From 2003 to 2005 he continued at the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart with Marco Stroppa and since then has been living in Germany.

Among his honours are honourable mentions at the Gaudeamus Music Week 2003 and 2007, and the Franz Liszt Stipendium Preis 2005. In 2006 he was winner of the Forum du NEM.  Nikodijević has received scholarships from the Ministry of Saxony and Anhalt 2009, Ministry of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 2010, and Ministry of Lower Saxony 2010.

His contribution to the Unesco Rostrum of Composers 2009 was a recommended work in both the general category and composers under 30. His music has been performed by ensemble recherche, Ensemble Modern, Ives Ensemble, Nieuw Ensemble, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, kammarensembleN Stockholm, de ereprijs, Brandenburger Symphoniker, Radio Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, among others.

He is primarily interested in the use of digital technology in music: chaos theory, fractals, algorithmic composition, instrumental and digital sound synthesis, techno, DJ-ing and techno-aesthetics.

cvetic, kucica.../la lugubre gondola
funeral music for orchestra after Franz Liszt
The motto of this piece is two lines by Edgar Allan Poe:

"While from a proud tower in the town,
Death looks gigantically down."

Inspired by Venetian funeral gondolas on which the dead were escorted to their final resting place, the composition is based entirely on Liszt's famous piano piece La lugubre gondola I.  The original is broken into fragments, compressed and stretched, shimmering like the traces which remain visible in a palimpsest. The title cvetić, kućica means 'little flower, little house' in Serbian, and describes a drawing in the notebook of a 5-year-old Kosovan-Albanian girl whose body was found in a refrigerator lorry sunk in the Danube by Serbian police in 1999. This composition is dedicated to her memory. 
Commissioned by the Brandenburger Symphoniker