Jeunesses musicales of Yugoslavia (1954–1991) Acitivities in the Countries of Eastern Bloc Through the Prism of Socialist Yugoslavia Cultural Diplomacy

Ivana Vesić; Marija Golubović; Vanja Spasić

Ivana Vesić Institute of Musicology SASA, Belgrade
Marija Golubović Junior Researcher, Institute of Musicology SASA PhD Candidate, Department of History, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade
Vanja Spasić Research Assistant, Institute of Musicology SASA; PhD Candidate, Faculty of Media and Communication in Belgrade

Keywords: SFR Yugoslavia, Eastern Bloc, cultural exchange, cultural diplomacy, Jeunesse Musicales of Yugoslavia

Abstract

In this paper we focused on the collaboration of the Jeunesses Musicales of Yugoslavia (JMY) with similar organisations of the Eastern Bloc countries. Besides pointing to the various activities that the JMY carried out from the early 1960s to the late 1980s, certain general tendencies in the process of cultural exchange were also underlined. The aim is to consider whether the JMY’s cooperatian with Eastern Bloc organisations followed Yugoslav foreign policies in the cultural sphere at the time.

Author Biographies

Ivana Vesić, Institute of Musicology SASA, Belgrade

Ivana Vesić holds a Ph.D. in Sociology and an M.A. in Sociology and Musicology. She is a Research Associate at the Institute of Musicology SASA (Belgrade, Serbia). Her research deals with the socio-historical dimensions of art and popular music practices in Serbia and Yugoslavia from the 1850s to the 1990s, with an emphasis on the issues of musical taste and consumption, music and politics, music and social change, etc. She is the author of the book Konstruisanje srpske muzičke tradicije u periodu između sva svetska rata [Constructing the Serbian Music Tradition in the Period Between the Two World Wars] (Institute of Musicology SASA, 2018), a co-author of the book Između umetnosti i života – o delatnosti udruženja muzičara u Kraljevini SHS/Jugoslaviji [Between Art and Life – on the Functioning of Music Associations in the Kingdom of SCS/Yugoslavia] (Institute of Musicology, 2017). She serves on the Editorial Board of the journal Muzikologija (Belgrade, Serbia).

Marija Golubović, Junior Researcher, Institute of Musicology SASA PhD Candidate, Department of History, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade

Marija Golubović graduated and received her master’s degree in Piano from the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. She completed specialist studies in Piano and Chamber Music at the same faculty. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of History, Faculty of Philosophy – University of Belgrade. Her fields of interest include the Russian musical emigration after 1917 in the Balkans (especially in Belgrade between the two world wars), Russian music and Serbian piano music. Since 2019 she has worked as Junior Researcher at the Institute of Musicology SASA.

Vanja Spasić, Research Assistant, Institute of Musicology SASA; PhD Candidate, Faculty of Media and Communication in Belgrade

Vanja Spasić is a Research Assistant at the SASA Institute of Musicology. She graduated and received her master’s degree in Musicology from the Faculty of Music (University of Arts, Belgrade). She is currently a student of doctoral studies at the Faculty of Media and Communication in Belgrade and is working on her Ph.D. thesis titled Self- management in culture: The Opera of The National Theatre in Belgrade (1970–1990). Her academic research involves opera studies and the relationship between music and politics.