Lectures
Julija Bal teaches comparative piano at the Academy of Arts Novi Sad (Current employment)
Presentation of music score and CD of 12 Etudes by Heitor Villa-Lobos transcribed for piano by Julija Bal (Concert-lecture)
Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887 –1959) was the most significant composer in Brazilian art music. Written in Paris in 1929, and dedicated to Segovia, his 12 Etudes for guitar are considered as a true concert works (like Chopin’s etudes, they are showing a level of difficulty and beauty that is above a simple study). It should be borne in mind that Villa-Lobos’ ideas in Etudes were created for the specific sound of one particular medium - the guitar, and its unique characteristics. To avoid potential loss of the original character, Julija gave herself a kind of freedom, almost that of a composer, while retaining the most important musical features of Villa-Lobos’ etudes: context, essential melody, tonality and form. Inspired by a series of technical elements of guitar playing introduced by Villa-Lobos, she tried to apply a similar idea to her transcriptions. Exploring some current technical practices of piano playing and integrating them into the music, she succeeded in introducing a way of "upgrading" those compositions and thus not disturbing its context.
The lecture-concert has four parts:
- Describing different influences of European and Brazilian art and popular (Choro) music of early 20th century to Villa-Lobos, and the opposite reflection to Brazilian music today, (mentioning connections with Stravinsky, Debussy, Nazareth, Rubinstein, Jobim…), pointing out and demonstrating on piano some common compositional characteristics in harmony, rhythm, phrasings.
- Short introduction to general problematic of transcribing music, pointing out some solutions reflected in 12 studies.
- Explaining didactic dimension of version for piano, over viewing modern elements of piano technique used in this opus (usage of middle pedal, echo, specific kinds of tremolo etc.)
- Performance of the choice from 12 studies.
Tempus foundation - Development of Lifelong Learning Framework in Serbia
Seminar title:
Different Approaches for Preparing a Piano Performance through a Multi-Layered Analysis of the Suite for Piano Duo "The Nutcracker" by P.I.Tchaikovsky
(Catalog number 742nd)
Authors and implementer of the project: Mag.Art. Julija Bal & Mag.Art. Jelena Bajić Bojanić
The topic of the seminar was an introduction to a multi-layered way of learning based on integration of different disciplines of art and social sciences, illustrated with an example of preparing for public performance of a music piece.
The lecturers are both concert pianists and piano professors at The Academy of Arts. Based on their professional background and experience, they explained the importance of exploring other disciplines (such as history, history of music, acting, dance, music theory, orchestration and others) that are related to the music piece, composer's life and work, and general process of preparation, in order to prepare for public performance. They illustrated this with the preparations of the suite for piano duo "The Nutcracker" by P.I.Tchaikovsky.
Lecturers were systematically moving from the most general to the performance related topics (including work on the piano technique), presenting a practical use of explored material and knowledge about other disciplines, applied on piano performance.
The seminar included many audio and video examples, as well as live demonstrations on piano by lecturers themselves. The seminar was concluded with a live performance of „The Nutcracker Suite“ by the piano duo.
Accredited seminar "Different approaches for preparing a piano performance, through a multi-layered analysis of the suite for piano duo "The Nutcracker" by P.I.Tchaikovsky" (Cat. No.742nd) was held on October 12, 2014 at the hall of Academy of arts in Novi Sad, Serbia. [duration of seminar - 8h,15min]
European Heritage Days in Serbia - Concert/Lecture
"Paris as an Inspiration"
Authors and implementer of the lecture: Mag.Art. Julija Bal & Mag.Art. Jelena Bajić Bojanić
Realization:
- Senka Nedeljkovic Soldatovic (soprano)
- Aleksandra Karadzic (piano)
- Jelena Bajic Bojanic (piano)
- Julija Bal (piano)
- Zoran Marovic (narration)
Masterclass
Julija Bal gave master classes and lectures at the University in Minot (North Dakota / USA) , University in Wroclaw (Poland) and among schools in cities in Poland, and among cities in Serbia.
She was one of the youngest jury members and masterclass professors at the international competition Ibla Grand Prize (that counts over 200 competitors from all countries) together with musicians such as Aleksey Sokolov, Rume Urano and Marcelo Abbado.