In memoriam: JOSIP MAGDIĆ (Ogulin, 19 March 1937 - 26 November 2020)
It is with deep sadness that we inform you of passing away of respected composer and conductor Josip Magdić, a longtime professor at the Music Academy of the University of Sarajevo.
He was born in Ogulin in 1937. He graduated from the High School of Music and the Higher Pedagogical School in Zagreb. He studied composition and conducting at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana (classes of Z. Grgošević and D. Švara), where in 1966 he completed his postgraduate studies (class of L. M. Škerjanc). He remained in Ljubljana for two years and worked as a freelance artist. During this period, he composed music for radio dramas and concert performances and became a member of the Slovenian Society of Composers. After a short engagement in Bjelovar as a professor and director of the Vatroslav Lisinski Music School, he came to Sarajevo at the invitation of Miroslav Špiler.
From 1970 to 1994, Josip Magdić worked in Sarajevo as a pedagogue, conductor, reproductive artist, and active social worker. He has been a lecturer of theoretical subjects at the Academy of Music since 1970, an assistant professor since 1972, and a full professor of Composition, Orchestration, Polyphony and Fugue in 1985, in whose class numerous composers studied, including M. Milićević, R. Mehdić, F. Đurović. , A. Kezić, J. Osmanagić, V. Cvijetić Dutina, S. Bukvich Nichols, G. Gjevelekaj, S. Mehinović, E. Zonić, A. Sijarić. He is the founder of the ensembles Momus and Masmantra, and the electroacoustic workshop EAR. In the Association of Composers of BiH, he acted as a secretary, and then as a president. From 1984 to 1986, he was the secretary of the Yugoslav branch of the International Society for Contemporary Music. One of the organizers of the Days of Musical Creativity event. In the same period, he received significant awards, among which the SKOJ Award 1969, the Sixth April Award of the City of Sarajevo 1986, and the IX Award stand out. of the International Electroacoustic Music Competition in Bourges for Music for Clarinet, Saz and Electronics, Op. 87 (1981), and many others. In besieged Sarajevo, he stays with students and colleagues and is engaged in pedagogical and artistic work, and is also active in HKD Napredak. His works from this period are among the most valuable artistic documents of the Sarajevo war years.
In 1994 he went to Zagreb, became a member of the Croatian Society of Composers and was elected a professor at the Academy of Music, where he remained until his retirement in 2007.
The commemorative session in honor of Professor Josip Magdić will be held at the Music Academy, University of Sarajevo on Monday, 30 November 2020, in the presence of a small circle of colleagues and friends. A recording of the commemoration will be subsequently published on the Music Academy website.
