(Credit: Genesis Foundation official website)

The Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences has announced that famed Serbian composer Isidora Žebeljan has died at the age of 54, after a long illness.

Žebeljan graduated from the Faculty of Musical Arts in Belgrade. She was subsequently engaged as a professor of composition at the same faculty since 2002.

Žebeljan received commissions from institutions and festivals such as the Venice Biennale, the Bregenz Festival (opera “The Marathon”), Muziektheater im Revier Gelsenkirchen (opera “Simon the Chosen”), Accademia Musicale Chigiana Sienna (opera “Two Heads and a Girl”), and City of London Festival, among others. She composed works for musical ensembles such as The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic Octet, Brodsky Quartet, Dutch Chamber Choir, and the London Brass, among others.

Isidora Žebeljan was also one of the most prominent Serbian contemporary composers of theatre and film music, composing music for over 30 productions for the theatres in Europe.

Žebeljan was the winner of the New York Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship for 2005. She was elected to the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2006 and became a full member in 2012.