Dušica Polovina

Dušica Polovina (viola), doctor of arts, full professor, was born in Novi Sad, where, as a student, she held her first solo concert in Studio M in 1986. After completing her basic viola studies at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad in the class of professor Lasl Horvat, Dušica Polovina continued her master’s and doctoral studies in art at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, first in the class of professor Petar Ivanović, and then under the mentorship of professor Dejan Mlađenović. At the same time, she improved her skills at master classes, which led to regular concert activity as a soloist. She gave solo concerts in Novi Sad, Belgrade, Sombor, Subotica, Zrenjanin, Sremska Mitrovica, Valjevo, Šabac, Bačka Topola, Novi Kneževac, Kotor and Herceg Novi, working on the affirmation of the viola as a solo instrument. She collaborated with pianists Marija Đarmati, Marina Mikić and Katarina Radojičić-Firevski. Recordings from the concerts were saved on two promotional compact discs published by Radio Novi Sad. In 1997, Dušica Polovina participated in the International Violist Yuri Bashmet Competition in Moscow. Dušica Polovina’s versatile orientation is reflected in her focus on chamber music and orchestral playing. For over twenty years, Dušica Polovina was the leader of the viola section in chamber, opera and symphony orchestras. Cooperation with a significant number of eminent soloists and conductors, both domestic and foreign, made her an excellent orchestral musician. In this capacity, she participated in the following festivals: NOMUS, BEMUS, Ohrid summer, Budva – the city of theater, May evenings and KotorArt. As a member of the chamber ensemble, Dušica Polovina performed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Germany, Russia, the Netherlands, Austria, France and Italy. In the period from 1999 until today, more than thirty students graduated in Dušica Polovina’s class. Their work has been noticed in leading chamber, opera and symphony orchestras as well as in music schools in Serbia. From 2006 to 2012, Dušica Polovina was the head of the Department of String Instruments at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. She received her doctorate at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, with the thesis: Components of expression in works for viola and piano by Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms. As part of the ERASMUS program, she held a seminar for viola students in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 2021.