Dear colleagues and friends of isaResearch,

as this year's summer school titled "Across Moving Grounds: Music, Performing Arts, and the Politics of Mobility" is nearing, we are overjoyed to invite you to the public event as part of our programme, for which we are pleased to welcome Amila Ramović from the Academy of Music, University of Sarajevo, and Jelena Gligorijević & Adriana Sabo from mdw's own MMRC. The talks will be followed by a conversation moderated by Juri Giannini and a reception, where you'll have the chance to mingle with the isaResearch participants. 

Please join us on 23 July at 5 P.M. at Fanny Hensel Hall! 

Your isaResearch team

Therese Kaufmann and Kathrin Heinrich, mdw Research Support

TALKS & CONVERSATION

23 July 2026, 5 P.M. | Fanny Hensel Hall 

Music as a Means of Survival: Reflections on Musical Life in Besieged Sarajevo (1992–1995)

Amila Ramović (Academy of Music, University of Sarajevo)

During the siege of Sarajevo (1992–1995), in a city deprived of electricity, water, food, and safety, music became a remarkably vivid part of urban life. Despite constant shelling and sniper fire that claimed over 11,500 lives, including 1,500 children, citizens organized over 2,000 concerts, along with 170 exhibitions and 180 theatre productions (Čavlović, 2011). This phenomenon, often called “cultural resistance,” was not merely an act of defiance: artists and audiences gathered in basements and concert halls, risking their physical existence in order to assert their spirit, their humanity and dignity. Reflecting on Sarajevo’s musical life today can also serve as a provocation. At a time when the role of music and the arts in general are lost between the consumerist logic of neoliberal markets and the cultural neglect of fast digital communication, Sarajevo's experience reminds us that art is essential — not only in moments of survival, but as a fundamental aspect of living.

Amila Ramović is a musicologist and curator from Sarajevo. She is a professor at the University of Sarajevo’s Academy of Music (since 2015), its vice dean for international cooperation (since 2000) and head of doctoral studies (since 2021). Her research field expands from 20th and 21st century music aspects to study of music during the siege of Sarajevo 1992-1995. Her curatorial practice focuses on interdisciplinarity and intermediality in contemporary arts. 

Made in YUGOSLAVIennA: Balkan Music and Multiple Marginality

Jelena Gligorijević & Adriana Sabo

(MMRC, mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna)

As one of the largest migrant groups in Vienna, people from the former Yugoslavia have made a deep and lasting impact on the citys culturally diverse soundscape. Scholars have long been interested in how Balkan difference the regions unique blend of sounds, styles and identities shapes musical expression in Vienna and Austria at large. Yet one aspect remains largely unexplored: the role of Balkan popular music in the life stories and self-expression of ex-Yugoslav migrants who face additional marginalization based on gender or sexuality. This project shines a spotlight on two such groups within Viennas ex-Yugoslav scene, which project leads Jelena Gligorijević and Adriana Sabo will outline in their talk responding to the guest lecture. 

Moderated by Juri Giannini

(IMI, mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna)