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Tijana Stanković is a violinist, vocalist, and improviser whose work moves between traditional music and free improvisation. Growing up with Balkan folk songs, she developed a deep connection to oral traditions, which later intertwined with her exploration of abstract sound. Her approach is rooted in intuition, letting melody and texture emerge organically, whether in solo performances or collaborations.
She studied Ethnomusicology at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, which broadened her perspective on folk music—not as something fixed, but as a living practice. Early on, she played with Paniks, a Subotica-based band that performed at festivals across Europe. Over time, she gravitated towards free improvisation, which she first explored during Mezei Szilárd’s Levegő-Vazduh-Air workshop in 2011.
Her music is a constant negotiation between form and freedom. She works with violin and voice in equal measure, drawing from both traditional and experimental techniques. This can be heard in her solo albums, Freezer (LOM, 2020) and Folk Songs (FRIM, 2024), as well as in her collaborations with artists like Lenhart Tapes (Dens, Glitterbeat Records, 2023), Ana Kravanja, Miroslav Toth, and Diana Miron.
Her contributions to Dens (Lenhart Tapes, Glitterbeat Records, 2023) were widely acclaimed, with praise from Songlines, The Wire, and The Quietus.
Her newest project is a collaboration with guitarist Raphael Roginski, vocalist Svetlana Spajić, and pianist Marina Džukljev. The group explores the intersection of folk music, improvisation, and experimental sound, with an upcoming album currently in the works.
Other ongoing projects include Pjevačka družina Svetlane Spajić and various ensembles led by Mezei Szilárd. Beyond performance, she has composed and performed music for theater and film, drawn to the way sound can shape narrative and atmosphere. Whether working within structured folk forms or open-ended improvisation, she sees music as a shared language—fluid, evolving, and always connected to memory.
As Magnus Nygren observed, her improvisations often parallel the structure of folk music, where
motifs and melodic fragments emerge in a collective and organic way, free from notation yet
deeply rooted in memory.