From his native Serbia, where he was a member of prominent jazz ensembles and performed extensively throughout Europe, Dimitrije journey has taken him to Berklee College of Music in Boston where he received a number of prestigious awards including the Jazz Performance Award and Piano Department Achievement Award. Tony Germain on behalf of Jazz Performance Division at Berklee describes him as a “powerful modern improviser, shows promise that he will be a new voice in modern jazz." Dimitrije is currently completing a master's degree in Jazz Performance at NYU where he is also an adjunct professor of jazz. Dr. David Schroeder, NYU Jazz Studies Director, predicts that Dimitrije will become a “significant voice within his field, adding greatly to the diversity of cultural experiences in the New York music scene and sharing his experiences with future generations of musicians for years to come.”
Dimitrije has headlined performances at many US and European jazz venues and Festivals among which are the Norrtelje Jazzdagar (Sweden), the Miskolc and the Bohem Jazz Festivals (Hungary), the Gmunden Festival (Austria) and the Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland), where in 2008 he was selected as one of twelve finalists to compete at the prestigious "Montreux Solo Jazz Piano Competition" – and won both third jury prize and the audience prize. Dimitrije performed with the Alex Pinter Quintet alongside drummer Klemens Marktl. With this quintet he recorded the album "Beantown Experience" for the Austrian label Extraplatte. More recently, Dimitrije has played and recorded with Joe Lovano's NYU Artist Ensemble.
In April 2013, Dimitrije released his debut album as a leader, "The Path of Silvan", consisting entirely of his original compositions. Silvans are said to be mythical creatures who led ancient Serbian knights from the darkness to the light. For this album he received outstanding reviews and high praise from jazz masters such as Jean-Michel Pilc, Laszlo Gardony, Brad Shepik, Andy Milne and others. In Mr. Pilc's words, "Dimitrije is a rare example of a musician whose qualities - sensibility, virtuosity, harmonic and melodic invention - all converge towards the same point: a music of deep and rewarding beauty. His latest CD is a brilliant demonstration of music making at the highest level."
Dimitrije Vasiljevic's music can be described as an original music mixture that incorporates modern jazz and traditional Balkan music resulting in a perfect synthesis of modern jazz and world music. Drawing on mythology and the past for his inspiration, Dimitrije seamlessly combines his talents as pianist, composer and arranger to create his original musical expression and contemporary sound.
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