An award-winning jazz pianist and composer, new Virginia Commonwealth University music professor Dimitrije Vasiljevic’s virtuosic amalgam of classical technique and impressionistic improvisation brings a new set of instrumental colors to the RVA musical spectrum. Born in Belgrade, Serbia, he is a product of a public school system that identified and intensively nurtured musical talent from an early age. He started playing piano at six and was in specialized classes through his entire primary and secondary education.
“It was all classical piano,” he remembers. “In the ’90s and 2000s there was no other kind of conventional music education. It was very intense classical piano training, counterpoint, harmonic theory. Then I got accepted into [the] Belgrade Academy of Music where I started studying music pedagogy and theory. I didn’t go for a piano major there because they were offering only classical piano and, at the time, I wasn’t interested much anymore.”
What he was interested in was playing jazz. His father was a massive fan, with albums from Glenn Miller, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell and Oscar Peterson. “I wanted that freedom of expression,” Vasiljevic says. “I had very good piano facility, but I was self-taught. All I could play was what I transcribed by ear, which was not much. I started playing [in Serbia] with a prominent New Orleans-style band, the Belgrade Dixie Orchestra. But if I wanted to learn how to play properly, I definitely [needed] to go somewhere else.”
The opportunity came when Boston’s Berklee School of Music held auditions in Dublin, Ireland. Vasiljevic went with a friend and both were accepted. But even with half of his tuition covered by scholarship, it was a financial challenge.
“My country is economically pretty poor. My parents’ salaries were like, 500 Euros a month. They could afford to send me for just one year, and then I would have to come home,” he explains. “It was a kind of luck that in that time I inherited an apartment in Belgrade from my grandma. We sold that, so I continued. Little by little, I raised my scholarships so I was able to graduate.”
He calls attending Berklee the best decision he ever made. For the first time, he was among talented students from all over the world, being trained by and playing with successful jazz musicians, including teachers such as pianist Danilo Perez and Joanne Brackeen. He was a finalist in multiple, high-visibility music competitions. Also he was practicing six hours a day while adjusting to a new country and culture.
It was a tough ride for a while, Vasiljevic confides. “I was basically alone. My closest, distant relatives were in Chicago. I could understand a lot of English, but I couldn’t speak it well enough to express myself fully. And I was learning the challenging jazz language at the same time.
His next move was to New York City to get a master’s degree at New York University and start building a career. He recorded his first album, “The Path of Silvan,” and did club gigs with greats like Joe Lovano and Chris Potter, and high-profile solo piano concerts at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the United Nations.
He also worked in warehouses, and as a clown at children’s parties. “I had to survive somehow,” he says.
“I realized that, you know, as much as I like gigging and playing shows, I really wanted some kind of, you know, steady income going on and some kind of stable job,” he says. “And then I learned that the best way to do that is to get a doctorate and find a university position.”
He earned his doctorate at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaigne, continuing to gig in nearby Chicago and racking up additional competition finalist credentials. His thesis focused on different artist approaches to counterpoint and polyphony, ranging from Lenny Tristano to Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, and contemporary players like Brad Mehldau and Craig Tavern.
“I am the first doctor of jazz piano from Serbia,” Vasiljevic says.
Four days later, he had a tenure-tracked job at Xavier University, a historically Black college and university (HBCU) outside of New Orleans, Louisiana. “I am very grateful to them,” Vasiljevic says. “They were just starting their first jazz program, although it is a bit hard to imagine that there is a university in New Orleans that didn’t have one. They sponsored my work visa and then my green card.” He taught there for six years, enjoying the people and the students but getting increasingly frustrated in a tiny department where he was the only jazz professor, resulting in a heavy workload and few serious students.
A job hunt resulted in two offers, but the one from VCU’s established jazz studies program was an easy choice. Now, a term into the new position, he is starting to expand his presence to the wider community at large. At his introductory faculty recital, the seats were full of students abuzz about his lecture on Turkish 9/8 rhythms. During the concert, his rendering of jazz standards like [John Coltrane’s] “Giant Steps” and [Herbie Hancock’s] “Maiden Voyage” were full of shimmering classical runs. Taking on familiar music is a fine introduction, but it was his own compositions, namely “Aurora” and “Chiaroscuro,” both dedicated to his parents, that shone the brightest. His first extramural appearance was as a sideman on Rex Richardson’s recent holiday gig at Reveler.
And Vasiljevic still returns to play in Europe, including Amsterdam, Austria, and the countries born in the breakup of Yugoslavia. He’s currently shopping for a continental agent to set up appearances at larger music festivals.
“I knew the first time I came here that I would love this town,” Vasiljevic says of Richmond. “There is something here, a special kind of energy. I told the people at VCU that if didn’t get the job, I would move here anyway and be a janitor.”
