Mixed Choir of the “Prepodobni Rafailo Banatski” Singing Society

In Zrenjanin, the city of choirs and rich choir tradition, a male choir of the Choral Society “Prepodobni Rafailo Banatski”, has been working very successfully for almost twenty years. In 1997, the members of the Choral society established “The Spiritual-missionary Center” which gathers people of wide education and interests. The main aim of the Center is educating and bringing up children (and adults who are willing to learn) in the spirit of the culture, spirituality and tradition of our nation and our church. In 2005, the children’s choir was established.

As a natural consequence of both female and male choir existing in the same society, the idea emerged of creating a mixed choir “Prepodobni Rafailo Banatski.” A lot of new singers came, who previously sang in one of the Zrenjanin's famous choirs like “Josif Marinković” and “Koča Kolarov.” Those people missed the sound of choir singing in Zrenjanin ,which could have been often heard 30 years ago. The Mixed Choir has existed for less than a year, but it has achieved great succes in concert halls.

Senka Milisavljević was born in Zrenjanin, in 1980. As a high school student, at the age of 17, she became a conductor of a church choir in Zrenjanin. From 1995, Senka has been singing in the world famous choir “Josif Marinković,” which significantly influenced her later musical expression and professional maturation, especially in the field of orthodox choir singing and choir conducting. In 2004, she graduated from the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. In 2008. She got her Masters in choir conducting at the same Academy in professor’s Tatjana Ostojić class.

From 2004, she has been working as the professor of solfeggio and childrens choir in the musical school “Josif Marinković” in Zrenjanin. The school’s choir under her supervision achieved remarkable results on various competitions of children’s choirs in the country and the region. In addition, she is also the conductor of Female choir “Prepodobni rafailo Banatski” , with which she made significant results.

Zrenjanin is a city located in the eastern part of Vojvodina, Serbia. It is the largest city in the Serbian Banat, and it is its political, economic, cultural and sports center, with around 130 thousand inhabitants from over 20 nations living in it. Since the 19th century, Zrenjanin has had a very rich cultural and artistic heritage, which is kept up to date.

The tradition of choir singing in the 20th century has been connected with churches (mostly orthodox and Roman catholic), teachers’ association and guilds, which resulted in the fact that two world known choirs existed in this town: Youth mixed choir of Music Association “Josif Marinković” and the choir of Cultural and Artistic Society “Koča Kolarov.”

SR