Miljana Popović Materni graduated from the School for Talented Musicians in Ćuprija as the best student of her generation. She completed her undergraduate, graduate, and specialist studies at the Music Academy in Belgrade, in the class of Marija Špengler. She attended master classes with David Takeno, Gordan Nikolić, Stefan Milenković, Igor Petrushevski, Julian Rachlin, and other notable violinists. She received a certificate from the Bern Conservatory’s International Youth Symphony Orchestra headed by Conductor Ingo Becker.

Since 2009, she has been a full-time employee as Tutti First Violin in the Belgrade Philharmonic, with whose chamber ensemble she has also performed as a soloist. As a longtime concertmaster and soloist of the Strings of St. George chamber orchestra, she has performed at over 300 concerts in the country and abroad. As a member of these two orchestras, she has worked with world-renowned artists such as Zubin Mehta, Gordan Nikolić, Nemanja Radulović, Željko Lučić, Boris Berezovsky, Mischa Maisky, performing in well-known concert venues (Carnegie Hall in New York, Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, Konzertaus in Vienna).

She has performed at nationally and internationally renowned festivals (Bemus, Nimus, Somus, Ljubljana Festival, Ohrid Summer, Bolshoi Festival). She has been actively involved in the project of reaffirming forgotten Serbian music and at the invitation of the Musicology Institute she gave the first performance the Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2 Op. 18 by Petar Stojanović, which was, on that occasion, recorded live on CD.

Orchestra member since 2009

I take special pride in and feel gratitude for being chosen as one of the few who do what they truly love and what they are gifted for. And especially in the fact that each Friday at 8 PM, the music takes me somewhere far, far away, together with my fellow musicians, yet I remain in my city, seated in front of the sheet music stand.

I am a person with a positive attitude and a broad smile – those who know me are witnesses to that cosmic phenomenon – an expert in telling jokes (the range of grimaces I can make is enviable), with a quick mind that is still, to my chagrin, ten times slower than my mouth.I am also absolutely incapable of following much-needed austerity measures, as I am a huge fan of high heels. The explanation lies in the fact that I am just a woman, or maybe a reincarnation of a fashion-conscious centipede.