Dejan Petrovic Big Band
Deutsche Welle in Guča Brass Festival
Dejan Petrovic, the son and successor of the most famous Serbian trumpet player Mica Petrovic, was born in 1985 in the village of Duboko, near Uzice. Dejan and his brother Darko belong to the fourth generation of trumpet players in their family of music manufacturers.The first one to start playing the trumpet was Dejan’s great grandfather Tanasije and since then the skill has been passed down from father to son. Tanasije’s successor was Danilo and then his son Mica, who deserves credit for the world fame of this instrument. It is certain that Mića Petrović was a man ahead of his time – a visionary or an artist who knew how to use the God’s gift and who could touch the soul of any man just by a simple sound of the trumpet. He gave good guidance to his sons Dejan and Darko, who showed interest for music from an early age.
At the age of six, Dejan Petrović played for the first time in front of an audience and, instead of spending his childhood playing with his friends, he spent time with his father and his orchestra, learning the secrets and the beauty of music until he recognized them within his very soul. By the age of twelve Dejan Petrović had already had his own, junior brass orchestra. Unfortunately, four years later he lost his father and, a great burden which was not easy to carry, fell upon him. Nevertheless, Dejan Petrović did not surrender. Strong-minded, he followed his father’s footsteps to the point when he had to go further and choose his own path. With a lot of hard work and efforts put in, with the help and support of his brother Darko and other members of the band, Dejan, a young trumpet player, won prestigious awards as well as hearts of the audience wherever he performed. Success followed success until finally Dejan surpassed the achievements of his father at the competition in Guca Brass Festival in 2006, winning the “Master’s Letter”, the most prominent award at the competition. And so the twenty-year-old from the village of Duboko went down in history as the youngest Master of the Trumpet and as an artist with a potential to win the world in the same manner.
Dejan Petrovic always loved to “play” with music: to put together the disparate, to perform the unseen, to achieve the impossible, always following modern trends, but never losing touch with his origin, tradition and music that made him. The name of Dejan Petrovic became a synonym for traditional Serbian music everywhere in the world, often combined with modern elements and adjusted for everybody’s ear. Dejan Petrović is for good reason called The Ambassador of the Serbian Trumpet !
For fifteen years now, one could hear the name Dejan Petrovic Orchestra in the finals of every Guca festival and other trumpet orchestra competition in Serbia, but also abroad. This is the best proof of the quality and a driving force to go further, to wish, to work and to achieve even more.
Dejan Petrovic Orchestra exists since 1996 and its founder and mentor Mica Petrovic, was a master trumpet player and a legend of the Serbian trumpet playing. A group of beardless boys, led by Dejan Petrović, since their very first competition participation, have been winning one award after another and hasn’t stopped yet on their way to the top. Always leaving their audience open-mouthed in amazement and exhilaration, they let everyone know that, behind the image of cute little boys, lies tremendous work and dedication. The hearts of the audience were captured.
It took them five years to reach their maturity, to stop with the junior orchestra competitions and get to grips with much older and more experienced rivals. As it happens – quality prevailed. Unique and matchless, of a distinguished sound and image, Dejan Petrovic Orchestra stands firmly on the top of the Serbian trumpet scene. Having won everything there was to win, in 2010 Dejan and his brass orchestra decided to stop competing at the Guca festival, to give space to new, young orchestras and to move on.
It is no surprise that many influential people in the music and film industry have chosen this orchestra as their co-workers, Emir Kusturica being one of the most important one, who they have been working with for seven years now. They have made music for a number of Kusturica’s films and not a single Kustendorf festival took place without Dejan and his orchestra.
The most significant awards – Guca festival:
The best orchestra – 1998./2000./2003./2010.
The second orchestra– 2005./2006.
The most traditional music – 2002.
Golden trumpet – 2005./2009./2010.
Master’s letter – 2006.
The second trumpet – 2008.
The first trumpet – 1999./2009.
The first trumpet of the International Trumpeter Competition – 2010.
If you hear melodies of the world’s famous hits interwoven with motives of the Serbian national music, making a perfect whole, you will know that it is the work of Dejan Petrovic Big Band. Distinct sounds of the trumpet, guitar and a great “groove” are this bend’s personal mark.
In the spring of 2006, Dejan Petrovic, determined to try something different, started a project with his orchestra, which was now of a different concept. He added the keyboard, drums, percussion and a female voice to the original setup of the wind instruments. These were the first steps of Big Band in the creation of a completely new sound. They had their debut performance in the autumn of the same year at the Ethno fest in the city of Novi Sad, where the exhilarated audience greeted with ovation each of their number. They continued working, some members of the orchestra changed in the meantime, but the good sound everything that makes this band distinct remained. In 2007 a guitar and a male voice joined and soon after, the first Kustendorf Festival took place, where the band was about to perform. Only after their appearance in Drvengrad the real progress of Big Band started.
Dejan Petrovic Big Band now has a bass guitar in its setup; they have done numerous performances and they have the potential to captivate the audience all over the world. They do not take sides or choose genres, they do not worry about the musical types, they simply do what they love and what they know best – they make good music and please their audience.
Dejan Petrovic Big Band’s first album came out in 2010, with the title “Take a Deep Breath”, comprising 14 numbers, 9 of which are royalties. The greatest hit of the album is “The Whirl”, which has already swirled the world. There are three songs which are interpretations of Serbian traditional songs and two are the interpretation of the song “Kolo” originally played by a well-known domestic group Van Gogh and the music from the film “Promise” by Emir Kusturica.
Perhaps the greatest recognition of their work, crowning their entire career, was the big solo concert held recently in Sava Centar Hall, where they played to a full house. The concert was sold out and the remarkable atmosphere of the event is still being talked about by the thrilled spectators.
The Dejan Petrović Big Band Orchestra performed in London, Toronto, Moscow, Athens, Thessaloniki, Milan, Torino, Trieste, Brussels, Prague, Zurich, Skopje, Sofia, Bucharest, Ljubljana, Sarajevo and other cities of the world. They performed in the big concert halls too – Sava Centar Hall in Belgrade, Belgrade Arena and Millennium Hall in Vrsac; at the city squares of Negotin, Kraljevo, Banjaluka, Svilajnac, Paracin and had two very successful performances at the festivals in Guca and Beer fest in Serbia.
Each and every performance of the Dejan Petrovic Big Band, past and future one, is unique and always fresh, a whirlpool of good vibrations and positive energy that awakes unimaginable emotions while you soar the enchanting sounds of the trumpet.
Therefore, just give yourself over to the Whirl of the Dejan Petrovic Big Band…