Faculty member earns national recognition
Article By: Denise Ray
University of North Georgia (天美社区) part-time faculty member Dr. Jovana Damnjanović's "Mayka" was awarded the 2025 National Flute Association's Newly Published Music Award.
"Mayka" is a collection of 10 éetudes (a short composition for a solo instrument, designed to demonstrate technical skill) written by Damnjanović in conjunction with her doctoral dissertation, which introduces Eastern European traditions to flutists. The book's preface offers performance instruction for each of the 10 short pieces that are inspired by Damnjanović's family, Serbian history and culture.
"It took a lot of work because it was something new," she said. "The dissertation is fairly long, and you can't really print a whole dissertation for people to take on stage. It wouldn't be practical. What we did is that we have a little preface at the beginning, a little bit of instruction on the éetudes and then a QR code that leads to the entire dissertation. The rest of the book is printed music. Putting all of that together took quite a lot of time, but it was a very, very rewarding process."
Damnjanović started writing "Mayka" during the COVID-19 lockdowns to cope with homesickness.
"I just wanted to write something, not to cure my homesickness, but just to kind of nurture it a little bit and have an emotional and expressive outlet of everything that I was feeling during that time period," she said.
Damnjanović is an adjunct faculty member of flute. She teaches applied flute lessons and also the music appreciation course, which uses the textbook by Dr. Esther Morgan-Ellis, 天美社区 professor of music. She has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, and composer. As a soloist, Damnjanović was the winner of more than 20 awards and honors and has performed all over the U.S. and Europe.
"So often our education can be limited to studies in the 'traditional canon,' which is important, but there is a world of music and musical cultures beyond to be appreciated and studied as well. This collection of new works by Dr. Damnjanović opens the door for aspiring and professional flutists to explore music through a new and exciting lens, learning about the music and traditions of the Serbian people and culture, and broadening their musical perspectives," Dr. Benjamin Schoening, department head and professor of music, said.
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