PHOTO Thirteenth of July awards presented to Pavićević and the guitar duo Bulatović-Nikčević

The XNUMXth of July awards were presented tonight to the painter Tomislav Pavićević and the guitar duo Srđan Bulatović and Darko Nikčević.

The President of the Parliament of Montenegro, Aleksa Bečić, presented them with the Thirteenth of July Awards.

The winners were presented with the awards at a ceremony in the Music Center in Podgorica, which, on the occasion of the National Day - July 13, was organized by Bečič in cooperation with Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić, as announced by the Assembly.

The Government announced that Krivokapić attended the ceremony organized by the Assembly and Bečić as a guest.

The jury for awarding the highest state award previously announced that Pavićević and the guitar duo Darko Nikčević and Srđan Bulatović are the winners of the Thirteenth of July Award.

It is stated that the Jury, bearing in mind Pavićević's decades-long oeuvre, was also guided by the fact that, organized by the National Museum of Montenegro, in the Montenegrin Gallery of Art "Miodrag Dado Đurić", he also had a retrospective exhibition accompanied by an extensive monograph.

"In March of last year, Pavićević had an extremely notable participation at the 75th Traditional Exhibition of the Association of Fine Artists of Montenegro (ULUCG), presenting himself with the painting "Ship of Fools", when, due to the pandemic, the award ceremony was not held," the announcement says.

Pavićević was born in 1951 in Titograd, graduated from the Higher Pedagogical School in Nikšić and has been a member of the ULUCG since 1978.

"So far, he has had 40 independent and numerous collective exhibitions, and the most important professional award "Milunović, Stijović, Lubarda", which he received four times - in 1990, 1996, 2004 and 2010, speaks of the success and recognition of his work," it is stated. in the explanation of the Jury.

It is added that the proposal for awarding the Thirteenth of July Award to Pavićević was signed by 17 meritorious, established artists, academics and art historians.

The jury, as stated, had no qualms when it came to the internationally recognized guitar duo, Darko Nikčević and Srđan Bulatović.

"Who has been affirming music for the guitar for more than two decades, both through recent authors who wrote for the guitar, and through his original compositions, based in the musical heritage of Montenegro," the statement added.

Nikčević is a flamenco guitarist and composer. He was born in 1971 in Nikšić, and has so far written more than 50 original compositions.

He works at the Music Academy of the University of Montenegro as the head of the electro-acoustic laboratory and lecturer.

Bulatović was born in 1972. He is a classical guitarist and composer. He graduated from the Department of Guitar at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, and then earned a master's degree and a doctorate from the same faculty.

He is the first graduate guitarist and master of guitar in Montenegro, and the first doctor of performing arts - field of classical guitar.

As the first educated guitarist in Montenegro, in 1984 he founded the Guitar Department at the "Vasa Pavić" secondary music school in Podgorica, and he also initiated the opening of the Guitar Department at the Music Academy in Cetinje in 2000, where he worked as a professor until 2013. .

He is the author of several guitar books, and he performed in a duet with Darko Nikčević in New York, at Carnegie Hall.

The duo Bulatović-Nikčević released the compact disc "Peninsula" last year for one of the leading classical music publishing houses in the world - Naxos Records.

The disc contains 17 original compositions, which the authors played, recorded and produced in Montenegro.

In addition to that CD, they also released two single releases - "Longing" and "Balada", in the spirit of ethno-motive of Montenegro, at the same publishing house.