Marina Džukljev (1983) is a pianist, educator and active performer in the fields of free improvisation, classical, contemporary and applied music.
Born in Novi Sad (SRB), she started to play the piano at the age of 7, and graduated classical piano at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad with prof. Vladimir Ogarkov (former student and assistant of legendary pianist Emil Gilels).
During her education she won many national and international prizes as a soloist and as a chamber musician in Serbia and abroad.
After finishing her studies, she devoted herself to contemporary and free improvised music, firstly with the Szilard Mezei ensembles.
Marina collaborates with a wide range of musicians and multimedia artists such as Dieb13, Jonas Kocher, Jasper Stadhouders, Joel Grip, Michael Thieke, Noid, Vasco Trilla, John Dikeman, Isabelle Duthoit, Tristan Honsinger, Korhan Erel, Franz Hautzinger, Biliana Voutchkova, Chris Pitsiokos, Hans Koch, Christof Kurzmann, Ilia Belorukov, Leonel Kaplan, Szilard Mezei, Linda Scharrock, Ute Wassermann, Tony Buck, Carl Ludwig Hubsch, Richard Barrett and many others.
Džukljev is a member of the quartet, septet, tentet and the large ensemble of the composer and violist Szilard Mezei, with whom she has recorded and published music over many years.
She is also an active member of duos Noid & Marina Džukljev, dieb13/Marina Džukljev, Raed Yassin/ Marina Džukljev Thieke/ Džukljev, Belorukov / Džukljev duo, MRM trio, Flowers we are… (w/Schellander and Noid), Weber/ Griener/ Džukljev trio, quartets: TiTiTi (SI), Barrett/ Džukljev/ Voutchkova/ Zarić quartet and was a member of international ensemble Šalter, to name a few.
In each project, Marina is fully dedicated to the quest for new sonoric capabilities of piano playing and a non-traditional approach, by using the extended techniques of instrument playing in a genuine and inventive way. The unity of wide spectrum of expressive elements can be heard in her music: abstract, experimental, free jazz - all are embraced by the heritage of history of pianism.
Džukljev performs solo and with a variety of ensembles at prominent festivals such as Konfrontationen (Nickelsdorf), Hagenfesten (Dala Floda), Ring Ring (Belgrade), Showroom of Contemporary sound (Zagreb), Sound Disobedience (Ljubljana), Kultursommer (Wien), Jazz Cerkno (SI), Just Music (Wiesbaden), Sine Linea (Zagreb), Pohoda (Slovakia), Gibanica – Slovenian Biennale of Contemporary Dance, Kanjiza jazz festival (SRB), V:NM (Graz), STIO (Graz), Sajeta (SI), Ispod bine (HR), Audio Art (HR) and in various venues in Berlin, Stockholm, Wels, Vienna, Budapest, Lisbon, Coimbra, Ljubljana, Biel, Basel, Bratislava, Malmö and all over Serbia and the region.
Her music was broadcast on National Radio Stations in Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria and Sweden, Canada, Washington DC.
As a sideman, as well as an author, she released music for labels: Leo records (UK), FMR records (UK), Klopotec (SI), Interstellar records (AT), WMAS (SRB), Slam Production (UK), Inexhaustible Editions (SI/HU), kuda.org, etc.
Marina was involved in numerous multimedia and interdisciplinary projects collaborating with different productions and directors from Serbia and Hungary, by being part of a Radio play w/ Tristan Honsinger and Joel Grip (Radio Belgrade), a theater play of Bara Kolenc in Ljubljana (SI), Bratko Bibich Invisible orchestra of traveling cinema, choreographer Denes Dobrei, and has been playing live music for experimental films in Belgrade. She regularly collaborates with visual and new-media artists from Berlin, Ljubljana, Belgrade, Budapest, Vienna, Zagreb…
Her work was included as a part of sound exhibitions in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Novi Sad and in galleries in Belgrade and Berlin.
Over many years, Džukljev worked as a promoter, activist, organizer, and producer by organizing a large number of music workshops, concerts, lectures, and festivals of improvised, experimental music and contemporary academic music. She led the workshops for Improvised music in Slovenia, Serbia, Germany and Hungary.
For more than 10 years, Marina has been the curator and organizer of Improstor – an improvised music concert series and was a co-curator and organizer of Festival in Opposition and Festival of New Music Interzone, in her hometown Novi Sad.