Globalisation and Musical Identity: The Reception of Serbian Émigré Composers in the United States

Abstract

Following the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s and the subsequent international economic sanctions imposed against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia that lasted until the early 2000s, a substantial number of Serbian composers emigrated to the United States. While this mass exodus of composers and academics had a devastating effect on Serbian cultural life, such a shift, enabled by globalisation and commodification of music, created an interest in Serbian music and culture with American audiences. That is, Serbian émigré composers who fled Yugoslavia during the war conflict conveyed their Serbian identity musically by incorporating certain folk elements. This article examines the unique ways in which select Serbian composers––Aleksandra Vrebalov, Milica Paranosic, and Natasha Bogojevich––integrated their Serbian/Yugoslav background within American multicultural society. More specifically, the article examines the effect of the infusion of Serbian motives in the works of these composers from the perspective of globalisation and commodification in the formation of their émigré Serbian musical identity.