Branko Džinović is an accordionist, improviser, and composer. Concert reviewers have called him “a dangerously active volcano” (Austrian Kronen Zeutung) and described his playing as “ingenious” (Neues Volksblatt). He was Grand Prize winner at the 2001 Accordion World Cup in London, UK; he won the 2004 Das Podium in Linz and the 2013 DMA Recital Competition at the University of Toronto— both of which are open to all instrumentalists.
An artist with a strong interest in contemporary music, Džinović has collaborated with such prominent contemporary composers as Per Nørgård, Salvatore Sciarrino, and Philippe Leroux. He has worked with some of the finest improvisers of today, including Mia Zabelka, Johannes Frisch, Sainkho Namtchylak, and also traditional music artists such as Svetlana Spajić, known for her collaboration with Marina Abramović and Robert Wilson (“The Life and Death of Marina Abramović”). In 2017, he was selected for a residency at the Banff Centre with New York’s International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), where he worked with Tyshawn Sorey on the performance of his “Autoschediasms.”
He has performed with such esteemed Canadian chamber music ensembles as The Array Ensemble, New Music Concerts, and TorQ Percussion Quartet. In 2016, he performed an on-stage role as accordionist in the National Ballet of Canada’s “The Winter’s Tale” in its North American premiere and tour.
Džinović holds a Master’s degree from the Anton Bruckner Private University for Music, Drama, and Dance in Linz (MA, 2008) and a Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA, 2017) in performance from the University of Toronto, where he studied with Joseph Macerollo, O.C. His doctoral thesis, “The Composer-Performer Interrelationship in the Bayan and Accordion Compositions of Sofia Gubaidulina,” examines the creative dialogues between Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina and international performers that have yielded some of the most important works for accordion.
Džinović also frequently co-produces and composes for other artists; he composed the soundtracks for two award-winning short films Tata Morgana (2008) and Daddy’s Pride (2012). In 2010 he worked on “Phonart,” a cross-cultural project supported by the European Union which aimed to connect traditional and contemporary artists from Central and Eastern European countries. Džinović has recorded for Radio Belgrade, Radio Austria 1, and the BBC. As a soloist and a chamber musician, he has toured in the United States, Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, and the Czech Republic.