Jovana Backovic
Jovana is a Serbian composer based in Beckenham, best known for her cinematic style and her cat Mia which she regularly takes out for walks. Jovana finds inspiration in green, quiet spaces and people that surround her. Composers Bernard Herrmann and Basil Poledouris are Jovana’s biggest musical influences. She mainly composes music for theatre, as well as feature and documentary movies.
Jovana was born in Belgrade, Serbia where she graduated in classical composition from the Faculty of Music Art in 2006. While studying, she founded, composed for and led the ensemble ‘Arhai’, and their debut album ‘Mysterion’ was released in 2006 on the Serbian national label PGP. As a UK resident, she continued to create music under the name ArHai, moving toward solo performance using live electronics. When she moved to the U.K to complete her PhD, she began her collaboration with British folk guitarist and tambura-player Adrian Lever and developed the current live performance format that combines multilayered vocals with tambura, dulcimer, tarabuka and electronics (collaborative work generously supported by Arts Council England in 2013). Jovana completed her thesis at University of East Anglia in 2014, with the subject ‘Between Two Words: Approaching Balkan oral tradition through the use of technology as compositional and performance medium’. She is also a recipient of the Sound and Music C19 composers award (2021).
