Vlastimir Pavlović Carevac

Vlastimir Pavlović Carevac (Serbian Cyrillic: Властимир Павловић Царевац; 9 October 1895 – 10 January 1965) was a Serbian violinist and conductor, and founder and director of the National Orchestra of Radio Belgrade.

Life

Pavlović graduated from Belgrade Law School and practiced the legal profession, but music was his first and true love. He was conductor of the KUD "Abrašević" and one of the first performers of folk music in the programs of Radio Belgrade.

He played violin for five decades. In his dedicated work on the preservation of Serbian musical heritage, he preserved a total of 3200 songs in his lifetime for posterity.^[1] Pavlović also composed many well-known tunes, of which the most famous was "Silk Thread".

Pavlović founded and directed the National Orchestra of Radio Belgrade until his death. He was an excellent teacher, teaching many singers and musicians.

He performed with great singers: Vule Jevtić, Danica Obrenić, Mile Bogdanović, Dobrivoje Vidosavljević, Miodrag Popović, Anđelija Milić, Ksenija Cicvarić, Saveta Sudar and many others. He set standards in the evaluation of folk music and was a symbol of the original interpretations of folk music.

Throughout the Second World War he was held in detention camps in Banjica and Dachau.

Legacy

In his memory, a music festival and violin contest called "Carevac's Days" has been held since 1995 in Veliko Gradište.^[1] There is also a statue of him there, which has been repeatedly vandalized: the statue is playing a violin, and the bow has been broken off by vandals and stolen.

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