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Ivan Ilic
           conductor,
           trombone

Ivan Ilic, conductor, composer, arranger, trombonist, was born on March 7^th, 1972 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia where he completed his elementary and high school musical training majoring in trombone and music theory.  In 1992 he received a professional diploma in Commercial Arranging with honors from Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA.  (Graduated 4-year program in 2 years).  After moving to Canada from the US he concentrates his musical energy on teaching and band-leading various groups throughout Southern Ontario.  Moving to Belgrade in December of 1998 he continues his long lasting cooperation with the Big Band of RTS (since 1988).
Since December 2001, Ivan is working as a conductor of the Big Band of RTS, often featured as a composer, arranger and trombone soloist, leading the band through numerous recordings, TV shows, concerts and tours.
Ivan has performed, recorded, written for and/or conducted the Big Band with many international and domestic jazz and popular music artists.
An active performer, Ivan appeared on many international music festivals around the globe and appears on numerous recordings with various artists from all walks of musical life.
Ivan has also written music for theater, video productions, musical theater plays and a film score.

Ivan Ilić is the Conductor of the Big Band RTS and the President of the Serbian Association of Jazz, Pop and Rock Musicians.

Big Band RTS members:

Aleksandar Jacimovic, lead alto sax

Zoran Raskovic, alto sax

Ljubisa Paunic, tenor sax

Kristijan Mlacak, tenor sax

Tihomir Jaksic, baritone sax

Dragoslav „Freddie“ Stanisavljevic, lead trumpet

Marko Djordjevic, trumpet

Vladimir Krnetic, trumpet

Draganco Ristevski, trumpet

Novak Mijovic, trumpet

Igor Ilic, lead trombone

Aleksandar Marinkovic, trombone

Milos Radonjic, trombone

Ivan Platner, bass trombone

Goran Potic, guitar

Ivan Aleksijevic, piano

Branko Markovic, contrabass

Petar Radmilovic, drums

Slobodan Bozanic, bass guitar

Milan Komnenic, keyboards

Miodrag Maljokovic, drums & percussions

Jelena Jovovic, Producer & Manager

Bozidar Gavrilovic, assistant manager

Milan Brkic, assistant manager

 BIG BAND RTS

            Was founded in January 1948, under the name of Orchestra for Light Music. At the very beginning it worked together with the string so that in April of the same year it started to perform in live shows (for there were no tape recorders) in Radio Belgrade programmes. In 1954, the Orchestra was separated from the strings and it became RTS Big Band, having the form it has today. Troughout the years it was led by the two most famous Yugoslav conductors and composers-arrangers: Vojislav Bubiša Simić and Zvonimir Skerl.

            During 55 years of its work, band won numerous prizes. It was in 1960, that it won as a completely unknown orchestra, first prize in Juan le Pins Jazz Festival. After it's first tour in 1957, the Band had concerts in almost all European countries and in many jazz festivals, it performed at several UNICEF concerts (in Belgrade, Paris and Geneva) and always had exceptional reviews.

            Troughout the years the Band cooperated with many eminent jazz musicians as Clark Terry, Benny Golson, Ray Charles, Johnny Griffin, Maynard Ferguson, Tony Scott, Nathan Davies, Don Byas, Ed Thigpen, Jerome Richardson, Larry Vuckovich, Ernie Wilkins, Kenny Drew, Philly Jo Jones, Thad Jones, Sal Nistico, Alvin Queen, Reggie Johnson, Eddie Henderson, Shawnn Monteiro, Hank Mobley, Aladar Pege, Jon Hendricks, Roy Hargroove, Brad Lealy, Diane Schuur, Ack Van Rooyen, Peter Herbolzheimer, Don Menza, Wilson de Oliveira, Jens Winter, Jesse Davis, Steve Gut, Joe Mikovich, Dusko Goykovich,... and it also accompanied famous show-business stars as Danny Kay, Josephine Baker, Mireille Mathieu, Enrico Massias, Frida Lungstad(ABBA) etc.

            The RTS Big Band had large number of performances in all the towns and jazz festivals of former Yugoslavia. All the Serbian jazz musicians originate from the Band and they became famous all over the Europe(Steve Gut, Mile Pavlovich, Bora Rokovich, Joe Mikovich,Dusko Goykovich). In the last few years, the generation which the Band began to work with was succeeded by a whole pleiad of young musicians who are at their ascent.

            RTS Big Band has many works of classic big band music in its repertoire C.Basie, D.Ellington, G.Miller, T.Jones, E.Wilkins, C.Terry, D.Gillespie, L.Brown, B.Maye, T.Akiroshi, B.Mintzer, B.Brookmeyer, B.Holman and many other composers/arrangers.

            At the same time, the Band has a large number of evergreen and movie music as well as dance music arrangements. Very often it performs on various celebrations and balls.

            The Band also has a rich experience of jazz compositions written on ethno-themes from our cultural inheritance which has been accepted with great interest by the audience.

BIG BAND RTS
Phone: (+381 11) 323 33 20
Fax: (+381 11) 323 33 20
e-mail:  bigband@rts.co.yu