Artists · Bliss 2026

Vasil Hadžimanov

Persistent, ever-present, a musician of boundless energy and musicality, Vasil Hadžimanov — pianist, composer, arranger, and pedagogue — is an indispensable link in Serbian jazz from the late twentieth century and the beginning of the new millennium, a personality who carries within him a chain of genes from ancestors who each, in their own way, marked the musical spaces of the Balkans as an unbroken line of custodians, interpreters, and new voices of tradition. From the earliest lessons generously given to the young Vasil by the celebrated double bassist and composer Vojin Drašković, who patiently introduced him to the world of jazz, Hadžimanov has followed his own world of distinctive colours and sounds. After studying at Berklee College of Music, Hadžimanov returned home and soon founded his Vasil Hadžimanov Band, with which, as early as the nineties, he performed at clubs and at the now legendary Plato at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade. The band — whose original line-up included Igor Malešević, Vlada Samardžić, Goran Đorđević Sole, Branko Trijić, and Bojan Ivković — has undergone several sonic and organisational transformations, while remaining faithful to the principle that each member receives full support for individual expression. From the debut album 11 razloga za… (2001) through Can You Dig It? (2013) to Lines in Sand (2019) and Keyf (2023), Hadžimanov has consistently followed progressive sounds and fusions of musical directions that he successfully assembles into what we might today call world music. Beyond larger formations, he also performs in smaller ensembles — predominantly as a jazz trio — and is a full member of several groups, notably the Sveti Trio (with Marko Đorđević and Branko Trijić), the Toni Kitanovski Trio, the Bace Quartet, the Csaba Toth Bagi Balkan Union, and Theodossi Spassov, among others. Over his career, the Vasil Hadžimanov Band has released eight albums, many achieving impressive international reach and reviews. He has also released the trio albums El Raval (2011) and Melody Rhymes (2021). In 2016, the World Music Association of Serbia and the magazine Etnoumlje released a compilation CD marking 25 years of his work. Since 2011, Vasil has taught at the Music Academy in Štip (North Macedonia) as a visiting professor and head of the jazz piano department, and since 2021 at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad as an associate professor. He is also active in private teaching and numerous workshops, including the international project Tutti, in collaboration with the Norwegian Ministry of Culture. In 2015, he became the host of the music-educational TV series M Lab on RTV Vojvodina. That same year, he began his collaboration with pianist Bojan Zulfikarpašić; as a piano duo they have performed in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Banja Luka, and Paris to unanimous acclaim, releasing a live CD in December 2017. In 2016, he also began a collaboration with Croatian pianist Matija Dedić, and in 2022 all three came together as a piano trio in Novi Sad, European Capital of Culture. In Vasil's sound one perceives a constant desire for fusions, using, in his own words, Balkan motifs in a direct and sincere way. He also composes film music for documentary and feature films and television series. All of Vasil Hadžimanov's releases in Serbia have been declared works of cultural significance.