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When music major Viktorija Knezevic selected a piece for her senior piano recital, Sergei Prokofiev was a natural choice. The Russian master is her favorite composer, and because of Knezevics own personal experience with the harsh realities of war and displacement as a Bosnian refugee, he is an artist she is especially suited to understanding and interpreting.

Prokofiev is both very mellow and gets very messy, Knezevic says. He described the real life in Russia during a time of war. It is like what my family went through living in a place that was not our home, but we had to try to make it be our home. Thats why I love his music.

Paul Orgel, an adjunct faculty member in UVMs Music Department, has worked extensively with Knezevic during her years at the university. Her graduation recital, which featured Prokofievs Piano Sonata No. 4 in C Minor among other works, was an outstanding performance that Orgel calls the best he has ever heard at UVM. Her piano playing is distinguished by intensity, technical polish, and increasingly, by color and variety of sound, Orgel says.

From Bosnia to Burlington
It has been a long journey for the Knezevic family to the proud moment of that recital and this springs commencement ceremony, when Viktorija and her brother, Zeljko (a major in German and political science and the top player on the UVM tennis team) will both graduate. In 1991, Viktorija was 11 years old when she, Zeljko, and her parents traveled to Germany to visit their grandmother, who was ill. War broke out in Bosnia while the family was out of the country, and they were suddenly refugees. An unsettled eight-year existence in Germany followed, their stay regulated by a series of six-month visas.

In the midst of this difficult life, where she faced discrimination as a refugee and eastern European, music was a constant and a comfort for the young pianist. She continued the piano study shed begun at age 6 and was on the verge of an important national competition when immigration matters forced the familys abrupt move to the United States. Another difficult period followed as Knezevic dealt with a second transition to a new country, new culture, and a sense of loss from missing the opportunity to compete in the much-anticipated German competition. All of a sudden it was just gone, she says. It was hard.

Even harder, the Knezevics lacked the money for a piano, not to mention the space in their small Old North End apartment. Life began to look up when Betsy Greene, a music teacher in the Burlington schools, welcomed Knezevic to play the piano at H.O. Wheeler Elementary. Workhorse public school pianos should all get such moments of glory, some Prokofiev to balance the years of Chopsticks. Deeply impressed by what she heard, Greene quickly introduced Knezevic to her friend Paul Orgel.

To hear both student and teacher describe it, Knezevics technical skills were strong when she began study with Orgel, but lacked for expression. I think Viktorija has moved from a very mechanical and somewhat stiff approach to a more thoughtful, artistic way of looking at music, Orgel says.

For her part, Knezevic says she recently listened to a tape of a performance made near the end of her years in Germany. It sounds like Im too scared to give anything, she says and credits Orgel for helping her to improve in this critical way. Paul tells me, You dont have to be scared. Give yourself. That is how you make music. I am not afraid to be what I am, and thats a great feeling.

Hard work and support
But Orgel also counts himself among the loyal subscribers to the truism that making great music is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration. From the day he met her, Knezevic knew the importance of long hours of focused practice. On a fairly typical recent day, Knezevic put in eight hours at her job at the Clarion Hotel followed by a 10:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. practice session in a tiny Southwick Building practice room. Some people like to read for hours and hours, I like to practice, she says, shrugging.

That regimen figures to increase next fall when Knezevic plans to begin study at the New England Conservatory in Boston. Though performing and teaching piano are clear life goals, entering the conservatory was a difficult choice for Knezevic as she balanced taking on more tuition debt against the option of working to help her family.

It is not an easy decision to make. I could stay here and help my parents and help them have a better life. Everything theyve done has been for us, not for them, Knezevic says.

Her father, Zvonko, was a bookeeper in Bosnia; her mother, Vlatka, an electrical engineer. Language and cultural barriers have made it difficult for both of them to work in their professions in the U.S., but theyve put together multiple jobs to help support Viktorija and brother Zeljko, who is an honors student with plans for law school.

Zvonko Knezevic, who played bass in jazz bands in Bosnia, has been a steady source of encouragement for his daughters musical aspirations, including the major step ahead. Shell join a talented class of students at the conservatory, but Viktorija Knezevic welcomes the stiff competition. Looking back on her earliest years in music, she recalls that her first motivation was earning the honor of playing last, the slot that went to the best musician in groups at recitals. Years and worlds removed from that beginning in Bosnia, the rewards are different but Knezevics desire to excel remains the same.

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