Impromptu - Ivan Stefanovic

The Stefanovic family, clockwise from top left: Jennifer, Luka, 9, Ivan, Sebastian, 12 and Tristan, 4.

Impromptu - September 2009
photo by Kirsten Beckerman

IVAN STEFANOVIC WAS JUST 16 when he left his home in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia), to enroll at the Cleveland Institute of Music. But the BSO's assistant principal second violin was no stranger to American culture. The son of an Associated Press bureau chief and an amateur singer, he grew up watching “McCloud” on TV and eating barbecue at July 4 picnics at the American Embassy. By the time he arrived in the United States in 1986, the young violinist felt a sense of belonging almost immediately. “This country is the only country that succeeds in making people feel like they belong no matter where they are from,” he says.

One month before completing his degree, Stefanovic landed a position with the BSO. He went home to Belgrade for the holidays and moved to Baltimore on New Year’s Eve 1990. He remembers standing on a promenade at the Inner Harbor with his fianceé Jennifer watching the holiday fireworks light up the sky, excited about his new job and his new city. “I felt like I was on a cloud,” he says. After moving to Baltimore, he could have never have imagined that it would be nearly two decades before he would return home again.

War broke out in Yugoslavia that spring and Stefanovic, who left for school before serving his one year of required military service, couldn’t go back because he would be prohibited from leaving the country until he had completed his military service. Again and again he applied for an exemption. Years passed without success. Stefanovic and his wife had a son, then another and a third. One day he realized the Serbian he spoke with his parents and two sisters began to come less easily to him. Worried that he was losing touch with his heritage, Stefanovic made a commitment to teach his children the language of his homeland. “It required an enormous amount of persistence, but it was important to me,” he says. “I had to keep those roots.”

Two summers ago, after winning his case, Stefanovic returned to Belgrade for the first time in 16 years. “It was wonderful to be home,” he says. The sweetest part of the visit? “The many compliments I received about how well my sons spoke Serbian.” — Maria Blackburn

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