Manja Ristić, born in Belgrade in 1979, is a violinist, sound artist, published poet, curator, and researcher. She graduated from the Belgrade Academy of Music in 2001 and received her PGDip Solo/Ensemble Recitalist from the Royal College of Music, London, in 2004. As a classical solo and chamber musician, as well as a composer and improviser, she has performed across Europe, and North America, collaborating with established conductors, performers, multimedia artists, poets, and theatre/film directors.
Ristić's sound-related research, beyond contemporary performance in the field of instrumental electro-acoustics, focuses on interdisciplinary approaches to sound, field recording, and experimental radio arts.
She has created commissions for ORF musikprotokoll, Radiophrenia, Radio Art Zone, Kunstradio – Radiokunst, Radio Cona, Semi-Silent, Radia.FM, Framework Radio, REVEIL Soundcamp, national broadcasting agencies across SE Europe, and many independent media platforms. She co-curated sonoAdriatic Tales at Ars Electronica 2020 and has curated and developed numerous cultural events, international projects, cultural conferences, and educational platforms over the last 20 years. These include inter-media, experimental sound-related arts, scene, and multimedia arts.
Ristić has received several awards for solo and chamber classical music, including the Academy Charles Cros Sélection Musiques Expérimentales 2024, an honorable mention from the Phonurgia Nova Awards, and a Golden Award for extended media from the Association of Fine Artists of Serbia. She is a founding member of CENSE – Central European Network for Sonic Ecologies.
In the last decade, Ristić has published sound art independently and through labels and publishing bodies such as LINE, Skupina, Unfathomless, Okla Records, tsss tapes, Kamizdat, DASA tapes, Objects & Sounds, Unfathomless, mappa, Verdure Engraved, Troublesome House, Cona Zavod, Naviar Records, Flag Day Recordings, Framework Seasonal, Inexhaustible Editions, Elan Vital Recordings, Radio Art Zone, SIRR-ECORDS, Sonospace, Cities & Memories, Auropolis, UIII / AIIR, 20 Seconds Art Magazine, AMPLIFY 2020, and sonic matter.
Manja has contributed to several independent dance, theatre, and movie productions as an author, composer, and performer, including "The Deserters" by Damir Markovina, "Mašina" by Bojana Robinson, "Prekrasna" by Collective Fourhanded, "The Tempest of Neptune" by Katarina Stanković, "Munje" by R. Andrić, "Between Dream and Dream" by M. Stojnić, "Life of Lenka Reinerova Mnemosyne the Theater of Memories" by M. Ristić / S. Leboš, "Penumbra" by G. Hudson, "Tale of the Forbidden Flower" by B. Lyregaard, "Red Coats" by D. J. Duncan, "Some Alaska" by H. Pinter, "Judith" by H. Barker, "Nose" by N. Gogol, "Midsummer Night Dream" by W. Shakespeare, "Mansion Beckett" by S. Beckett, and "Oxygen" by I. Viripaev.
She currently works and lives on the island of Korčula, Croatia.