
Julijana Baštić (Jovanović), an ethnomusicologist, tambura player, and mother, was born in Novi Sad in 1988. She had her first contact with music and the tambura at the age of eight, enrolling in the Josip Slavenski Elementary Music School, where she completed the E-prim tambura program in the class of Galina Subotin. She continued her education at the Isidor Bajić Secondary Music School in Novi Sad, completing two programs – theoretical and vocal-instrumental (E-prim tambura).
During this period, she actively played in the tambura orchestras of FA Vila SKUD Železničar and Vasa Jovanović, frequently performing throughout the country and abroad. She participated in prestigious competitions in Serbia where the E-prim tambura category is represented (Republic Competition, Festival of Music Schools of Serbia, Festival of Artistic Tambura, etc.) and won first prizes. In 2008 and 2009, she worked at the Stevan Hristić Elementary Music School in Bačka Palanka, and from 2010 to 2018 at the Josip Slavenski Elementary Music School as a tambura teacher. She worked at KIC Mladost in Futog, KUD Stevan Mokranjac in Kać, and KUD Svetozar Marković in Novi Sad as an artistic director of tambura orchestras.
She collaborated several times with the FA Vila tambura orchestra as a conductor, with notable performances in Russia and participation in the Festival of Slavic Music in Moscow in 2017.
She actively plays in the tambura ensemble La Banda. In addition to playing the tambura, her professional interest extends to the field of ethnomusicology.
She completed her undergraduate and master's academic studies in Ethnomusicology at the Academy of Arts of the University of Novi Sad in the class of Nice Fracilea, and is currently pursuing doctoral academic studies at the Faculty of Music Arts of the University of Arts in Belgrade.
Her scholarly interests are based on researching tambura practice in Vojvodina, through the prism of the relationship between music, space, identity, and ideology.
She published the book "Playing and Musical Tradition of Macedonians in Kačarevo" (co-author Goran Milošev, Pančevo 2017) and several studies in proceedings from scientific symposia and congresses.
Since 2018, she has been working at the Academy of Arts of the University of Novi Sad as an assistant in Ethnomusicology. As part of the ethnomusicology practicum, she was responsible for working with the tambura orchestra.
She has been a member of the Executive Board of the Association of Tambura Societies of Vojvodina since 2019 and the World Music Association of Serbia, and occasionally writes critiques and reviews for the Etnoumlje magazine.
She has participated several times in the work of juries at the Festival of Artistic Tambura and the Licidersko srce children's tambura song festival.