The University of Minnesota School of Music will celebrate the life of Mirjana "Minja" Lausevic, in a service at the Cedar Cultural Center on Saturday, October 13, 2007 at 12:30 p.m.

Mirjana Lausevic, Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology, both lived and studied her subject. Lausevic was born and raised in the multi-ethnic city of Sarajevo in the former Yugoslavia. She earned her bachelor's degree in Musicology-Ethnomusicology from Sarajevo University in 1988. Much of her research since that time examined how music has helped both unite and divide ethnic groups in her native Balkans.

Lausevic earned her master's degree (in 1993) and doctorate (in 1998) in ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University. She published numerous articles based on her fieldwork in the towns and countryside of Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia and the United States.

Lausevic enjoyed performing music as well as studying it. She once led a traditional Bosnian vocal group named Yu-Etno. In New England, she sang and played keyboard with her group Zabe i Babe, which recorded the compact disc /Drumovi /(Bison Publishing) and was featured on public television's /Exploring Worlds of Music/ series. She used this performing experience at the School of Music by organizing world music concerts and by exploring how to integrate the University and the community through music.

The School of Music is saddened by Minja's passing on Sunday, July 15, 2007. Our thoughts remain with her husband, Tim Eriksen, and her children, Luka and Anja Eriksen. Through Tim she has conveyed her great love to her dear friends, and the wish that she be remembered for her life and not her passing.