Biljana Brun Dies, Funeral Set for Wednesday

Children’s choir conductor and lyricist Biljana Brun has died, according to news that surfaced in Serbian media on Monday, August 3. Her longtime collaborator Leontina Vukomanovic announced the farewell details on Instagram.

The funeral will be held Wednesday, August 5, at 9 a.m. The venue is the cremation chapel at Novo Groblje in Belgrade.

The Choir She Led With Leontina

For years, Biljana Brun conducted a children’s choir she ran together with Leontina Vukomanovic. Generations of Belgrade children passed through that choir.

That is why people who knew her only through their children are among those saying goodbye now. TV host Vesna Dedic posted a message mentioning her daughter Lenka.

A final farewell to Biljana Brun. Leading the choir with Leontina, she shaped my Lenka’s upbringing. Thank you. Forever in my heart.

The message was shared on social media, along with other reactions that came in throughout Monday.

A Voice From Cartoons, and Lyrics for Disney

The other side of her work was heard by audiences who never learned whose voice it was. Biljana Brun worked in dubbing, lending her voice to characters in numerous animated films.

Starting in 2016, she also wrote lyrics for Disney animated films’ musical numbers. It is a job credited in a single line in the closing titles, yet heard by every child who turns on a Serbian dubbed cartoon at home.

In short, three strands of the same craft:

• conducting a children’s choir, together with Leontina Vukomanovic
• voice acting and dubbing for animated films
• writing lyrics for Disney titles, since 2016

Dubbing has long been a trade of a small circle of people in Serbia. The same names rotated through dozens of titles, studio to studio, without a single headline in the papers. The public usually learns their names only at the end, when one of them is gone. That is also why this news has caught so many more people off guard than the volume of earlier coverage about her would suggest.

When and Where Is the Farewell for Biljana Brun?

The farewell is Wednesday, August 5, at 9 a.m. at Novo Groblje in Belgrade, at the cremation chapel. Leontina Vukomanovic asked in her post that friends arrive somewhat earlier than that time.

We are informing friends that the funeral and farewell for our dear Biljana will be held Wednesday, August 5, at 9 a.m. at Novo Groblje, the cremation chapel. Please arrive a few minutes early to offer condolences to the family.

The request concerns offering condolences to the family before the service begins. The cremation chapel at Novo Groblje is the customary place for farewells when a family chooses cremation, and the schedule there is kept strictly.

A Family in the Same Trade

Biljana Brun is survived by two children. Nikola and Iva Brun also work in dubbing.

That detail is more than a family footnote. The work she did continues in the same household, carried on by people who learned it from her. In a trade where little gets written down, that is the most concrete trace she left behind.

The choir’s future remains an open question. For years it was a duo, her and Leontina Vukomanovic, and no post so far has said what comes next.

News of Biljana Brun’s death was reported by Serbian outlets on Monday afternoon, with most reactions coming from colleagues in dubbing and from parents of children who sang in the choir. Aside from the notice about the funeral date, no official statement from the family has been issued so far.