Background Zdravković was born in Belgrade in the family of a railroad clerk Dušan and his wife Živka, née Stanišić.
(One version of this tragic event describes Živka setting the fire to a stove where her husband had previously hidden a hand grenade brought for the battle field).
Thus, Gika spent his early childhood in Kruševac raised by his paternal grandparents while his father was fighting in the Great War and later taken into the German captivity.
As a matter of fact I think that music had no place whatsoever in my home... My father had quite a different idea about my upbringing and future career.
I had performed the piece many times..." (Excerpts from the book "Živojin Zdravković i zlatna epoha Beogradske filharmonije", Ikonomova, V, 1999 – free English translation B.Z).