ArtLink Festival: Closing CONCERT – István Várdai, cello, Hungary, Petar Pejčić, cello, Serbia, Ljubica Marić Chamber Orchestra

Written on October 16, 2016.

Belgrade Philharmonic Hall,
Studentski square 11,
Sunday, 16 October 2016 at 20:00h

ArtLink Young Talents’ Festival 2016

This concert is a part of the Festival’s “Focus Visegrad” segment and the Balkan-Visegrad Cultural Bridge project supported by the International Visegrad Fund.

István Várdai, cello, Hungary

István Várdai, the 30-year-old Hungarian cellist, was honoured with several prestigious international prizes: in 2008 he won the 63^rd Geneva International Music Competition, as well additional special prizes: Audience Prize, “Pierre Fournier” Prize, “Coup de Coeur Breguet” Prize. He took the third prize of the International Tchaikovsky Music Competition, Moscow in 2007. In 2006 he was awarded the special prize of the Emanuel Feuermann Cello Competition at the Kronberg Academy and received the first prize at the 13^th International Brahms Competition in Austria. He was the winner of the David Popper International Music Competition three times (2000, 2003, 2004). In 2014 he won the prestigious ARD Competition in Munich.

Since his debut concert in 1997 in The Hague, he has performed in New York, London, Paris, Prague, Vienna, Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin, Geneva, Dublin, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Florence, Tokyo, Kobe, Beijing with great success. Along his starting career, he played with world-famous musicians and orchestras: Mikhail Pletnov, Ádám Fischer, Zoltán Kocsis, Howard Griffiths, Gilbert Varga, St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Geneva Chamber Orchestra, Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Suisse Romande Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, American Symphony Orchestra. He has been invited to Santander Festival, the Gergiev Festival in St. Petersburg, the Pablo Casals Festival (Spain), Festival of Radio France (Montpellier), Bellerive Festival (Switzerland), Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Verbier Festival, West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Schwetzingen Festival and the Budapest Spring Festival. His chamber music partners include András Schiff, Yuri Bashmet, Gidon Kremer, Nelson Goerner, Yura Lee, Shai Wosner, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Alexander Sitkovetsky, Mischa Maisky, Kristóf Baráti, Dénes Várjon, to mention just a few.

From 2004 István studied in the Class of Special Talents at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest (professor: László Mező), from 2005 at the Music Academy of Vienna (professor: Reinhard Latzko). Between 2010 and 2013 he continued his studies at the Kronberg Academy with Professor Frans Helmerson. From 2013 he is on the staff of the Academy. In the past years, he attended masterclasses of Natalia Gutman, Natalia Shakhovskaya, András Schiff and János Starker.

In 2009 he was awarded the Junior Prima Prize as a best young artist of the year, in 2012 he received the prestigious Prix Montblanc awarded to the world’s most promising young musician. His first CD containing pieces of Janáček, Prokofiev and the Elgar cello concerto was released in October 2009 by Ysaye Records. In 2010 he recorded the cello concerto of Johann Baptist Vanhal. On his CD released by the Hännsler label in 2013, he plays works by Mendelssohn, Martinu, Paganini, Beethoven and Popper. His CD with both versions of Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations was released in 2014 by Brilliant Classics. His recent CD (“Singing Cello” – Hungaroton) features famous encores.
He is, together with Kristóf Baráti, artistic director of the Kaposfest Chamber Music Festival in Hungary.

István Várdai plays a Montagnana cello from 1720.

Petar Pejčić, cello, Serbia

Petar Pejčić was born on 4 March 2002 to a family of musicians. He began playing the cello at the age of four, and is currently a third-year high-school student at the “Davorin Jenko” Music School in Belgrade, in the class of Prof. Judit Niderholcer Josifoska. Since 2008 he won the 1st prizes and was the laureate at competitions “Little Virtuoso” (2008 and 2009), “Dušan Protić Memorial” (2009 and 2010), Republic of Serbia Competition (2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016), “Petar Konjović” (2015), and Sremska Mitrovica Strings Festival (2015). At international competitions, Petar was the laureate of the “Alexander Glazunov” competition (Paris, 2010), “Liezen Cello Competition” in Austria (2nd Prize 2012), “Heran” in Czech Republic (3rd Prize in 2010, and 2nd Prize in 2015).

Peter held his first soloist concert at the age of nine in “Galerija 73” in Belgrade, followed by soloist concerts in Zrenjanin, Novi Sad and Belgrade (Academy of Sciences and Arts, National Theatre). He participated at the “Cello Fest” and took part in masterclasses by Ksenija Janković (Germany), David Starkweather (USA), Jan Vogler (Germany, USA), Istvàn Varga (Hungary), Dragan Đorđević (Serbia). He performed with the Chamber ensemble “Amoroso” (Leskovac), “Davorin Jenko” Music School Orchestra (Slovenia, Macedonia), and the “ArtLink Young Talents’ Orchestra” (Belgrade). Since 2014 he partakes in the “ArtLink – Société Générale Young Talents’ Music Cycle” in whose framework he participated in masterclasses by Jan Vogler, and performed as a soloist with chamber ensembles. During the summer of the same year, he took part in the work of the Orchestral camp at Bovec (Slovenia), where he performed Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” with conductor Ivan Meylemans (The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam). In 2015, together with the Artistic Ensemble “Stanislav Binički“ of the Serbian Ministry of Defence, he performed Saint-Saëns’s Cello Concerto in A minor, which was published on CD by the “Muzika klasika” magazine, and aired a couple of times by Radio Belgrade. In August 2015 he took part in the prestigious Moritzburg Festival (Dresden, Germany), in several chamber ensembles, in the work of the Academy Orchestra, and as a soloist, and his performance received very positive reviews from the German critics.

In 2016, Petar performed before the renowned soloists and members of the New York Philharmonic in New York, who deemed him one of the most promising young cellists of his generation. This summer he was an active participant at masterclasses in Bern (Switzerland) by Prof. P. Bruns, and Neuhardenberg (Germany) by Prof. J. Vogler, as well as of the Chamber Music Festival in Moritzburg (Germany), the second year in a row.

Currently, Petar is actively cooperating with Prof. Peter Bruns at University of Music and Theatre “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” in Leipzig, Germany.

“Ljubica Marić” Chamber Orchestra

Belgrade Chamber Orchestra “Ljubica Marić” was founded in 2006. Rade Pejčić is the Orchestra’s conductor and artistic leader. Since its founding in 2006, the Belgrade Chamber Orchestra “Ljubica Marić” performs regularly in Serbia and the Region, endeavouring in particular to promote young authors and their work to the broader audience.

The Orchestra gives special attention to the works by Serbian composers of all generations, beginning from the oldest and leading up to the youngest generation of current students of composition, whose works the Orchestra performs with particular enthusiasm in a desire to assist their swift affirmation nationally and abroad. The Orchestra partakes regularly at the International Review of Composers and KOMA Festival (Concerts of young authors). It also recorded the soundtrack for and appeared in the TV movie “Mask”, based on a drama by Miloš Crnjanski and produced by the Radio and Television of Serbia. The Orchestra made recordings of numerous works by Serbian and international modern composers for Radio Belgrade and Radio Novi Sad.

Members of the Orchestra achieve particularly important cooperation in the framework of the organisation of evenings of Serbian composers: Aleksandar Obradović, Dušan Radić, Isidora Žebeljan, Katarina Miljković, Nataša Bogojević, Dejan Despić, Svetlana Maksimović, Đura Živković, Mirijana Živković and others.

The Orchestra will soon be appearing in Sweden, Estonia and Finland, where it will feature young Serbian composers Božidar Obradinović, Milorad Marinković and Đura Živković.

Rade Pejčić, conductor, Serbia

Rade Pejčić began playing the violin at the age of seven in Leskovac, Serbia, where he completed the junior and middle school of music. He studied musicology at the Academy of Art in Novi Sad, and then took his B.A. and M.A. at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, where he currently resides.

His career includes working as assistant conductor with the Niš Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra and Choir of Radio and Television Belgrade, and from 2006 he works as the conductor and artistic leader of the Belgrade Chamber Orchestra “Ljubica Marić”.

He took an active part in masterclasses with Prof. David Porcelijn, Prof. Luc Keller, Prof. Peter Burwik, and Prof. Jorma Panula.

He performed with all leading orchestras in Serbia and the Region. Rade cooperated with prominent national and international conductors: David Porcelijn, Vladimir Kranjčević, Stanko Šepić, Andrija Pavlič, Walter Kobéra, Jordan Dafov and others. He cooperated with renowned soloists: Kiril Ribarski, Katarina Jovanović, Aneta Ilić, Lidija Stanković, Nataša Jović Trivić, Mladen Đorđević, Martajn Sanders, and others.

He worked on the preparation of Isidora Žebeljan’s “Marathon men” (Maratonci), which was made in coproduction with Bregenc Festival, Vienna Chamber Orchestra and Jugokoncert.

From 2010/2011 season he works as guest conductor of the National Theatre in Belgrade’s Opera, where he currently conducts Sergei Prokofiev’s “Love for Three Oranges”, directed by Jiří Menzel and Slobodan Đurović – a part of the regular repertoire, Don Marco Frisina’s “In hoc signo”, and also works on the preparation of Richard Wagner’ The Flying Dutchman, and W.A. Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro”.

In 2012 Rade Pejčić conducted the premiere performance of composer Branka Popović’s chamber opera “Petrograd”.