CONCERT: Aron Chiesa, clarient and Nataša Šarčević, piano

Belgrade City Hall,
29 September at 20:00h

The 2nd ArtLink Young Talents’ Festival opens in Belgrade

A concert by two renowned musicians, Italian clarinettist Aron Chiesa and Serbian pianist Nataša Šarčević, opened the 2nd ArtLink Young Talents’ Festival at Belgrade City Hall in cooperation with the Italian Institute for Culture.

The Festival will continue until 11 October and will treat the audiences, in renowned concert venues in Belgrade and Novi Sad, to prominent and the up-and-coming young artists from Serbia, the Western Balkans region, France, and the Visegrad countries – Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary in a special Festival segment.

Aron Chiesa, clarinet (Italy)

Aron Chiesa was born in 1996 and began studying music at a very young age in Rome, his city of birth. There, he began his clarinet studies with Calogero Palermo (first clarinettist at Concertgebauw Amsterdam). His work with Mr Palermo has included both musical and instrumental instruction, in a course of study that continues to this day. Aron has also studied piano with Tonino Riolo.

Entering at the top of his class at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia di Roma, he studied for two years at the Roman conservatory and transferred to the “Briccialdi” conservatory in Terni in 2011, where he studied with Paolo Venturi and where he graduated cum laude and with an honourable mention in 2013.  In June/July 2015 he took his degree at Liceo Classico B.Russell in Rome.

Through the years, Aron received various first prizes at international competitions such as “Rovere d’Oro” in Imperia, “Benedetto Albanese” in Caccamo (Palermo), “Giuseppe Tassis” in Bergamo at Carlino (Udine), in Assisi he won a special prize from the jury.

He participated in various masterclasses in Palermo, Riccione, Assisi, Palena, Reggio Calabria, Riva del Garda, Narni, Napoli, Bari and Caccamo, performing with success in the various final concerts of these events. He has also performed with the “Ensemble, Nehar Shalom” for the Day of Memory in 2008, 2009 and 2010, and at various other occasions, such as playing live on television in the church “Santa Croce in Gerusalemme” in Rome for RAI’s TV cycle “The Bible Day and Night,” whose recording was reproduced on CD and DVD. Aron has also performed with his violinist brother Elia and with the pianist Michelangelo Carbonara. Together, they played at a charity concert in support of a school that had been destroyed by an earthquake in San Giorgio nei Vestini in Abruzzo.

He has done important recitals at the Abbey of Fossanova, in Bracciano, Torino, Rovereto, Rome, Terni and other cities. He recorded the soundtrack for the play “Marked by God” by Renato Chiesa, which was recorded at the studios of RAI-Televisione Italiana in Trent. In 2011 he played as a soloist in Terni, for the “Eventi Valentiniani” series, with the Orchestra Musiches Gymnasium Salzburg, directed by Markus Obereder, in their “Concerto for clarinet” by Mozart, and in the “Concertino” by Weber. The concert was then repeated in Pescara. He also had an important role as a soloist in the incidental music by Renato Chiesa for the theatrical script “Myth and Love” with the Zandonai Ensemble, in its global premiere at the Santa Chiara Cultural Centre in Trent and at the “Teatro Stabile” in Bolzano.

He was a soloist in the complete execution of the “Concerto for Clarinet” by Mozart at the Teatro Nuovo in Spoleto with the International Orchestra of Rome, directed by Antonio Pantaneschi, at the final event of the “Year of Menotti.” Still, in 2012, Aron performed the “Introduction, Theme and Variations” for clarinet and orchestra by Rossini at the Teatro Secci in Terni. He also participated as a soloist, performing the “Ebony Concert” by Igor Stravinsky, at the inaugural concert of the 2013/2014 academic year at the Briccialdi Conservatory in Terni.

In the last years he participated in important international competitions: in 2012 Aron won the first prize in the junior category in the “Città di Carlino” competition, and in the same year he also won the scholarship from the Inner Wheel Association, then afterwards he won the First Price at National Contest “Giovani Musici di Roma” in the category Chamber Music together with Trio for Clarinet, Flute and Bassoon.

In October 2013 he was the first-prize winner of the wind instrument section of the National Prize for the Arts, sponsored by MIUR, the Ministry of Instruction, University and Research.

In 2015, he also got First Prize at the international competition “Czech Clarinet Art” in the senior category, where he performed in Prize giving Ceremony the “Concert for Clarinet of W. A. Mozart KV-622”. Furthermore, he also classified as the winner in April 2015 at “Ghent Clarinet Capital 2015” performing in the final concert the “Quintetto of Mozart K581” with Ciurlionis Quartet at the Royal Conservatory of Music and then also as a soloist with Brussels Philharmonic in “Concert n° 2 of Carl Maria von Weber”.

He has been a member of the Youth Orchestra of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, directed by Nicola Paszkowski and for summer 2015 he has been selected as a member of the EUYO Orchestra 2015/2016 at the European Union Youth Orchestra Leverhulme Summer School. Already in the first months of 2015, he has been offered a Full Scholarship to attend the prestigious Royal College of London.

Aron’s repertoire extends from the 1700s to contemporary music and includes the music of Stamitz, Hoffmeister, Mozart, Weber, Mercadante, Rossini, Donizetti, Spohr, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Strauss, Verio, Jean Francais, Debussy, Poulenc, Stravinsky, Nielsen, Bucchi, Shapira, and Renato Chiesa. Aron plays two refined “Tosca” model instruments from the French firm Buffet.

Nataša Šarčević, piano (Serbia)

Nataša Šarčević teaches at the London College of Music, University of West London. She studied at the renowned Specialist Music School “Stevan Mokranjac” and the University of Arts in Belgrade (FMU), the Hochschule fuer Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt and at the Royal College of Music in London, with professors Olga Jovanovic, Jokut Mihailovic, Lev Natochenny, Irina Zaritskaya, as well as working in masterclasses with Peter Katin, Dmitry Bashkirov, Bella Davidovich, Sergio Perticaroli and Cristina Ortiz, amongst others. Since the age of 12, she started winning numerous prizes in national competitions. At the age of 17 her recital in Belgrade, at the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences (Gallery SANU) was selected as one of the top ten concerts of the season by the critics of the prestigious NIN Magazine. A few months later she won first prizes in two international competitions in Italy within one week of each other, “Citta di Stresa” and “Carlo Soliva”, which resulted in an invitation for a concert tour. She also won the LCM “Beethoven Prize” and the “Victor Hoddy Prize” in London, respectively, the “Petar Konjovic Prize” and in her final year as a student the “Olga Mihailovic Prize” awarded by the Faculty of Music of the University of Arts in Belgrade as “the most talented student of her generation”. Nataša has since performed in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Holland, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Latvia, Russia and Brazil, as well as in the leading venues in the UK, such as the Wigmore Hall, St. John’s Smith Square, St. Martin’s in the Fields, Birmingham Fine Art Museum, at the Paxton House Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the London Arts Festival, to mention some. She also performed for the “Park Lane Group Monday Platform” at the Wigmore Hall, and gave concerts for the “Beethoven Society of Europe” and for EPTA UK, amongst others.

As a soloist she performed with the leading Serbian symphony orchestras: the Belgrade Philharmonic (Liszt and Tchaikovsky concertos), the Symphony Orchestra of the Serbian Radio and Television (Chopin Concerto no. 2, transmitted live on Radio Belgrade 1 on her 20th birthday). Her recitals have been recorded and transmitted on Slovenian, Serbian and Latvian Radio and TV.

Between 1994 and 1998 she held the post of Assistant Professor of Piano at the University of Arts in Belgrade. Since 2003 she has been associated with the London College of Music, the University of West London as an accompanist to the Strings Department, Chamber Music and Vocal Coach, and where she, since 2006 holds the post of Academic Lecturer of Piano, teaching students on BMus, MMus and Postgraduate Diploma in Piano Performance courses. She held master classes in Serbia, Slovenia, Latvia and over the last five years at the North London Piano School Summer Courses held at the Purcell School of Music. For the last three years, she worked with the “Mozart International Masterclasses” in Narni, Italy, which are held every August. She served as a jury member at the London International Music Competition as well as the Mozart Association sede di Terni Competition in Italy. She is also an artistic adviser to the London Arts Fest.