Described by The New York Times as an “astonishingly good pianist,” Tatjana Rankovich has performed throughout the USA, Canada, Europe, Central and South America. Committed to continuously expanding the boundaries of the traditional repertoire, constantly searching for and discovering new contemporary music and devoting her interest to performing rarely heard works of the past, Tatjana Rankovich is the first pianist ever to play the First, Second and Third Piano Concertos of Nicolas Flagello, recording them with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine and the Slovak Philharmonic, which were released to unanimous praise and chosen for one of the five “best of the year” recordings numerous times by Fanfare magazine. These premiere recordings were described as “splendid” and “superb.” In his review (Classical Net, 2008), of the Naxos/Flagello Piano Concerto CD, Steve Schwartz writes: “… pianist Tatjana Rankovich, one of my favorite performers, who routinely takes risks on unknown repertoire. She undoubtedly knows like the back of her well-muscled hand the Russian school of piano writing Flagello makes use of. She plays with fiery power. At the end of the recording I, without giving it a thought, stood up. Imagine what she would do to a live audience.” She has recorded many other acclaimed discs for Phoenix USA, Naxos, Albany, Artek, Dezil, Citadel, and most recently, a highly praised 3-disk set of live recordings for IBOX. The review by Jerry Dubins of Fanfare Magazine (October, 2010) reads: “My long time favorite recording (of the Shostakovich Piano Concerto #1) has been the one with Argerich….But I think this version with Rankovich now takes pride of place. It’s quite stunning...”
Born in Belgrade, Serbia, a Fulbright Scholar and a laureate of numerous awards, she graduated from the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad before coming to the USA, where she earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Juilliard School and her Doctorate from Rutgers University. Her teachers and mentors were of the legendary Leschetizky and Liszt traditions of piano performance: Arbo Valdma, Josef Raieff, Clifton Matthews, Claude Frank, Daniel Epstein and Benjamin Kaplan. In 2008, Tatjana Rankovich was honored with a prestigious State Award, “Golden Badge,” which is awarded annually by the Serbian Ministry of Diaspora in Belgrade. More recently, she was a recipient of the prestigious Irene Alm Memorial Prize for excellence in performance and scholarly research at Rutgers University for her thesis: “Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto: the unpublished revisions and its Doppelgänger chamber versions.”
Besides her busy performing and teaching career, Tatjana Rankovich is affiliated with a non-profit organization Performance Wellness, which is dedicated to treating many of the psychological and behavioral problems (such as stage fright) that afflict musicians and other performers. She often leads Performance Wellness seminars and workshops at colleges and universities worldwide and she holds an Associate Professor position at The New School University in New York City, where she teaches a Performance Wellness Seminar course every fall semester.
Tatjana Rankovich has adjudicated at many international and national piano competitions including at the prestigious IKIF – International Keyboard Institute and Festival in NYC. A devoted educator, a frequent guest artists and lecturer, she holds a Visiting Professor of Piano position at the European Center for Peace and Development (ECPD) established by the United Nations, with headquarters in Belgrade. Committed to teaching students of all levels, she is on the Piano Faculty in the Preparatory Division at the Mannes College of Music in NYC. A Founding Executive and Artistic director of the Music & More SummerFest in Trebinje, Bosnia & Herzegovina – a raising star among international music festivals, Rankovich has most recently stepped into a position as Chairman and CEO of The Music and More Foundation, a non-profit organization in NYC, which is devoted to music education and the provision of scholarships for music students through education, performance and research projects.
Pianist Lidija Bizjak, laureate of the International Competition in Dublin in 2000, received the flattering title of “Rising Stars” of 2000/01 and performed at nine concerts as part of the tour of the same name - in New York (Carnegie Hall), in London (Wigmore Hall), in Vienna (Musikverein), in Amsterdam (Concertgebouw), in Paris (Cité de la Musique), in Athens, Cologne, Brussels and Birmingham. After winning the “Avant-scène” competition at the Paris Conservatory, she performed Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in the Cité de la Musique in Paris and Chopin’s Piano Concerto No.2 at the Festival in Lyon (France) during 2002. She has also participated in festivals such as Lockenhaus (Austria), Prasa-Kouvu (England), Rock d'Antheron, “La Folle Journée” in Nantes, Noan, Colmar, Périgord noir, Cassie, “Juventus” in Cambrai (France), Martin in Prague, Charlottesville (USA), Bemus…
She graduated and completed postgraduate studies at the Paris Conservatory with the First Prizes in piano (Jacques Rouvier) and chamber music (Maurice Burg), as well as at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade (A. Šandorov), and she won numerous awards at competitions for young pianists, as well as the October Award of the City of Belgrade, in primary and secondary school (class of Prof. Zlata Maleš). She was also the winner of the award for the best performance of Preludes by Milan Mihajlović at the interrupted Music Youth competition in Belgrade in March 1999.
She was perfecting herself with artists such as Murray Perahia, Leon Fleisher, Ferenc Rados, Arie Vardi, Aleksandar Lonkvić, Aldo Ciccolini, Christoph Richter, Ksenija Janković, Ajda Levin, Irena Grafenauer.
She has performed as a soloist with the Capitol Orchestra from Toulouse, the National Orchestra of France, and the French Radio Orchestra, the Orchestre de Picardie, the Britten Symphony, the Hong Kong Symphony, the Sinfonia Varsovia, the Stuttgart Philharmonic, the RTÉ Ireland Symphony Orchestra, Royal Strings of St. George and all symphony orchestras in Belgrade. French critics warmly received Lidija Bizjak’s first solo CD with sonatas by Schubert and Schumann (“Lyrinx”), awarding her with the “Diapason dé-couverte” accolade.
In 2002, she founded a piano duo with her sister Sanja, which soon achieved notable success, winning two special awards at the ARD competition in Munich in 2005 and a series of concerts in France, across Europe, Australia and Japan. In 2012, they released their first CD for the French record label «Mirare» with works of Stravinsky for 4 hands, which won the French Critics’ Award in the Télérama magazine. The same prestigious award of Télérama, as well as a great reception from English and Irish critics, was given to their latest CD, which was released in 2015 for the British house Onyx with concerts of Poulenc and Martinů for 2 pianos and orchestra with the Stuttgart Philharmonic and conductor Radoslav Schulz. Lidija Bizjak is also engaged in pedagogical work as a full professor at the Regional Conservatory of Normandy in Caen, then at the Conservatory of the 18th Arrondissement in Paris, and holds master classes at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, at the Music School «Kosta Manojlović» in Zemun and at the Music School «Petar Konjović» in Sombor.
“Lidija Bizjak finds the right balance between the beautiful and the austere, the hesitant and the determined, the symphonic and the purely pianistic, just as is the case with the greatest ones. Without excessive effects, without superficiality. Just music. And what kind of music!”
Jacques Drillon, Nouvel Observateur
“Lidija Bizjak’s piano sounds with a royal fullness, without roughness, with duration of sound that speaks enough that this young artist nurtures the love for her instrument as much as for the music she plays.”
Alain Lompech, Diapason
v
“… an extraordinary sense of poetry, of the landscape between silence and whisper…”
Jean-Luc Macia, La Croix
Lolitta Angert graduated from the Saratov State conservatory in the special piano class in 1994, and then postgraduate course (class of prof. A. A. Scrypay, honored artist of Russian Federation). Since 1997 she has been working at the special piano department of Saratov State conservatory, at the faculty of secondary vocational education of Saratov State conservatory and in the Music Aesthetical Lyceum named after A. G. Schnitke.
Lolitta Angert leads extensive concert and teaching activities. Her students all levels of study more than once became winners and laureates of All-Russian and International competitions in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad and many other cities of Russia, and in Kitsentgen (Germany), Rome (Italy), Minneapolis (USA) and Beijing (China).
Lolitta Angert annually holds master- classes in different cities of Russia, China, Italy, Serbia and Hong Kong.
A pianist from Belgrade, she completed her undergraduate and master studies at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade in the class of Prof. Mirjana Šuica Babić, and doctoral studies at the same academy in the class of Prof. Marija Djukić. She was perfecting herself with renowned piano pedagogues: Lazar Berman, Jan Novotny, Avo Kouyoumdjian, Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and in America within the Fulbright Program (Prof. Arthur Greene and Prof. Martin Canin). She is the winner of numerous awards at domestic and international competitions, as well as of significant artistic recognitions, among which are the “Emil Hájek” award for the most promising pianist and the October Award of the City of Belgrade. She has given a number of solo concerts and chamber performances as well as guest appearances at several European festivals in Austria, Germany, Spain, Sweden, France, Turkey, Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia and Serbia as well as in many non-European countries; Israel, Kuwait, China, Japan and the USA including renowned concert halls such as the Kennedy Center - Washington, the Symphony Space - New York, Martin Hall - Prague and the Church of Saint Sofia - Ohrid. She has performed 15 times as a soloist with all domestic symphony orchestras, with the Vidin Philharmonic (Bulgaria) and the Montabaur Symphony Orchestra (Germany). She actively performs as a chamber musician in the organization of Eleanor Valkenburg (soprano), director of the ensemble “Poetica Musica”, based in New York (USA), and with Svetlana Merman in the piano duo.
She has been employed at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade since 1998, currently as an associate professor at the Department of Piano. She has held numerous lectures and seminars for students and young artists in the USA, Spain, Turkey, Israel, Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia, etc. She is a regular member of numerous juries at domestic and international competitions. As part of her pedagogical achievements, her students actively give concerts and win numerous awards at domestic and international competitions. She has lectured and performed at the Academy of Music in Vigo (Spain) as part of the Erasmus project.
She has made permanent recordings for numerous radio and television companies. In November 2018, she recorded and released a solo CD and DVD with works by Rameau, Bach, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Frank, Rosenblatt and Raičković. She is the winner of the Silver Plaque of the University of Arts in Belgrade (November 2019).
High intellectualism, brilliant technique and originality, and at the same time subtly lyrical and powerfully dramatic sounds with countless alchemical tonal nuances, provide pianist Ratimir Martinović with a special place and status among artists of his generation.
From the earliest days, uncompromisingly dedicated to excellence in music performance, Martinović crossed the path from a young talented pianist who, through years of perfecting within educational institutions, master courses and concert podiums around the planet, formed himself into a mature artist with characteristic expression, profile and concept.
Born in Kotor, after the class of Emilija Sposojevič, through the Novi Sad professors Frederik Stanković and Arbo Valdma, he found a long-term pedagogue in Kemal Gekić, one of the greatest virtuosos of today. Martinović studied with Gekić for a full seven years at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, despite the repertoire and expressively different orientations, and at the International University of Florida in Miami (USA). He graduated in 1999 with a recital in which he performed Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Chopin’s Four Ballads, Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata and Prokofiev’s Toccata. He obtained his master’s degree in 2002 by conducting and playing works by Mozart and Haydn, with an all-night Bach recital.
The versatility and unusualness of Ratimir Martinović’s artistic personality is not only reflected in his repertoire aspirations, but is also reflected in the diapason of his activities aimed at the advancement of musical art in the areas from which he originated. Martinović is the founder and director of one of the most prestigious festivals of art music in the Balkans - the KotorArt festival in his hometown, within which the most important names from the world of music have been guests for 18 years. Moreover, the festival often programmatically refers to a number of current social themes, which are intertwined with music, thus creating new sound testimonies of our time. Martinović is also active in the pedagogical field - he is one of the youngest full professors in the history of the University of Novi Sad, having the privilege to independently form generations of young pianists and pedagogues in his class from the age of 24.
Over time, the principle of putting constant effort in acting above all accepted and well-established standards has become Martinović’s personal and artistic credo, which often raises his achievements to unimaginable heights.
He has performed in over 700 concerts, with over 60 orchestras in Europe, Asia, South and North America in halls such as Carnegie Hall - Stern Auditorium (New York), Music Park (Rome), Rudolfinum and Dvořák Hall (Prague), Oriental Art Center (Shanghai), Glenn Gould Hall (Toronto), Lisinski (Zagreb), Arts Center (Seoul), International House of Music (Moscow) and in Tokyo, Santa Barbara, London, Vancouver, Helsinki, Tubingen, Brazil, Beijing, Fukuoka and elsewhere, around the world. Among the orchestras he played with were the symphony orchestras of Berlin, Istanbul, Mexico, Czech Radio, Thailand, Helsingborg, Plovdiv, Belgrade or the chamber orchestras of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Kaliningrad, the Viotti Orchestra and many others. Martinović is a frequent guest of the jury of piano competitions in Italy, Great Britain, South Africa, Turkey, Germany, Croatia, as well as the leader of piano master workshops in Japan, Portugal, USA, Poland and elsewhere. He recorded three CDs, one with Goldberg Variations by J. S. Bach, the other with works by Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Brahms and Prokofiev, while the last one recorded, with the premiere of complete piano opus by Vasilije Mokranjac, was released at the end of 2019.
Martinović has been dedicated to Vasilije Mokranjac (1923-1984), one of the greatest composers in this part of Europe, since 2016, whose complete piano opus he premiered at the almost three-hour recital in Belgrade in the same year. Martinović is the founder, together with the Mokranjac family, and president of the Vasilije Mokranjac Foundation, whose goal is preservation and improvement of the legacy of the great composer, as well as the placement of his music in regional and world contexts. So far, the digitalization of the entire piano opus of Mokranjac has already been realized.
“… superior and intriguing playing of the widest spectrum”
Fanfare Magazine, USA, 2020
“Martinović is an exceptional performer of music by Vasilije Mokranjac.”
American Record Guide, USA, 2020
“An extraordinary original reading and a potent interpretation of the sheet music of Beethoven’s Concerto that literally raised the whole hall to its feet.”
The Yucatan Times, Mexico, 2017
“… Martinović took on an incredibly difficult task… he made a real feat with his recital.”
Politika, Belgrade, Serbia, 2016
v
“… The true masters of their instruments provoked the persistent and enthusiastic invitation of the audience to continue the concert with extras.”
Klasika. hr, Dubrovnik, Croatia, 2016.
“An artist of lavish talent, exceptional expression, original ideas and superior persuasiveness.”
Il Giornale di Vicenza, Vicenza, Italy 2014
“Martinović is equally stylistically and technically precise. We had a really mature, complete, perfect Artist in him.”
Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung, Heidelberg, Germany, 2014
Ante Grgin (1945, Serbia) completed his clarinet studies at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. For a number of years he had was the lead clarinetist at the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra and in 1995 he became professor of clarinet at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. As a soloist and chamber musician he gave performances in many cities of the former Yugoslavia, in France, Italy, Hungary, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Russia, Belarus and China. He has won numerous recognitions in contests in Geneva, Munich and Prague and he has served on the jury of many national and international contests. Among the numerous national awards he has received for his performance skills and pedagogy, the Association of the Musicians of Serbia Lifetime Achievement Award stands out. His composition opus with interwoven elements of jazz, evergreen and classical music has enriched the literature for wind instruments.
Miomir Simonovic has acquired his Bachelor’s and MA degrees at the Faculty of Music Art in Belgrade in the class of Prof. Tahir Kulenovic. During his studies, he won numerous awards at national and international competitions and was awarded the third prize at the 23rd Yugoslav competition for young artists in Zagreb in year 1989. He has attended masterclasses of eminent flutists such as Prof. Allain Marion and Prof. Raymond Guiot, and in year period 1987-1989, as a scholarship holder for the scientific and artistic youth Serbia, he attendens conservatory "Hector Berlioz" in Paris under the mentorship of Prof. Raymond Guiot.
He has held over fifty recitals in Belgrade and many other cities in Serbia, but also in Macedonia, France and Spain. He has performed as a soloist with Nis Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra RTS, the Serbian Army Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra "Amorosso".
As a pedagogue he deals since year 1987, first in the Music School "Jovan Bandur" in Pancevo, then in schools "Josip Slavenski" in Belgrade and "Zivorad Grbic" in Valjevo. During postgraduate studies was a demonstrator in Prof. Tahir Kulenovic's class. At the Faculty of Music Art in Belgrade he has been employed since year 1997 as an assistant and now as a full professor in the artistic field Flute.
In its class so far has graduated 43 students, some of whom continue their education abroad, while others are teachers throughout Serbia and are the members of the orchestra (Belgrade Opera Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra RTS Orchestra chamber opera "Madlenianum").So far students from the class of Miomir Simonovic won over 80 awards at national and international competitions.
Miomir Simonovic is a permanent member of the flute choir "Belgrade siringa", with whom he had several concert appearances. A CD with music by Bach, Haydn and Mozart has been issued.
Strašo Temkov is one of the most successful Macedonian musicians of his generation, whose numerous activities strengthen the tradition of art music in Macedonia and promote interpretation on wind instruments that are characteristic of the Macedonian climate. Music became his life commitment in his early youth, and he was later formed as a great music performer. He graduated from the Faculty of Music in Skopje, and completed his postgraduate studies at the Pancho Vladigerov Academy of Music in Sofia. He collaborated with famous European and world artists during his studies. He has won numerous awards at national and federal competitions for young musicians. Since 1991, he has been playing in the Macedonian Philharmonic and has become a recognizable symbol of this institution: he regularly performs impressive works of world orchestral literature as the first flutist of the Philharmonic. He has performed with numerous orchestras, among which are the above-mentioned Macedonian Philharmonic, the French-American Chamber Orchestra, the Macedonian Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, the Amoroso Chamber Orchestra and others. He is a member of the renowned Macedonian Wind Quintet and other chamber ensembles. Strašo Temkov performs at famous festivals in the country and abroad: Ohrid Summer Festival, Autumn Music Festival, Skopje Summer Festival, Days of Macedonian Music Festival, Heracles Evenings, and is one of the few Macedonian artists who performed at Carnegie Hall in New York. The repertoire that he performs includes a wide selection of compositions written from the Baroque to the present day, and his aspiration to promote new works - both of the world and domestic flute literature - has been noted. He released two CDs in collaboration with pianist Marija Vršková. In addition to artistic activity, he is also active as a pedagogue. He teaches at the Faculty of Music Arts in Skopje, and he is a mentor to students in undergraduate and master studies. The results of his pedagogical activity are obvious, his students win prestigious awards at competitions for young musicians, they have their own recitals and they play as soloists with orchestras. Strašo Temkov is also the founder of the Aulos Flute Quartet. He is a member of the jury of domestic and international competitions.
