Dear guests of Festival Ljubljana, due to illness, there has been a change in the performer. Instead of cellist Kristina Antić, cellist Nejc Rupnik will perform. Consequently, there will also be a change in the program.

Free tickets for the concert are available at Križanke Box Office.

Milica Žižić, soprano (Serbia)
Jovanka Višekruna Janković, piano

Nejc Rupnik, cello (Slovenia)
Beata Ilona Barcza, piano

Programme:
George Gershwin:
By Strauss
The man l love
l got rhythm
Georges Bizet: “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle”, Carmen’s aria from Carmen
Jules Massnet: Nuit d’Espagne
Francesco Paolo Tosti:
Penso
Marechiare
Giacomo Puccini: Avanti, Urania!
Lucio Dalla: Caruso
Josip Slavenski: Mesec
Josip Hatze: Serenada
Stanisalo Gastaldon: Musica proibita
***
César Franck, arr. Jules Delsart: Violin Sonata in A major

Milica Žižić was born in Podgorica. She received her primary and secondary musical education at the Vasa Pavić Music School. She is currently a fourth-year voice student at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, in the class of tenor Nikola Kitanovski. She has won numerous prizes at international competitions and festivals at home and abroad, including the Festival of Young Artists in Podgorica in 2019, the Lav Mirski International Singing Competition 2019, the Nikola Cvejić International Singing Competition 2019 and the Lazar Jovanović International Opera Competition 2018. In her home country she has appeared in La bohème  (Crnogorsko narodno pozorište /Montenegro National Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream  (Herceg Novi) and San o mikrokozmi  (Muzički centar Crne gore / Montenegro Music Centre). She is active as a concert performer both at home and abroad. She has worked with the Orkestar Srpskog narodnog pozorišta Novi Sad (Orchestra of the Serbian National Theatre) in Novi Sad, the Umetnički ansambel Ministarstva odbrane Stanislav Binički (Stanislav Binički Ensemble of the Ministry of Defence) in Belgrade and the Orkestar Fakulteta muzičke umetnosti Beograd (Orchestra of the Faculty of Music) in Belgrade. In January 2024 she appeared at the prestigious St Sava’s Ball at the Hofburg in Vienna. She appeared as Ida in the Belgrade Faculty of Music Opera Studio’s production of the operetta Die Fledermaus, conducted by Srboljub Srba Dinić, on the main stage of the Narodno pozorište Beograd (National Theatre in Belgrade). She has also appeared as Stanka in the opera Na uranku (At Dawn) by Stanislav Binički. She has performed at concerts in Belgrade and Tirana as part of the ArtLink Festival.

Jovanka Višekruna Janković, pianist, graduated from the University of Arts in Belgrade with a Master of Arts degree. Simultaneously, she completed her postgraduate studies at the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Budapest in the class of Lazlo Baranyay and participated in numerous master classes and workshops of the famous pedagogues and pianists Amadeus Webersinke, Arbo Valdma, Mira Jevtić, Igor Lazko. She performed at numerous recitals and multidisciplinary projects in her home country including the management of the Serbian concert tour, and abroad, including solo recitals in France, Italy, Hungary, Montenegro, Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Canada. After being engaged as an assistant to professor of piano at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, for a number of years, and as the Vice President of the Young EPTA (European Piano Teachers Association) of Serbia, in 2004, Jovanka Višekruna Janković founded the association of artists ArtLink.

Cellist Nejc Rupnik began his musical journey at Vrhnika Music School, where he was taught by Almira Hamidullina. For his last two years of lower music school, he was a student of Damir Hamidullin at Vič–Rudnik Music School. He then continued his studies at the Ljubljana Conservatoire of Music and Ballet in the class of Karmen Pečar Koritnik. After completing his undergraduate studies in cello at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, where he studied under Enrico Bronzi, he went on to study chamber music. As a student of the master’s programme in chamber music, he performs as part of the Rupnik Piano Trio under the guidance of chamber music professor Cibrán Sierra Vázquez at the Mozarteum University. Nejc has won multiple prizes at national and international competitions, both as a soloist and as a member of the Rupnik Piano Trio, with which he has been performing for 15 years alongside his sister Manca (violin) and his brother Anže (piano). He is also the recipient of two Škerjanc Prizes from the Ljubljana Conservatoire of Music and Ballet: in 2015 as a member of the Rupnik Piano Trio and in 2018 as a soloist.