VLADIMIR AČIMOVIĆ, piano

EMILIJA MLADENOVIĆ, cello 
NATALIJA MLADENOVIĆ, piano

Programme:

F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Variations sérieuses in D minor, Op. 54
N. Metner: Sonata Reminiscenza from Forgotten Melodies I, Op. 38
F. Chopin: Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23
F. Liszt: Transcendental étude No 10. in F minor, S.139
F. Liszt: Transcendental étude No. 12 in B♭minor, S. 139

***

S. Rachmaninoff: Vocalise
J. Brahms: Cello Sonata No. 1 in E minor, Op. 38
G. Cassadó: Suite for Cello Solo

Emilija Mladenović was born into a musical family in Samara (Russia) in 1999. She began having cello lessons with her father Milutin Mladenović at the age of five. She graduated from the Petar Konjović Music School in Belgrade in 2013 as the top student of her year and continued her education at the Vatroslav Lisinski Music School in Belgrade, where she was awarded a Vuk Karadžić Diploma in recognition of her outstanding achievements. She is currently a first-year undergraduate student at the University of Music in Detmold (Germany) in the class of Xenia Janković. She has won more than 40 prizes at competitions and festivals in Serbia and abroad. She has received commendations from the municipalities of Voždovac and Čukarica for her outstanding results (2011–2016) and is the winner of three Dositej Awards (2015, 2016, 2017). She is a member of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester –one of the most prestigious youth orchestras in the world – under conductors Herbert Blomstedt and Jonathan Nott. She has performed with numerous international orchestras, including: the German-Nordic Youth Philharmonic (in a concert in the grand hall of the Philharmonie in Berlin); Orquestra Vigo 430 (as principal cello in a performance of Tosca); the Orchesterakademie of the Tyrol Festival Erl (Austria); the orchestra of the Toppenkurset International Summer Academy & Festival of Music (Norway); and the Bolshoi Orchestra (Serbia), among others. She has also attended seminars with noted teachers and cellists.

Natalija Mladenović began piano lessons at the age of five in her native Samara (Russian Federation). At the age of 11 she enrolled at the Central Special Music School of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where she studied with professors Vladimir Bunin and Anatoly Ryabov. She was admitted to the Tchaikovsky State Conservatory in Moscow at 17 and studied in the classes of Larissa Dedova, Irina Osipova and Yevgeny Malinin. She continued her postgraduate studies at the same school, completing them with honours in 1996. She is a laureate of the Petar Konjović (Belgrade) and Nikolai Rubinstein (Paris) international piano competitions. She has performed all over the former Soviet Union, Germany, Switzerland, France, Bulgaria, Denmark, Montenegro and Croatia. She has performed as a soloist with the Samara Philharmonic Orchestra and the RTS Symphony Orchestra (Belgrade) under the batons of Angel Šurev and Bojan Suđić. She was the piano accompanist at a public class given by Mischa Maisky in Belgrade. She is employed as a collaborative pianist in the String Department of the Faculty of Music at the University of Arts in Belgrade. She also holds a teaching post at the Arlemm Summer School.

Vladimir Ačimović completed his initial musical education in Bulgaria with Milena Kurteva and then studied with Suzana Novaković at the Secondary School of Music in Niš. He is currently enrolled at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz in the class of Milana Chernyavska and at the Faculty of Music of the University of Arts in Belgrade in the class of Lidija Stanković. He has won first prizes at numerous national and international competitions. He has performed successfully in Serbia, Russia, the Czech Republic, Italy, Bulgaria, Austria, Belgium, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Romania, Spain, Germany and North Macedonia. As a representative of the Serbian Ministry of Culture, he performed as a soloist with the Presidential Orchestra of the Russian Federation under the baton of maestro Anton Orlov, honoured artist of the Russian Federation, in the prestigious St George Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace, at the international children’s music festival Melodika Pokoleniy on 31 May 2015. He is the winner of the 2012 Constantinus Prize, awarded to the most promising musicians under 18, and holds a scholarship from the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Serbia. Other awards include a Dositej Award from the Ministry of Youth and an award from the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences given to the most promising young talents in Serbia for achievements in the field of culture. He is the holder of a Go Styria! music scholarship for 2019.