Božo Paradžik began learning the double bass in 1983 with Tihomir Vidović in Sarajevo and between 1987 and 1992 studied with Jiří Hudec at the Academy of Music in Prague. After his studies he began his successful career as an orchestral musician. He held principal positions with leading symphony orchestras such as the Residentie Orchestra in the Hague and the Radio Symphony Orchestra in Stuttgart. In addition to this he often played with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam and as principal double bassist with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich. In the course of his orchestral career he played often under conductors such as Georges Prêtre, Yevgeny Svetlanov, Neville Marriner, Guiseppe Sinopoli, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Carlo Maria Giulini and Franz Welser-Möst. On invitation by Claudio Abbado Božo Paradžik has played as principal double bassist in most of M° Abbado’s orchestral projects in 2008 and 2009 with Orchestra Mozart and Mahler Chamber Orchestra.
Today Božo Paradžik places more emphasis on his solo and chamber music activities. In addition to the solo double bass repertoire he has had sensational success performing works which were originally composed for other instruments. In 2000 he performed the second cello part of Schubert’s String Quintet in C with the Apos Quartet in the Berlin Philharmonie, and in 2005 the Cello Concerto in C major by Haydn with the Zagreb Philharmonic.
Paradžik began teaching in 2000 at the Konservatorium Jan Sweenlinck in Amsterdam and shortly afterwards became Professor at the Musikhochschule in Detmold (from 2001 to 2004). Since 2003 he is Professor for double bass at the Musikhochschule Freiburg. From 2009 to 2011 he also taught at the Conservatoire de Musique HEMU in Sion and since 2010 in his place of residence- Lucerne, at the Hochschule Luzern-Musik. Božo Paradžik’s teaching is internationally recognised and acknowledged specially by the accomplishments and successful careers of his students, who are winning the auditions in the top orchestras on the regular basis. Božo Paradžik is regularly invited to give master classes at leading conservatories in Europe. These include Ljubljana, Amsterdam, The Hague, London, Lyon, Manchester, Sion, and Paris.
