Organization

Admin

BEMUS Festival

Conductor

Bojan Suđić

Singer

Soprano

Sonja Šarić

Mezzo-soprano

Deniz Uzun

Tenor

Mario Bahg

Bass

Goran Jurić

Orchestra

RTS Symphony Orchestra

Others

RTS Choir

National Theater in Belgrade

RTS Symphony Orchestra and Choir, Choir of the National Theater in Belgrade

Belgrade

Serbia

Kolarac Concert Hall

RTS Symphony Orchestra and Choir, Choir of the National Theater in Belgrade: Messa da Requiem Verdi

Public

Requiem Mass

Pallavi Pawar

Approved

Turkish-German mezzo-soprano Deniz Uzun is a graduate of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington and was a recent winner of the Elizabeth Connel Prize 2022 and the Eva Marton Prize 2021. She was a member of the Young Artist Programme of the Bavarian State Opera. 

The 2023/2024 season includes a return to the Dallas Symphony as Fricka and Waltraute in the Ring Cycle (Der Ring des Nibelungen) – the first semi-staged concert version in US history, as well as a return to the celebrated Barrie Kosky production at Komische Oper Berlin as Olga in Eugene Onegin where she jumped in 2021/2022 in several performances.   

Deniz proudly makes her debut with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchester in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst and with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in Mendelssohn’s Three Sacred Songs (Drei geistliche Gesänge) under the baton of Sir Andrew Davis as well as with the MÁV Symphony Orchestra in Elgar’s Sea Pictures under the baton of Róbert Farkas. Highlights in Deniz’ 2022/2023 season include her debut at Müpa Budapest as Waltraute in Twilight of the Gods (Götterdämmerung) under the baton of Ádám Fischer; a return to Opernhaus Zürich to debut as Luigia in Viva La Mamma alongside Ambrogio Maestri; her role and house debut as Orlofsky in The Bat (Die Fledermaus) at Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova under the baton of Fabio Luisi and her role debut as A Woman (Una Donna) in Intolerance 1960 (Intolleranza 1960) as the season opening at Komische Oper Berlin.

Passionate in the Lied and concert genre, Deniz performed recently at the revived Festival Capuchos 2023 in Portugal alongside pianist David Santos, where she received huge recognition from the Scherzo Magazine for her "impeccable French, without the slightest hint of a German accent”. In the 2020/2021 season, she gave three recitals accompanied by pianist Yulia Levin titled „Opera Goes Folk“ with songs by Ravel, Shostakovich, Rodrigo and Kodaly as part of the Zurich Opera House’s alternative programme.  

Highlights in previous seasons have included title roles such as Dido in Dido and Aeneas at Teatro Massimo Palermo, Carmen at Landestheater Salzburg, Zanetto in a semi-staged concert series in Switzerland, Hansel (Hänsel) in Hansel and Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), The Child (L’Enfant) in The Child and the Enchantments (L’Enfant et les sortilèges), Ronia (Ronja) in Ronia, the Robber's Daughter (Ronja Räubertochter), Jacob in Gold!, as well as Zelim in Truth in Contention (La Verità in cimento) at Opernhaus Zürich. Deniz is a former member of the ensemble of Opernhaus Zürich (2016–2021) and Komische Oper Berlin (2022/2023).    

Throughout the course of her career Deniz has also worked with conductors such as Nello Santi, Simone Young, Oksana Lyniv, Kirill Petrenko, Vladimir Jurowski, Jakub Hrůša, Jérémie Rhorer, Vasily Petrenko, Markus Poschner, Gianandrea Noseda and William Christie, as well as with directors Barrie Kosky, Calixto Bieito, Robert Carsen, Andreas Homoki, Dmitri Tcherniakov, Krzysztof Warlikowski, Nina Russi and Marie-Ève Signeyrole.

 

Sonja Šarić, soprano, was born in Sombor. She trained her voice at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Mannheim, with professor Snežana Stamenković, where she completed her undergraduate studies and her master’s degree. She has participated in numerous national and international competitions, where she has won a number of awards, including the Maria Callas Grand Prix in Athens in 2017 and the Austrian Music Theater Prize (“Musiktheaterpreis”) in the category for young artists in 2019 for the role of Leonora in Verdi’s Troubadour. She achieved her greatest success so far in 2021, winning the first prize and the audience prize at the fourth Éva Marton International Singing Competition in Budapest. 

During her school days at the Svetozar Marković Gymnasium and the Isidor Bajić Music School in Novi Sad, she received the Nikola Cvejić Award in Ruma and the Bruna Spieler Award in Herceg Novi, as well as a scholarship from the Melanija Bugarinović and Daughter Mirjana Kalinović-Kalin Fund for the Youth Vocal Advancement. At the Felix Mendelssohn University Competition in Berlin in 2013, she won the third prize, and in 2012, the first prize, the audience prize and the prize for the best performance of a Mozart composition at the Antonín Dvořák Competition in Karlovy Vary. Three years later, she won the same award at the Anneliese Rothenberger Competition on the island of Mainau in Lake Constance.

After making her debut as Mary Stuart (Maria Stuarda) in Donizetti's opera of the same name in Ostrava in 2015, Sonja Šarić became a member of the opera studio in Graz. There, in addition to a large number of smaller roles and concerts, she has been noted in many major roles of her profession, such as the Countess in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro), Leonora in Verdi’s The Troubadour (Il Trovatore), Madame Cortese in Rossini’s opera The Journey to Reims (Il viaggio a Reims) and Ruggero Leoncavallo’s opera The Clowns (Pagliacci).  

Besides actively performing on the opera stage, she also nurtures Lied and concert repertoire. Her repertoire consists of works such as songs by Schubert, Richard Strauss, and Mahler; Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and Verdi’s Requiem.

Since 2019, she has been singing on a freelance basis in leading opera houses in Europe. As Gerhilde in Wagner’s opera The Valkyrie, she performed at the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, as well as at the National Opera in Paris. Her performances as Leonora in The Troubadour (Il trovatore) delighted the audience at the Opera in Linz, the National Theatre in Mannheim and the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb.

During 2019, the Serbian opera singer successfully participated in the master class of Thomas Hampson and Melanie Diener in Waiblingen – Opernwerkstatt Waiblingen, which ended with a big concert with the Stuttgart Philharmonic. She made another noteworthy performance at the Easter Festival in Baden-Baden accompanied by the Berlin Philharmonic and conductor Simon Rattle. At the Salzburg Festival 2020, she sang in the new production of Strauss’s Elektra.

She had a successful debut as Bellini's Norma at the National Theatre in Belgrade, which, in addition to several outstanding solo recitals in Novi Sad and Sombor, also earned her recognition from the Muzika Klasika magazine for the best female performer in 2022. Her performance at Teatro Comunale in Bologna has been among the most significant so far. Her portrayal of Senta in the premiere production of Wagner's The Flying Dutchman (Der fliegende Holländer), which opened the opera season in this prestigious theatre in 2023, was met with a standing ovation twice in a row.  

In June 2023, Sonja Šarić delighted the Belgrade audience as Alice Ford in the newly staged Verdi's Falstaff. In the same month, she was given the status of the Principal Opera Artist in the National Theatre and she performed as a soloist at a concert dedicated to Éva Marton's 80th birthday in Budapest. In July, at the 40th edition of the Days of Music International Festival in Herceg Novi, she brilliantly performed a recital of opera arias in honor of the centenary of the birth of Maria Callas.

 

Goran Jurić, bass, is a soloist of the Stuttgart State Opera. From 2011 to 2017, he was a soloist of the Bavarian State Opera. He the winner prestigious awards at domestic and international competitions.

He sang bass lead roles in theatres and opera houses such as Berlin State Opera, Opera di Firenze, Teatro Real in Madrid, Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, La Fenice in Venice, Rome Opera House, Graz Opera, San Carlo Theatre in Naples, Croatian National Theatre in Osijek, Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, as well as at the Bregenz Festival. 

Some of his standout roles include Henry the Fowler (Heinrich Vogler, Lohengrin), Pluto (L'Orfeo), Sarastro (The Magic Flute), Suleiman Suleiman the Magnificent (Nikola Šubić Zrinjski), High Priest of Baal (Nabucco), Sparafucile (Rigoletto), Commendatore (Don Giovanni), Colline (La bohème), Don Fernando (Fidelio), Osmino (The Abduction from the Seraglio), Moses (Moses in Egypt), Biterolf (Tannhäuser), Capellio (The Capulets and the Montagues), Titurel (Parsifal), Banco (Macbeth), Ferrando (The Troubadour), Timur (Turandot), Bauer (Songs of Gurre), Oroveso (Norma), Raimondo Bidebent (Lucia di Lammermoor) and Mendoza (Betrothal in a Monastery).

He collaborated with many of today's greatest conductors, including Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Daniel Barenboim, Kent Nagano and David Zinman.

Active in the field of baroque and contemporary music, he has often performed with the Croatian Baroque Ensemble and the Croatian Radio and Television Choir, and has collaborated as a soloist with the Cantus Ensemble.     

 

South Korean tenor Mario Bahg, after winning the 2018 Montreal International Music Competition, was selected for the Lindemann Young Artist Development Programme, created by the New York’s Metropolitan Opera, where he made his debut in Massenet's Manon. Since then, he has performed in the Cologne Opera, opera houses in Lisbon, Corunã, Seoul, Trieste and others and has appeared with a number of conductors, including Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Kent Nagano, Teodor Currentzis, and Carina Canellakis.

His main repertoire, beside opera, comprises works such as Verdi's Requiem, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, Bach's Christmas Oratorio and Haydn's Creation (Die Schöpfung).  In addition to winning the 2018 Montreal Competition, he also won the 2017 Queen Sonja Singing Competition in Oslo and the 2016 Città di Alcamo International Opera Singing Contest (Italy).      

Mario Bahg earned a bachelor's degree from Korea National University of Arts and a master's degree from the Mannheim University of Music and Performing Arts, under the tutelage of Professor Snežana Stamenković.   

 

Leading name among Serbian music conductors, Bojan Sudjic is a chief conductor of the Symphony Orchestra and Choir of Radio Television of Serbia. He is also a full professor of conducting at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade.

From the very beginning, his work was distinguished by the exceptional breadth and diversity of the choral, symphonic and incidental music repertoires, outstanding achievements in all these areas and numerous awards – starting from the First Prize at the Yugoslav contest of young artists in Zagreb in 1989, through the most significant professional recognitions in domestic music: awards at the International Review of Composers, annual awards of the Association of the Music Artists, City of Belgrade awards, Golden Link awards, the magazine “Muzika Klasika” annual awards, Vuk awards and others. He intensively performs on domestic and foreign scenes.

Since 1992, he has been a permanent conductor of the RTS Symphony Orchestra and Choir, with whom he performed a great number of choral, symphonic and vocal symphonic achievements of world and domestic heritage, of which many were premiere performances.

He has worked with Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra since 1989, and with this ensemble, as a permanent guest conductor, was on tour in China, performed at BEMUS and conducted numerous concerts featuring, among others, Nigel Kennedy and Max Vengerov. The crown of this collaboration represents the CD with the works of Sergei Rachmaninoff.

In 1993, he dedicated himself to opera conducting, leading the ensemble of the National Theatre Opera in Belgrade, and performing as its conductor in 1999/2000 season. Bojan Sudjic was General Music Director of the Opera was in 2004/2005. He recorded many performances of the standard ballet and opera repertoire in his rich biography, while among the guest appearances, the performance at the Athens Festival in 1998 (Carmen) stands out.

Maestro Bojan Sudjic becomes a guest conductor of the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, in 1998, by deepening this cooperation he gained the place of resident conductor in 2000. With this ensemble he performed more than 150 opera and ballet performances, and the peak of the joint work, with the 10 premieres, was the performance at the festival in Wiesbaden in 2003 (Swan Lake). He also enjoyed fruitful collaboration with the Finnish National Opera Ensemble in Helsinki. Boan Sudjic was a guest conductor of over 40 orchestras in the region and the world, among which are the RTV Symphony Orchestra of RTV Slovenia from Ljubljana, the Montenegrin Symphony Orchestra, the Croatian RTV Symphony Orchestra, the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra and the Rijeka Philharmonic Orchestra (Croatia), the Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra in Skopje, The Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra from Sofia and the Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra (Bulgaria), the Budapest Symphony Orchestra (Hungary), the Rome Symphony Orchestra (Italy), the Carinthian Simphony Orchestra from Klagenfurt (Austria), the Novosibirsk Philharmonic, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra and The State Symphony Capella of Russia from Saint Petersburg (Russia), the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Finnish National Opera and the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra (Finland), the Odense Symphony Orchestra (Denmark), the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, the Vesteras Symphony Orchestra and the Umea Symphony Orchestra (Sweden), the Porto Alegre Symphony Orchestra (Brazil), and the Chilean Symphony Orchestra from Santiago de Chile. Since 2010 he has been working intensively with OFUNAM Orchestra from Mexico City, with which, in 2016, he conducted a solemn concert for the 80th anniversary of the existence of this ensemble with violinist Vadim Repin. Maestro Bojan Sudjic as a professor has been conducting the Faculty of Music Symphony Orchestra since 2005.

Performing with various ensembles, maestro Sudjic accomplishes the mission of presenting new works of domestic authors and those lesser-known or, due to their complexity, rarely performed works of world historical heritage. Since his return to the RTS, as the artistic director and conductor in 2005, Maestro Bojan Sudjic has been continually expanding the repertoire of the RTS Symphony Orchestra and Choir, gaining recognition of the music audience for the high quality of performed concerts and recordings.

“The foundation of Sudjic’s art is a combination of expressive musicality and a sophisticated, authoritative and precise conductor gesture. With the knowledge of extensive literature and responsible attitude towards the score, the soloists and the ensemble with whom he works, Sudjic is sculpting music as his own creative piece. In this endeavor, the complex balance achieved between inspiration and craftsmanship, expressiveness and action, high motivation and rational control of all parameters of performance is quite specific.”

Zorica Premate, musicologist, Radio Belgrade

“He is a natural talent with exceptional style and with one of the most beautiful techniques I have ever seen.”

Mats Liljeros, Hufvudstadsbladet, Helsinki

 

The Radio Television of Serbia Choir was founded in 1939. within the Radio Belgrade. The first chief conductor, Milan Bajsanski, directed his strategy towards the affirmation of the domestic musical heritage, as well as significant achievements of world choral literature and vocal-instrumental works. This strategy was retained up this day, defining the eight decade long artistic biography of this ensemble. The work of the Choir was especially marked by the chief conductors Borivoje Simic, Mladen Jagust, Vladimir Krnjavcevic and Bojan Sudjic, with whom the artistic collaboration is now lasting for more than two decades.

Throughout history the Choir has performed with many prominent conductors and soloists. It participated in all the important festivals in ex-Yugoslavia and Serbia, and it had successful tours in many countries such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, England, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Greece, Russia. The Choir is also continuously active in the field of archiving permanent sound recordings, which are being kept in the Sound Archive of Radio Belgrade. Among the archives, the music of domestic artists especially stands out, which makes this ensemble actively work towards the preservation and affirmation of the national cultural heritage.

 

The RTS Choir has won many awards including the „October Award of the city of Belgrade“(1982), „Zlatni beocug“(1989) for the promotion of culture and arts of the city of Belgrade, „Zlatni beocug“ (2007) for lasting contribution to culture of the capital, „Music of the Classics“ for the concert of the year (2014), and „Sretenjski orden of third order “ for the results achieved in cultural activities in the past 80 years of work.

It is the only professional ensemble of this type in Serbia. Its repertoire today includes the most significant choral pieces, complex vocal-instrumental and opera pieces, and it also nurtures the music of popular genres. This ensemble also actively performs pieces of contemporary domestic and foreign composers, The repertoire continues to expand through the collaborations with other ensembles of Music production, enriching the already rich collection of the Sound Archive with new recordings. The wide range of artistic aspirations, positioned the RTS Choir as a renowned ensemble, with a recognizable sound and performing reputation

 

The RTS Symphony Orchestra is one of the most prominent orchestral ensembles of Serbia. Founded in 1937, as part of Radio Belgrade, the Symphony Orchestra has always had profiled artistic directions, oriented towards the affirmation and preservation of national music heritage, as well as capital works of world literature. This programme policy, established by the first conductor, Mihajlo Vukdragović, has been retained for more than eight decades that have been marked by the work of chief conductors: Mladen Jagušt, Vančo Čavdarski, and Bojan Suđić, who has been the Chief Conductor since 2005.

Throughout history, the most renowned domestic and foreign artists, solo artists and conductors have collaborated with the orchestra. The orchestra has performed at all major festivals in Yugoslavia and Serbia, and has also toured successfully across Europe and Africa. Several hundreds of recordings are permanently archived in the Radio Belgrade Sound Archive, many of which have been published on dozens of sound carriers. For achieving great success in their cultural and artistic mission, the Symphony Orchestra has won numerous relevant awards and recognitions.

Today, the RTS Symphony Orchestra operates within the RTS Music Production as a modern ensemble, keeping pace with global tendencies in the interpretation of music. Its repertoire includes significant symphonic, concert and vocal-instrumental pieces of domestic and foreign literature as well as the music of popular genres. It is actively present in concert halls, in the media and at important social events, positioning itself as a prestigious performer, ready for the highest artistic achievements.

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