Artistic Director prof. Alessandra Schettino

predsednik žirije / presidente giuria / president of the jury

Carlo Teodoro was born Born in Venice. He studied cello with Adriano Vendramelli at “Benedetto Marcello” Conservatory of Music of his hometown, graduating “cum laude”. He perfected with Michael Flaksman at the Stuttgart Hochschule getting the Highest Degree in cello and later at the Mannheim Hochschule completing the Konzertexamen. He also graduated at the Chamber Music International School of the “Trio di Trieste” in Duino, Trieste, getting the Highest Degree. Masteer Class with Natalia Gutman and Daniel Shafran. He is one of the founding members of Ex Novo Ensemble, Venice, performing widely in the main festivals and concert seasons throughout the world. Important works have been written for him by Claudio Ambrosini, Luca Mosca, Marino Baratello, Ivan Vandor, Renato Miani. He has recorded world premières for the main European radios as well as chamber music with the following labels: Dynamic, Giulia, Arts, ASV Ricordi, Rivo Alto, AS Disc, Stradivarius, Edipan, Velut-Luna, Denon, Naxos. He has recently recorded “Sequenza XIV per violoncello solo” by Luciano Berio (CD Black Box – ASV), “Danni Collaterali” for cello and ensemble by Michele Dall’Ongaro (CD Stradivarius), “To the master” per cello and piano by Giacinto Scelsi (CD Stradivarius), “String Trio and works for cello and guitar by Camillo Togni (CD Naxos – world premiere). At present he teaches Chamber Music and Cello at the Specialized Course (cello interpretation) at “Jacopo Tomadini” Conservatory of Music (Udine).

Born in Bari in 1992 into a family of musicians, he graduated in 2013 cum laude and special mention at the Conservatory “Nino Rota” in Monopoli under the guidance of M° Marcello Forte, at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome in 2014 under the guidance of M° Giovanni Sollima and at the Conservatory of Italian Swiss with Prof. Monika Leskovar, where he obtained in 2016, with full marks, the Master of Arts in Music Performance. From 2009 to 2015 she followed the master classes of M° Rocco Filippini at the Academy “W. Stauffer” in Cremona and in 2014 at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena with Maestro Antonio Meneses. He also attended masterclasses with M° Maria Kliegel, M° Massimo Polidori, M° Gabriele Geminiani, M° Sandro Laffranchini and participated in the string orchestra course of the “Academy Gustav Mahler European Concertmaster” held by M° Wolfram Christ. He has won more than 20 national and international competitions. These include 1st prize at the “Mario Benvenuti” National String Competition in Vittorio Veneto in 2008 and 2010, 1st prize at the “Giussano” Music Competition in 2011, 2nd place at the “Premio Geminiani” Competition in Verona (2012) which allowed him to receive, a cello “Gaetano Vinaccia” (Naples 1886), special mention at the IX edition of the “Premio Nazionale delle Arti” promoted by the MIUR (Ministry of University and Research), Prize “Marco Allegri” at the XVIII Rassegna Migliori Diplomati 2013/2014. In 2009, following a selection at the Conservatory “Nino Rota”, he performed the Saint-Saens concerto for cello and orchestra as a soloist and in 2011, representing the same Conservatory, he played for Vatican Radio, as part of the broadcasts “Conservatories in concert”, performing live on radio. He was first cello in the National Orchestra of Conservatories from 2012 to 2014, in the Ensemble Novecento (2012), a group made up of the best students of the masterclasses of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome under the artistic direction of M° Carlo Rizzari, and currently in the Young Talents Orchestra EY, with which he also plays as a soloist. He has been invited to play the same role as first cello by the JuniOrchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Orchestra of the Teatro Cilea in Reggio Calabria and the Orchestra Filarmonica of the Calabria region. He won auditions at the Teatro “La Scala” (second cello, 2018), the Orchestra of the Teatro “La Fenice” in Venice and the Orchestra Haydn in Bolzano, Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He collaborates with the following orchestras: Teatro alla Scala, Filarmonica della Scala, Teatro Regio in Turin, Teatro “La Fenice” in Venice, Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, Teatro Sociale in Como, “Leonore” in Pistoia, “LaFil” in Milan and Internazionale d’Italia, playing with renowned conductors such as R. Chailly, F. Luisi, T. Netopil, X.Zhang, V. Gergiev, Z. Metha, P. Jarvi, M. W. Chung, D. Gatti, D. Harding, H. Blomstedt. He has given chamber music concerts with Oliver Kern, Ermanno Calzolari, Gabriella Dall’Olio, Oleksandr Semchuk. In 2013 he was the cellist of the “Quartetto Mitja” with which he played for important musical associations (Università Cattolica in Rome, Associazione Amici di Paganini in Genoa, Villa Walton in Ischia etc.) and won the first prize at the European Competition of Musical Execution “Jacopo Napoli”. In 2016 he was selected by M° Riccardo Muti to play the role of first cello in the Orchestra L. Cherubini. In 2017, following selection, he was appointed first cello and tutor of the UniMi Orchestra. Currently, after winning the competition, he is the second cello with the obligation of the first and the row at the Theatre “Giuseppe Verdi” in Trieste.

Born in Beirut in 1968, Igor Mitrović started learning cello in Belgrade and  studied in Ljubljana and Basel with Miloš Mlejnik, Antonio Meneses and Walter Levin ( LaSalle Quartett).During his studies, he also took part in summer master classes with Daniel Shafran, Janos Starker and Boris Pergamenschikov among others. Igor Mitrović is the section leader of the RTV Orchestra in Ljubljana. In 2005 he became a profesor at the Carinthian State Conservatory in Klagenfurt, Austria.

Caroline Oblasser was born in Nuremberg and started playing the cello at the age of four. Her first teachers were Ms Kuno and Lübomir Dragov at the Erlangen Music Institute. As a child, she was the youngest guest student at the Meistersinger Conservatory in Nuremberg in Prof. Claus Reichardt’s class and later continued her studies with Walter Nothas in Munich. She graduated with honours from the Mozarteum University of Salzburg with Prof. Wilfried Tachezi and specialised in concert and chamber music. Already during her studies she established herself at home and abroad as a founding member of the Salzburg Piano Trio together with Angelika Schopper (piano), with whom she performed as a duo in numerous concerts. At the same time, Caroline completed a second degree at the Paris Lodron University in Salzburg in the field of linguistics. After a year abroad in Japan and her dissertation on anglicisms in the language of the press and advertising, she first worked in a major advertising agency in Salzburg and then founded her own publishing house Edition Riedenburg in 2007. The publishing house now includes around 200 titles in the field of guidebooks and non-fiction, as well as books for children and young people. For some of them, the SOWAS! essays, Caroline has composed songs appropriate to the theme and recorded them on Edition Riedenburg’s YouTube channel.

Cellist Branimir Pustički (Zagreb, 1981) graduated from the Zagreb Academy of Music under the guidance of Valter Dešpalj, and later studied with Reinhard Latzko in Vienna and Jakob Kullberg in Stavanger, Norway. He is the winner of numerous national and international competitions and awards, including the Young Musician of the Year award of the Zagreb Philharmonic and American Express, the first prize and audience prize at the International “J. Brahms” competition in Austria and the first prize and HDS award at the “Boris Papandopulo” competition in the chamber music category. He performs as a soloist with the Zagreb Philharmonic, Croatian Radio and Television Symphony, Zagreb Soloist, Croatian Baroque Ensemble, Ukrainian State Philharmonic, Varaždin Chamber Orchestra, Human Rights Orchestra and Zadar Chamber Orchestra. He regularly participates in festivals and important seasons in Croatia (Dubrovnik Summer Festival, Osorskifestival, Zagreb Music Biennale, Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall, etc.). For the music archive of the Croatian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra he has recorded works for cello and orchestra by Croatian composers J. Tkalčić, M. Ruždjak, M. Kelemen, K. Seletković, G. Tudor and R. Matz. Thanks to a long collaboration with the pianist Peter Gilming and the Trio 1887, he often performs with important artists in Croatia and abroad, in most European countries, Japan, Mexico and the USA. He is the first cello in the Croatian Radio and TV Symphony Orchestra, and in the same role he collaborates with the Copenhagen Philharmonic, the Zadar Chamber Orchestra and the HumanRights Orchestra. He is professor of cello at the Academy of Music in Zagreb and the Academy of Arts in Split and gives master classes in Croatia, Norway and Sweden.