Dejan Mlađenović graduated in 1985. Three years later, he received his master’s degree from the viola department of the Faculty of Music, University of Arts in Belgrade, in the class of professor Petar Ivanović. In 1990, he received his master’s degree in viola at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in the class of professor Gérard Caussé, and, a year later, in the class of professor Jean Mouillère. For three and a half years, he was a scholarship holder of the French government.
He studied at master classes with Gérard Caussé and Yuri Bashmet, as a scholarship holder at the Academia Chigiana (1986–87, Siena), with Grigori Zhislin (1988, Grožnjan), Jesse Levine (1990, Paris), and Emanuel Vardi and Rivka Golani (1991–2, United Kingdom).
During his studies at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, he was a member of the Belgrade String Orchestra “Dušan Skovran”, with which he also performed as a soloist. During his stay in France, he was the solo viola of the Orchestre National de France and played with the legendary Pierre Boulez’s Ensemble Intercontemporain. He gave more than forty solo concerts in Paris.
He was a permanent member of the Goldberg trio with Maja Jovanović, violin and Istvan Varga, cello.
As a soloist, Mlađenović has given more than 150 concerts with many significant chamber ensembles, string and symphony orchestras, as well as recitals with famous pianists at all major festivals throughout Serbia, in France, Spain, Norway, Greece, Italy, Macedonia, Romania, Russia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom (London – Vigmore Hall; Oxford), Denmark and the USA (John Brown University; Pittsburg State University).
He is the refounder and artistic director of the Camerata Academica string orchestra, which gathers talented former and current students, assistants and professors of the Novi Sad Academy of Arts, with whom Mlađenović often performs as a soloist.
His repertoire includes all the major works for solo viola, viola and piano, viola and string orchestra, viola and symphony orchestra, viola and symphony orchestra with choir, from the Baroque to the present day.
Five viola concertos, several sonatas and miniatures for viola and piano, as well as for solo viola, were composed and dedicated to him.
The Viennese-born violist Jutta Puchhammer-Sédillot, former student of Siegfried Führlinger (Vienna) and Heidi Castleman (USA), is known as a violist of exceptional quality. She is full professor (titulaire) of viola and chamber music at the Université de Montréal, Canada, as well as on the faculties of the Orford Music (Festival Quebec), the TTT Project (teach teachers teach) in Villarica, Chile and the Sarasota International Music Festival (USA). She also has taught at the Perlman Music Program (PMP), the Heifetz International Music Institute (Virginia), and the North American Viola Institute (NAVI).
She is renowned for her performances of rare late-romantic viola repertoire. Her solo CDs, entitled “Alto Romantic Fantasies” (works by Ph. Scharwenka, C. Reinecke, R. Fuchs, J. Joachim – Eclectra ECCD-2060) and “German Romantic Works” (sonatas by R. Fuchs, E. Naumann, F. Kiel, R. Schumann – Fidelio FIDC 018) have both been acclaimed in Fanfare magazine with praise :“Here the viola shines with as much fire as a passionate violin, cries with as much desperation as a cello, entices, seduces, and convinces the listener that no string instrument could be more versatile or beautiful.”
She also has recorded on CD (Centrediscs CMCCD21515) the viola concerto written specifically for her by Tim Brady with the Nova Scotia Symphony orchestra in 2015.
In 2017 Jutta won the German Best Edition Prize 2017 for her re-edition of 13 of the French “Pièces de Concours” (written from 1896–1940) published by Schott in 3 volumes (ED 22254-56). Her new double CD “Pièces de Concours – Virtuosic romantic works by French composers” (Navona NV6065) has gotten rave reviews from Fanfare magazine as well as from the Strad Magazine, Das Orchester (Germany), La Szena Musicale (Québec) Infodad, Kathodik (Italy) and the Classical Modern Music Review.
Jutta has vast experience as a chamber musician, having been part of the Claudel String Quartet, the Kegelstatt Clarinet/vla/pno Trio, the Montreal String Trio, the Wiener Nonet, the Ensemble La Pietà, the Ondine Piano Quartett and currently the Puchhammer-Desjardins Duo (vla/pno). Her participation in diverse festivals has permitted her to play with various artists of international reputation such as John Perry, André Laplante, Anton Kuerti, Caecilia Boschman, Chantal Juillet, János Starker, Laurence Lesser, Rudolf Leopold, Thomas Selditz, André Moisan, Alain Trudel and Robert Langevin.
Jutta regularly gives masterclasses at the Juilliard School of Music, the Curtis Institute of Music (USA), the Cleveland Institute (USA), the University of Vienna, the University of Rotterdam, the Hautes Écoles de Musique de Genève et de Lausanne in Europe as well as the Conservatoires Supérieurs de Musique de Lyon and CRR in Paris.
She has also given masterclasses and a recital in the Primrose memorial Series at Brigham Young University, Provo (USA) in spring 2017.
Jutta was the Principal Violist of the Laval Symphony orchestra for 20 years until 2017; she was president of the Canadian Viola Society (CVS) from 2006–2014, and has been president of the International Viola Society (IVS) since 2020. She has been awarded the Maurice Riley prize for international achievement and recently the IVS “Silver Alto Clef”, the highest distinction given by the IVS.
The Viennese-born violist Jutta Puchhammer-Sédillot, former student of Siegfried Führlinger (Vienna) and Heidi Castleman (USA), is known as a violist of exceptional quality. She is full professor (titulaire) of viola and chamber music at the Université de Montréal, Canada, as well as on the faculties of the Orford Music (Festival Quebec), the TTT Project (teach teachers teach) in Villarica, Chile and the Sarasota International Music Festival (USA). She also has taught at the Perlman Music Program (PMP), the Heifetz International Music Institute (Virginia), and the North American Viola Institute (NAVI).
She is renowned for her performances of rare late-romantic viola repertoire. Her solo CDs, entitled “Alto Romantic Fantasies” (works by Ph. Scharwenka, C. Reinecke, R. Fuchs, J. Joachim – Eclectra ECCD-2060) and “German Romantic Works” (sonatas by R. Fuchs, E. Naumann, F. Kiel, R. Schumann – Fidelio FIDC 018) have both been acclaimed in Fanfare magazine with praise :“Here the viola shines with as much fire as a passionate violin, cries with as much desperation as a cello, entices, seduces, and convinces the listener that no string instrument could be more versatile or beautiful.”
She also has recorded on CD (Centrediscs CMCCD21515) the viola concerto written specifically for her by Tim Brady with the Nova Scotia Symphony orchestra in 2015.
In 2017 Jutta won the German Best Edition Prize 2017 for her re-edition of 13 of the French “Pièces de Concours” (written from 1896–1940) published by Schott in 3 volumes (ED 22254-56). Her new double CD “Pièces de Concours – Virtuosic romantic works by French composers” (Navona NV6065) has gotten rave reviews from Fanfare magazine as well as from the Strad Magazine, Das Orchester (Germany), La Szena Musicale (Québec) Infodad, Kathodik (Italy) and the Classical Modern Music Review.
Jutta has vast experience as a chamber musician, having been part of the Claudel String Quartet, the Kegelstatt Clarinet/vla/pno Trio, the Montreal String Trio, the Wiener Nonet, the Ensemble La Pietà, the Ondine Piano Quartett and currently the Puchhammer-Desjardins Duo (vla/pno). Her participation in diverse festivals has permitted her to play with various artists of international reputation such as John Perry, André Laplante, Anton Kuerti, Caecilia Boschman, Chantal Juillet, János Starker, Laurence Lesser, Rudolf Leopold, Thomas Selditz, André Moisan, Alain Trudel and Robert Langevin.
Jutta regularly gives masterclasses at the Juilliard School of Music, the Curtis Institute of Music (USA), the Cleveland Institute (USA), the University of Vienna, the University of Rotterdam, the Hautes Écoles de Musique de Genève et de Lausanne in Europe as well as the Conservatoires Supérieurs de Musique de Lyon and CRR in Paris.
She has also given masterclasses and a recital in the Primrose memorial Series at Brigham Young University, Provo (USA) in spring 2017.
Jutta was the Principal Violist of the Laval Symphony orchestra for 20 years until 2017; she was president of the Canadian Viola Society (CVS) from 2006–2014, and has been president of the International Viola Society (IVS) since 2020. She has been awarded the Maurice Riley prize for international achievement and recently the IVS “Silver Alto Clef”, the highest distinction given by the IVS.
Professor Lihay Bendayan is an Israeli-Swiss violinist and pedagogue.
Between 2004 and 2008, Lihay Bendayan held the position of Professor of Violin at the “Conservatoire Supérieur et Académie de musique Tibor Varga” in Sion, Switzerland.
From 2008 to 2015 he was Professor of Violin at the HEMU, the Lausanne Music University in Switzerland where he elaborated a research project dedicated to the Tibor Varga Method of violin playing technique.
Since autumn 2011, Prof. Bendayan has held the position of Head of the Violin Class at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance in parallel with his teaching position in Switzerland. In autumn 2014, he was appointed Head of the Strings Department at JAMD and between 2015 to 2020 served as Dean of the Faculty of Performing Arts.
Lihay Bendayan is performing in Israel and Europe as soloist and as chamber-musician and regularly gives lectures and masterclasses in prestigious academic institutions around Europe. His students, from around the world, are often competitions winners and hold international careers.
Lihay was the pupil of some of the most illustrious pedagogues of his generation, important representatives of very major violin schools: including Miriam Solovieff, the American violin prodigy, pupil of Carl Flesch and Louis Persinger – who formed amongst others Yehudi Menuhin, Isaac Stern, Dorothey Delay and Ruggiero Ricci. He also studied with the Hungarian virtuoso Tibor Varga, with Michael Gaizler with whom he started his violin studies, and with Yair Kless.
Between the age of 9 to 13, Lihay Bendayan was the youngest and one of the last pupils of legendary professor Ilona Feher, the teacher of Shmuel Ashkenazy, Pinchas Zukermann, Shlomo Mintz, Hagai Shaham, Erez Ofer and others.
Noticed and followed by Isaac Stern since the age of nine, Lihay Bendayan was bestowed the “American-Israeli Cultural Foundation” award for the a consecutive 10 years. He also completed his postgraduate degree from the Geneva Haute Ecole de Musique at the age of 17. He has appeared as a young soloist in Israel and in numerous European cities, including Switzerland, France, Germany, Italy and England and festivals, and was broadcast on television and radio around Europe and in Israel. The Bendayan Trio, launched by Agneta Lansing Artist Management in 2003, recorded the trios by Mendelssohn, Faure, Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff at “Fattoria Musica” in Germany. The recordings and concerts of the trio have been subject to passionate criticism:
“It‘s standing that the public had thanked the musician for the gift he was given and for the symbiosis with the music that it had felt, the virtuosity of the interpretation, and the intensity of the emotion. Nor notes, but a river of feeling which are difficult to express by words” (La Revue Juive). “Played with heart and soul into a trance” (Osnabrücker Neue Zeitung). “Their Shostakovich was so beautiful that tears almost dropped…” (Süddeutsche Zeitung). “A public in a trance” (Grafschafter Nachrichten). “This ensemble has the particularity of being composed by three brothers and the osmosis between them gives to their performances a particularly special depth” (Le Nouvelliste).
Milan Milisavljević serves as the Principal Viola with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Dubbed “the engine propelling the performance forward” by the New York Classical Review, his playing combines intense expression with a profound link to the listener.
The Strad magazine describes his artistry as “very imaginative, with a fine, cultured tone”. His solo album, Sonata-Song, released by Delos Music, has earned glowing reviews. Notably, his recording of Aram Khachaturian’s Solo Sonata on the album is considered “definitive”.
As a soloist, Milan has performed with the Munich Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonic Orchestras of Belgrade, Medellín, and Boca del Río, Aspen Sinfonia, New York Classical Players, and Classical Tahoe. He has won prizes at competitions such as Lionel Tertis and Aspen Lower Strings and has performed at Marlboro, Mostly Mozart, Josef Gingold, Cascade Head, Classical Tahoe and Grand Teton music festivals.
A prolific chamber musician, Milan performs regularly at Carnegie Hall with the MET Chamber Players. He has collaborated with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Augustin Hadelich, Cho-Liang Lin, and Joseph Kalichstein, as well as members of the Guarneri and Mendelssohn String Quartets.
Currently, Milan serves on the viola faculty at the Mannes School of Music and New York University. He was recently appointed Teaching Artist at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara. Furthermore, he has given masterclasses at the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, and festivals such as Aspen and Verbier.
Milan is committed to performing the music of underrepresented composers. He gave the world premiere of Leo Brouwer’s Solo Viola Sonata and regularly performs works by Ana Sokolović and Jessie Montgomery. A recent highlight is his project Slow Beethoven, a collaboration with Lara St. John, Miranda Cuckson, and Jeffrey Zeigler, creating a lush sonic landscape based on Beethoven’s late string quartets.
Prior to his current position at the MET, Milan served as its Assistant Principal Viola for eleven seasons. His orchestral experience includes performing with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and serving as guest Principal Viola for the Toronto Symphony.
Milan holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from Rice University. His major teachers include Jutta Puchhammer, Atar Arad, James Dunham, Nobuko Imai, and Samuel Rhodes. Milan is a Larsen Strings Artist.
Nemanja Marjanović was born in Belgrade, where he began to play viola at the Music school „Stanković“ with professor Tatjana Petrović. He graduated and received his master’s degree from the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, in the class of professor Dejan Mlađenović. He also completed his postgraduate studies in Madrid, at the Queen Sofia School of Music (Escuela Superior de musica Reina Sofia), in the class of the world-renowned violist Gerard Caussé, as a student of the generation in the department, and received a diploma from Her Royal Highness Sofia.
As a soloist, he trained in master classes with Yuri Bashmet, Nobuko Imai, Paul Neubauer, Ognjan Stancev and others. He specialized in string quartet with Rainer Schmidt (violinist of the Hagen Quartet) and professor Walter Levin from the Juilliard School in New York. In the field of chamber music, he studied with Marta Gulyas, Eldar Nebolsin, Zakhar Bron, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Peter Frankel, Ralf Gothóni, Rudolf Barshai, Dmitri Bashkirov, Jamie Martin, Radovan Vlatković, Natalia Shakhovskaya, José Luis García Asensio and others.
He participated in all significant festivals in Serbia (BEMUS, NOMUS, Days of Mokranjac, Marble and Sound Art Festival, OKTOH, International Review of Composers), as well as abroad. He performed in Austria, Spain, Hungary, Russia, Italy, the Netherlands, Mexico and other countries. He won first prize at the “Petar Konjović” International Competition in three stages.
During his solo career, he performed with many orchestras such as the RTS Symphony Orchestra, Art Ensemble “Stanislav Binički”, “Orpheus” Chamber Orchestra, Banja Luka Philharmonic, “Dušan Skovran” Orchestra where he was the solo viola player for five years, and the Camerata Orchestra from Novi Sad. He performed as a member of the Jewish Chamber Orchestra, with the “Kornelije” Orchestra, where he was also the solo viola player and one of its founders. He was a member of the Scarlatti Quintet in Madrid, with whom he performed in Spain and Italy, and with whom he released a disc for Sony Classic.
He currently works as an associate professor at the viola department at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade and at the Academy of Arts in Banja Luka at the string instruments department, viola section.
Tomoko Akasaka is a versatile violist who is appreciated for her extraordinary charisma and stage presence as soloist and chamber musician. She won numerous international awards, including the first prize at the 12th International “Japan Classical Music Competition” and the 3rd prize at the 53rd International Music Competition of ARD (2004).
She has appeared as soloist with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, Kremerata Baltica, the Orchestre de Chambre Genève, the Ensemble Contrechamps, the Filarmonica Banatul Timisoara, the Venezuelan Symphony Orchestra and the Japan Chamber Orchestra under conductors such as Seiji Ozawa, Johannes Kalitzke, Rüdiger Bohn, Gheorghe Costin, Olivier Cuendet, Roman Kofman and Günther Herbig.
Tomoko Akasaka's chamber music partners include Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, Daniel Hope, Juliane Banse, Heinz Holliger, Menahem Pressler, Julian Steckel, Andreas Ottensamer, Daishin Kashimoto, the Kuss Quartet and many more with whom she performed at international music festivals such as Lockenhaus, Salzburg Festival, Pablo Casals Festival, Verbier, Lucerne, Kissinger Sommer, San Francisco Musical Days, Olivier Messiaen Festival, Zagreb Chamber Music Festival, Kronberg Cello Festival, Alba Music Festival and Schubertiade.
Tomoko Akasaka has played at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Tonhalle Zurich, the Mozarteum Salzburg, the Victoria Hall London and the Grand Theater in Geneva, the Konzerthaus and the Philharmonie Berlin, Elmau Castle, Suntory Hall Tokyo and Nymphenburg Castle Munich.
Lately, she has given recitals in Switzerland, France, Italy, Germany and Japan, a concert series in Tokyo has been broadcast by the NHK TV throughout Japan.
Tomoko first started playing the violin at the age of five and went to the special school of the Toho Music University. After graduation, she studied at the Liszt Academy in Budapest, Hungary.
Shortly after her return to Japan, she switched to the viola and studied at the Toho Tokyo University until the age of 21. After that, Tomoko continued her studies at the Geneva Music Conservatory with Nobuko Imai, whose assistant she was at the same time. In addition, she was a guest professor at the Music Conservatory of Neuchatel.
Her musical relationship with György Kurtág has a profound influence on her as a musician. She also regularly collaborates with Helmut Lachenmann, Toshio Hosokawa and has performed and recorded numerous contemporary works for viola. Tomoko Akasaka joined the Amaryllis Quartet in 2016 and currently lives in Berlin.
A native of Croatia, Zoran Jakovčić made his solo orchestral debut as winner of the National Competition in Zagreb. He has performed in recital and as soloist with orchestras in Europe, Japan, China, and the US. Mr. Jakovcic was first violinist of the Essex Quartet (1988–98), winner of numerous competitions and awards with residences at Juilliard, Yale, Rutgers, Meadowmount, Banff and Aspen.
In 2005 Mr. Jakovcic joined the Maia Quartet, Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Iowa. The Maia Quartet performed throughout the US, Japan and China, collaborated with leading chamber musicians including Joel Krosnick, Andre-Michel Schub, Cynthia Phelps, Daniel Avshalomov and Wendy Warner, and premiered and recorded works by Pierre Jalbert, Magnus Lindberg, Dan Coleman, Vivian Fung and Ronn Yedidia. Mr. Jakovcic taught and performed at the Great Wall International Music Academy in China, Up-Beat Festival in Japan, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Killington Music Festival and the Austin Chamber Music Festival.
Mr. Jakovcic graduated from The Juilliard School as a student of Dorothy Delay and got his Master of Music degree at the Conservatory of Music, the Cincinnati College. He served as teaching assistant to Robert Mann of the Juilliard Quartet. An accomplished teacher and administrator, Mr.Jakovcic has founded the Arcady International Music Camp (ME) and the Thurnauer Chamber Music Camp (NJ), and served on the faculty of the University of Iowa and Columbus State University in Georgia.