Hrvatski

Ivan Goran Kovačić Academic Choir

Date created: 24.05.2017.
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''Ivan Goran Kovačić'' Academic Choir was founded in 1948. The choir was directed by highly regarded Croatian musicians Mladen Jagušt, Duško Prašelj, Lovro Županović, Adalbert Marković, Dinko Fio, Vladimir Kranjčević, and Saša Britvić. Since the beginning of 2003 the choir's artistic director is Luka Vukšić. The director's assistant is Veton Marevci.

The choir's performances have been conducted by Croatia's and world's most eminent musicians, such as Lovro von Matačić, Milan Horvat, Zubin Mehta, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Krzysztof Penderecki, Lorin Maazel, Ennio Morricone, Noam Sheriff, Gerd Albrecht, Kazushi Ono, Alun Francis, Hans Graf, Kurt Masur, Dmitrij Kitajenko, Valerij Gergijev, and Sir Neville Marriner. The members of the choir, also referred to as 'Goranovci', have performed with many opera singers, the most prominent among them being Vladimir Ruždjak, Ruža Pospiš - Baldani, Ruggiero Raimondi, Jose Carreras, Andrea Bocelli, Inva Mula, and many others.

Numerous guest performances of the choir have taken place all over the world: in Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Korea, Macedonia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, USA, and Vatican. Also, the choir has taken part in various international festivals – Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Settembre musica in Turin, Flaneries musicales in Reims, the Wiener Festwochen (Vienna Festival), 21st music Festival de la Chaise-Dieu, Ljubljana Festival, Varaždin Baroque Evenings, Dubrovnik Summer Festival, and Pula Summer Festival.

The choir has collaborated with some of the finest orchestras including the Vienna Philharmonic, the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, the Florence Symphony Orchestra, the Monte Carlo Opera Orchestra, the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Symphony Orchestra, the Bari Symphony Orchestra, the National Youth Orchestra of Germany, the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra.

The choir regularly works with Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, Croatian Radiotelevision Symphony Orchestra, and Croatian Baroque Ensemble.

High musical achievements of Academic choir ˝Ivan Goran Kovačić˝ have been recognised and awarded with numerous prizes and acknowledgements, and a special emphasise should be given to the University of Zagreb Rector's Award, the City of Zagreb Award, and the ¨Vladimir Nazor˝ Award.

 

Luka Vukšić, a conductor, was born in 1976 in Zagreb. He graduated from conducting study programme at the Academy of Music in Zagreb in the class of maestro Igor Gjadrov. In April 1999 he was awarded the University of Zagreb Rector’s Award for his diploma thesis for which he worked with Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra. During the year he was given ‘’Lovro and Lilly Matačić’’ fund scholarship.

Vukšić attended postgraduate programme at The Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest with Ervin Lukacs and Tamas Gal. He took part in numerous courses led by most prominent conductors such as Ronald Zollman and Yuri Simonov. Among awards he received it is important to mention Croatian Music Youth Award ‘’Ivo Vuljević’’ for best young musician in 2000, the year when he became the permanent conductor of Academic choir ''Ivan Goran Kovačić''. Since 2001 he regularly collaborates with Croatian Radiotelevision Choir.

Vukšić has performed with almost every larger Croatian ensemble, such as Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, Croatian Radiotelevision Symphony Orchestra and Choir, Symphony Orchestra of Dubrovnik, Croatian Baroque Ensemble, Rijeka Philharmonic Orchestra, Croatian Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra, and many others. A great number of his performances have been broadcasted on radio or television, and they have taken place not only in Croatia, but also in Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Mexico.

As Academic choir ''Ivan Goran Kovačić'' conductor he conducted various Croatian and foreign compositions for choir with or without instrumental accompaniment, while as an artistic director he led the choir to perform some of the greatest pieces of music. In Bratislava in 2009 at ''Slovakia cantat'' competition the choir won the first prize.

Since 2010 Vukšić is Croatian Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra’s artistic director.

Conducting orchestras and choirs he took part in numerous eminent performances which were often of charitable nature.