NomuS 2010

Closing Ceremony

Synagogue, 20,00 h

ST. GEORGE STRINGS

Music Director and Soloist: Gordan NIKOLIC, violin

Programme: Eric, Vivaldi, Lekeu, Beethoven

GORDAN NIKOLIC, violin, Serbia/Holland
Gordan Nikolic was born in Brus, in 1968 and began playing violin at the age of seven.
He graduated with the highest acclaims at the Musikhochschule Basel in the class of Jean-Jacques Kantorow working also with  Lutoslawsky and Kurtág and developing an interest in both Baroque and contemporary music. He is the winner of several international awards, which include the Tibor Varga, Niccolò Paganini, Cità di Brescia, and Vaclaw Huml prizes.
In 1989, he was appointed the leader of the Orchestre d’Auvergne, which he conducted regularly from his leader’s chair. He worked in the same way with  the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, and later with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Since 1997, he has been conducting the London Symphony Orchestra as well.
He has also often conducted the Chamber Orchestra of the London Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France, Manchester Camerata, and Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. Nikolic was also the guest of the  Orchestre de Lille.
In 2000, he was appointed “Prince Consort Professor” for string ensembles at the Royal College of Music and in September 2003, he became a professor at the Guildhall School of Music in London and Royal College in Rotterdam. A year later, he took over the leadership and became the Artistic Director of the Nederland’s Kamerorkest, which is based in Amsterdam.
Gordan Nikolic has a special interest in chamber music and is regularly invited to perform at various renowned festivals and concerts with  musicians such as Vladimir Mendelssohn, Pieter Wispelwey, Christophe Coin, Eric Le Sage, Maria João Pires, Mikhaïl Pletnev, Emmanuel Ax, and Tim Hugh. Recently, he joined the Vellinger String Quartet.
He has performed as a soloist with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestre Symphonique de Bâle, Combattimento Consort from Amsterdam, Israel Chamber Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra. He also worked with conductors such as Sir Colin Davis, Bernard Haitink, Daniel Harding, and André Previn. It is worth mentioning that he gave the première of James MacMillan’s Violin Concerto, “Deep But Dazzling Darkness” with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Gordan Nikolic has made many recordings for various labels (Olympia, Lyrinx, Syrius, LSO Live), exploring the lesser-known violin repertoire. One of his recordings, dedicated to Vivaldy, was nominated the “Recording of the Month” in Holland, and his Bach recording received an award from DRS3, the Swiss cultural radio channel.
Since 2006, he has been an artistic leader of the renowned chamber orchestra Royal Strings of St. George from Belgrade. Gordan Nikolic plays a Lorenzo Storioni violin dating back to 1794.

ST. GEORGE’S STRINGS, chamber orchestra, Serbia
Since its establishment (1992) until today several generations of eminent artists have been the members of this unique string ensemble from Belgrade. In the beginning, it was composed of former students of the School for Musical Talents in Cuprija and their young colleagues from Belgrade. Currently, its members are professors and assistant working at universities of Belgrade and Kragujevac and School of Music from Cuprija. The first prize at the International Competition of the Musical Youth in Belgrade in 1996 contributed to making it one of the most significant and most interesting chamber orchestras in the country. That same year, St. George’s Strings were invited to play at the concert in London on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of UNICEF. Working from the very beginning with the professor Petar Ivanovic, the most renowned violist and lecturer at the Faculty of Musical Art from that time, young musicians used to cherish not only a close relationship and a high level of discipline, but also a special tone quality with specific coloration and „viola“ warmth which soon became one of their most recognised specific characteristics.
Until today, they have had more than 1,500 performances in the country and abroad and their repertoire includes pieces for string ensembles, from Baroque to contemporary music.
A special place in their programme belongs to pieces by Serbian authors, including the works dedicated to this ensemble and pieces for different chamber formations arranged for string orchestras.
Thanks to their typical musical profile, commitment, and enthusiasm, they created cordial connections with soloists, conductors, and composers encountering also a nice reaction and undivided affection of the audience, and acclamations of experts in the country and abroad.
In addition to published reviews, permanent sound recordings for radio and television, as well as 16 compact discs are valid evidence to artistic results accomplished by this orchestra.
Among important tours and guest performances we can single out those in Great Britain, Holland, Germany, Sweden, Ukraine, Russia, Hungary, Macedonia and Slovenia, along with regular performances at renowned festivals such as BEMUS, NOMUS, BELEF, Ohrid Summer and International Composers’ Tribune. In 2006, Gordan Nikolic, an artist with international reputation, became the musical director of St.George’s Strings enriching the activities of the orchestra with a different programme commitment.