Robert LAKATOŠ, violin – OSKAR varga, violin
Jožef BISAK, viola – Irena JOSIFOSKA, cello
Aleksandar TASIĆ, clarinet
Programme:
J. BRAHMS:
String quartet No.1 in C minor, Op.51 (1873)
***
J. BRAHMS:
Clarinet quintet in B minor, Op.115 (1891)

Tickets are available at: Musical Youth of Novi Sad (Katolicka porta street 2, tel. 021/452-344).
Buy on-line tickets here

ROBERT LAKATOS, violin, Serbia
He began studying his instrument as a seven-year old, at the Isidor Bajić Music School, in his hometown of Novi Sad. He grew up in the family of musicians and his father Imre Lakatos was also his first mentor. As the youngest violin student in the history of the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, Lakatos completed his undergraduate and master studies in the class of the renowned pedagogue Dejan Mihailović. He continued his formal education at Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK), where he was awarded a scholarship for exceptionally talented musicians by the Swiss Lyra Foundation. Since 2015 he has been co-operating with Julian Rachlin at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and attending PhD studies under the mentorship of Roman Simović
Among numerous first and special prizes Robert has won at national and international competitions, the most notable ones are the first prizes at Pablo Sarasate Competition (Pamplona, Spain, 2015), Mary Smart Concerto Competition (New York, 2013), Societe Generale Serbia (Belgrade, 2009), as well as the second prizes at competitions of Jeunesses Musicales Romania (Bucharest, 2012), Andrea Postacchini (Fermo, Italy, 2012) and International Violin Competition in Brentonico (Italy, 2004).
Robert Lakatos has been developing his concert career as a soloist and chamber musician performing in Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Norway, Israel, USA, Romania, Greece, Croatia, and Montenegro.
As a soloist he performed with numerous orchestras such as the Symphony Orchestra of Navara (Spain), Kraków Philharmonic, Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, Monterrey Symphony Orchestra Mexico), “Stanislav Binički” Art Ensemble of the Ministry of Defence, Vojvodina Symphonists, Niš Symphony Orchestra, Novi Sad Academic Orchestra, Summit Music Festival Orchestra from New York, Novi Sad Chamber Orchestra, Banja Luka Philharmonic, Vojvodina Chamber Orchestra, and ZHdK-Strings Zurich Chamber Orchestra and Camerata Janáček. He has co-operated with the conductors Lior Shambadal, Antoni Wit, Philip Greenberg, Manuel Hernandez Silva, and Eduard Schmieder.
Robert Lakatos has made recordings for radio and television stations in the country and abroad, including permanent recordings made for Radio-Television Vojvodina. He was awarded the recognition of the Institute for Culture of Vojvodina “Iskra kulture” for 2017. At the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad he holds the position of Violin Associate Professor. In 2016 he became a Thomastik Artist. The emphasis during the current season (2017/2018) is placed on his concerts with the Belgrade Philharmonic, Minas Gerais Philharmonic from Belo Orizonte (Brazil) and Malaga Philharmonic (Spain).
He plays using a hand made bow manufactured by our famous bow maker Vladimir Radosavljević.

OSZKÁR VARGA, violin, Hungary
Born in Novi Sad, in a family of renowned musicians, this young artist is currently at his PhD studies at the Doctoral School of the Liszt Academy in Budapest, where he already teaches himself. He started taking violin classes at the age of four and later continued his education in Budapest where he moved with his family in 1999. During the studies he regularly attended classes in Bergamo (Italy), Kaposvár (Hungary) and Karellis (France) learning with renowned musicians of different generations such as Dejan Bogdanović, Barnabás Kelemen, Alexander and Albert Markov. He also attended classes of Maxim Rysanov, Boris Brovtsyn, and Ivry Gitlis and spent a year in New York as an invited scholarship holder with all the privileges that such a status implied. Varga made his debut as soloist in Budapest in 2009 playing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with Zugló Philharmonics. During 2014/2015 he was a member of the Kelemen Quartet with which he performed at the prestigious venues famous after chamber music performing, such as Leiszhalle in Hamburg, Wigmore Hall in London, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Palais des Beaux-Arts – BOZAR in Brussels, Musikverein in Vienna, and Tetaro la Fenice in Venice.
Within the last six years he has been performing with great success as soloist and chamber musician at many festivals in France (Karellis), Holland (Arnhem), Israel (Jerusalem), Austria (Lockenhaus), and Hungary. He is highly committed to contemporary music and in that field he has had a number of successful, acclaimed by the critics, performances with pieces by Witold Lutosłavski, Steve Reich, György Ligeti, György Kurtag, Peter Eötves, and Laszlo Tihanyi. He has also co-operated with the most renowned artists of international concert scene among who we could mention a few that also performed in Novi Sad, such as a cellist Nikolas Altstaedt, violinist Barnabás Kelemen, and cellist Lazslo Fenÿo, as well as with the participants of Nomus 2018 Zoltán Fejérvári and János Palojtay. Varga’s graduation exam, which also included Béla Bartók’s Violin Concerto no. 2, which he played together with Pannon Philharmonic in the famous Great Hall of the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest. The most brilliant events in Oszkár Varga’s career during the previous season include the interpretations of Double Concerto for Violin and Cello by Johannes Brahms, which a young violinist played all around Hungary and in Barcelona together with his father, the cellist István Varga and the Miskolc Symphony Orchestra under the conductor Tamás Gál. In addition to his first guest performance at Nomus, a young artist will also have his debut this season in Japan with the Violin Concerto no. 5 in D major, K.175 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, which he will play together with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra under the conductor Stefan Vladar, the artists who were the guests of our festival in 2016. He will also perform as a concert master in Singapore under the conductor Gabor Takacs-Nagy and he also plans a number of different concerts at the national scene, the most important of which is the one at the Great Hall of the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest.

JOZEF BISAK, viola, Serbia
He acquired lower and secondary music education at Isidor Bajić Music School in Novi Sad.
Jozef graduated viola at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, in the class of Prof. Dušica Polovina. As a teenager, he won numerous awards at provincial, republic and state competitions. During his education, he attended numerous master classes (Prof. Zoran Jakovčić at the Columbus State University in the USA, Prof. Pierre Henri Xuereb at the Paris National Conservatory, Prof. Gerard Causse at the Eskuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia, Felix Schwartz, the prime violist of the Staatskapelle Berlin, Prof. Dejan Mladjenović at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade).
He has been a solo violist in the Opera Orchestra of the Serbian National Theatre since 2006. In October 2015, he passed successfully the audition for the position of solo viola in the Symphony Orchestra of the RTV Slovenia. At the same position he plays as a permanent member of the Vojvodina Symphony Orchestra, Žebeljan Orchestra, No Borders Orchestra, and Camerata Academica and Academia Ars Musicae ensembles in Austria. Since 2016, he has been a member of the Austrian Acies Quartet with which he has performed and recorded intensively. With the above-mentioned ensembles, he has performed at home and abroad (United Kingdom, Germany, France, Austria, Netherlands, Italy, Hungary, Slovenia, and Greece).
As a soloist, he has played with the Symphony Orchestra of the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad and Camerata Academica. He recorded numerous performances in chamber ensembles as well as solo recitals and collaborated with world-renowned conductors and soloists.
Bisak has performed at Bemus, Nomus, Somus, and Nimus festivals, at a series of concerts on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of composer Ljubica Marić, the 20th International Review of Composers in Belgrade, as well as at a gala concert on the occasion of 170 years of founding of the Serbian Academy of Science and Art, with prominent artists from the country and abroad (Ksenija Janković, Julija Hartig, Aleksandar Latković).
In 2013, as a solo violist of the No Borders Orchestra, he took part in recording of a compact disc for Universal Music Austria GmbH and Deutsche Grammophon labels and that same year in recording of a CD with chamber music by Isidora Žebeljan titled Balkan Bolero together with the Žebeljan Orchestra that was released in London in 2014. In 2016, he recorded a CD with the Acies Quartet under Granola Vienna label.

IRENA JOSIFOSKA, cello, Serbia
She was born 1996 into a family of musicians and started playing cello at the age of 5 at the Isidor Bajić Music School in Novi Sad, in the class of her mother, Judit Niederholzer-Josifoska, where she acquired her elementary and secondary education in music. Irena graduated from the Academy of Arts in the same city where she currently attends master studies in the class of Prof. Marko Miletić. In parallel, she attends the same level of studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold (Germany), in the class of Prof. Xenia Jankovic. Until now she has won around fifty high recognitions at different renowned competitions such as Dotzauer (Germany), Herann (Czech Republic), International Cello Competition in Liezen (Austria), Petar Konjović in Belgrade and Belgrade Stage of Young Talents. For four times she was the laureate of the Republic Competition of Music and Ballet Schools in Serbia, and at the Jeunesses Musicales Competition in Belgrade in 2015 she was the youngest participant, finalist and winner of special prizes. Irena is the recipient of many important recognitions such as Stanojlo Rajačić, St. Sava Award, Golden Bell Award and Art-link Societe Generale Award for the “most promising young music artist in 2013”. Irena has performed in the country and abroad (England, Italy, France, Spain, Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary) accompanied by a significant number of renowned national and world orchestras and she also participated at many festivals (Austria, Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia) and master classes held by the world known cello artists and pedagogues (David Geringas, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, Jens Peter Maintz, Mineo Hayashi, Marc Coppey, Alexander Kniazev, István Varga, David Starkwether, Mark Kosower, etc.). She has co-operated with many great instrumentalists of the international concert scene while several national composers such as Dejan Despić, Svetozar Kovačević, Tibor Hartig and Aleksandar Vujić committed their works to her. Irena issued her first CD under the Swedish label “A Records” and the second one was issued by “Art Link” and “Societe Generale” in 2014.

ALEKSANDAR TASIĆ, clarinet, Serbia
He was born in Vranje and completed the Secondary Music School Stanković in Belgrade in the class of Professor Miloš Gerić. He graduated and completed his master studies in clarinet at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad in the class of Professor Nikola Srdić. Currently, he attends PhD studies at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, in the class of Professor Ante Grgin. He also attended classes with Prof. Ricardo Morales (Juilliard in New York), Prof. Michael Collins (Royal Academy in London), and Prof. Michel Arignon (National Conservatory of Music in Paris). At competitions of students of music of Yugoslavia, he won first prizes and he also won at the Laureates of Orpheus Competition of Music Youth (1998). The University of Novi Sad awarded him a special prize for outstanding artistic activities, and in 2002, he received a scholarship of the Government of the Republic of Austria. As a soloist he has performed with the Verbier Festival Orchestra in Switzerland, Novosibirsk Philharmonic, Symphony Orchestra of the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, “Stanislav Binički” Art Ensemble of the Ministry of Defence, Belgrade String Orchestra Dušan Skovran, Novi Sad Chamber Orchestra, Vojvodina Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Žebeljan, Camerata Panonnica String Orchestra, at concerts in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Russia and Serbia. He has performed at major festivals in Serbia and abroad, such as Nomus, Bemus, International Composers Review, Les Classiques de Villars, Festival&Academy Verbier and Reveries Musicales de Villars (Switzerland), Y4Y Music Festival (Bangkok, Thailand), Elmau Castle Music Festival (Germany), KotorArt (Montenegro) and the Festival in Bregenz (Austria). From 2000 to 2006 Aleksandar Tasić was a solo clarinettist of the Verbier Festival Orchestra, with which he has performed in all major concert halls of the world, under the baton of famous conductors such as James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Kent Nagano, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Valeri Gergiev, Claudio Vandelli and others. Since 2006, he has been a permanent solo clarinettist of the Festival Chamber Orchestra in Verbier. Tasić has recorded for television and radio stations in the country and abroad (RTS, BBC, ART TV, and Netherlands Radio 4). At the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad he is an associate professor of chamber music, and since 2016 a clarinet professor at FILUM in Kragujevac. Since 2007, he has been playing in a chamber duo with a guitarist Zoran Krajišnik, with whom he recorded a compact disc Ben Ritmato e Deciso. Aleksandar Tasić is a representative of the renowned manufacturer of wind instruments equipment Vandoren in France.