PROGRAMME

 

I.BAJIĆ: Sanje i Igra (Dreams and Dance)

V.MOKRANJAC: Tri igre ( Three dances)

D. DESPIĆ: Nokturno ( Nocturne)

M. RAIČKOVIĆ: Zimski valcer ( Winter Waltz)

S. BINIČKI: Po polju je kiša pala ( Rain in the fields) with guest soprano Eleanor Valkenburg

G.GERSHWIN: Three preludes

A. COPLAND: Long ago

                         Little horses (with guest soprano Eleanor Valkenburg)

M. TAJČEVIĆ: Četiri srpske igre ( Four Serbian dances)

S. BOŽIĆ: Lirika Atosa ( Athos lyrics)

K.BABIĆ: Dišeš i igraš ( You are dreaming and dancing) with guest soprano Eleanor Valkenburg

K. BABIĆ: Preludii giocosi:

                    -prepletummobile

                    -zapletummobile

                    -raspletummobile

 

Natasha Mitrovic, pianist, is a native of Belgrade received her undergraduate and graduate degrees with excellent results at the Music Academy in Belgrade where she now teaches piano. Further studies included work with professors at Moscow Conservatory of Music, piano studies in Vienna with professor Avo Kouyoumdjian and piano studies with Professor Jan Novotny in Prague.

Natasha Mitrovic was the only artist from Serbia who won Fulbright scholarship in 2004. During her Fulbright grant, Ms. Mitrovic studied at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), at Julliard University (New York) and at de Paul University (Chicago). She had there many solo performances with great success.

Ms. Mitrovic has won many prizes for piano performances in Serbia and abroad. She performed 16 times as a piano soloist with all major orchestras in Serbia and also with the Bulgarian Philharmonic and the orchestras in Frankfurt (Germany). She has given recitals and performances in France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Macedonia, Bulgaria, United States and China.

Ms. Mitrovic was a lecture performer on 31st Fulbright Conference in Beijing (China) in October 2008. She often plays as a member of various chamber ensembles. She has recorded for television and radio in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Macedonia and with RAI, in Italy.

Ms. Mitrovic had very successful serial of performances in 2005 with soprano Eleanor Valkenburg in Belgrade performing Serbian and American composers. This cooperation has continued and they performed together in the US - New York 2006 and 2008 with “Poetica Musica” and Washington, DC (IFC Concert hall in 2006 and Arts Club of Washington 2008).

 

Eleanor Valkenburg, soprano, has achieved worldwide recognition as a chamber musician, soloist and as the Director of Poetica Musica, a New York-based chamber music ensemble. Ms Valkenburg has performed in some of the most prestigious festivals and chamber music series including the Bergen Festival, the Istanbul International Music Festival, the Sarajevo Festival and L’ Octobre Festival du Carthage, the Martinu Festival in Czech Republic, at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the St-Martin-in-the Fields in London.

 

As a chamber music musician, she has performed in more then thirty-five countries on four continents including Tunisia, Bosnia, India, Serbia, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Syria, etc. conducting master classes as well as performing concerts.

 

Along with the members of Poetica Musica, she has performed in the 2005 Hans Christian Andersen celebration at Weill Hall of Carnegie Hall sponsored by Royal Danish Consulate in New York and the Hans Christian Andersen Foundation in Copenhagen. She recently performed at the Edvard Grieg Centennial Festival sponsored by Royal Norwegian Consulate in New York.

 

Ms. Valkenburg has appeared in radio and television broadcasts for the CNN World Report, CNN Turk, Polish and Czech Television and has received praise for her work and artistry from the New York Times, Newsday, the Washington Post, 

 

Ms. Valkenburg has received support for the Fulbright Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ambassador’s Envoy Program of the United States State Department, the Martinu Foundation, the Janacek in Hukvaldy Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts.

 

After attaining a Bachelors Degree from the SUNY at Stony Brook, she earned her Master of Music degree at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and her Master of Science degree from Hunter College. She also attended the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.