Strong Audience Support for Music Academy Students

Since its inception, the KotorArt Festival has been dedicated to nurturing young talents, whether through educational courses or concerts. Following the opening concert of the Festival titled Upbeat, where the best students of the Vida Matjan Music School from Kotor performed on the World Music Day, June 21, the KotorArt stage welcomed slightly more advanced talents – students of the Music Academy. As recipients of awards for the best students of the University of Montenegro in the field of arts, the following students took the stage: violinist Ivana Dendić, trumpeter Vuk Kuč, flutist Marija Sinđić, pianist Sofia Jović, and accordionist Joko Mićković.

Having earned multiple awards from national and international competitions, these students presented compositions of various styles and genres, some in their entirety, and others fragmentarily, focusing on certain movements. Ivana Dendić, a violin student under Professor Vujadin Krivokapić, delivered a striking performance of Rodion Shchedrin’s composition A la Albéniz. Vuk Kuč, a trumpet student under Professor Nikola Mijajlović, showcased the intriguing style of composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel, bridging classicism and early Romanticism with his rendition of the first movement of the Concerto for Trumpet in E-flat major. Marija Sinđić, a flute student under Professor Marija Đurđević Ilić, performed the romantic piece Carnival of Venice by Giulio Briccialdi. The first movement of Frédéric Chopin’s Piano Sonata in B-flat minor was played by Sofia Jović, a piano student under Professor Bojan Martinović. The concert concluded with an interpretation of three movements from the cycle Images of the Passing Time by Anatoly Kusyakov, performed by Joko Mićković, an accordion student under Professor Predrag Janković.

KotorArt has a longstanding collaboration with the Music Academy of the University of Montenegro, an artistic higher education institution and a center for the education of music pedagogues, performers, and creators in Montenegro. Considering that the path to a solo career is a significant challenge for any young artist, performing at KotorArt is not only an opportunity to practice on the concert stage and showcase their accomplishments, but also a potential stepping stone for their future careers. While there are numerous factors influencing an artist’s journey, Music Academy students, in addition to their inherent talent, are fortunate to receive substantial audience support. Each of them received warm applause as they bid farewell from the stage. 

Boris Marković