Artistic Director prof. Alessandra Schettino

predsednik žirije / presidente giuria / president of the jury

Carlo Teodoro was born Born in Venice. He studied cello with Adriano Vendramelli at “Benedetto Marcello” Conservatory of Music of his hometown, graduating “cum laude”. He perfected with Michael Flaksman at the Stuttgart Hochschule getting the Highest Degree in cello and later at the Mannheim Hochschule completing the Konzertexamen. He also graduated at the Chamber Music International School of the “Trio di Trieste” in Duino, Trieste, getting the Highest Degree. Masteer Class with Natalia Gutman and Daniel Shafran. He is one of the founding members of Ex Novo Ensemble, Venice, performing widely in the main festivals and concert seasons throughout the world. Important works have been written for him by Claudio Ambrosini, Luca Mosca, Marino Baratello, Ivan Vandor, Renato Miani. He has recorded world premières for the main European radios as well as chamber music with the following labels: Dynamic, Giulia, Arts, ASV Ricordi, Rivo Alto, AS Disc, Stradivarius, Edipan, Velut-Luna, Denon, Naxos. He has recently recorded “Sequenza XIV per violoncello solo” by Luciano Berio (CD Black Box – ASV), “Danni Collaterali” for cello and ensemble by Michele Dall’Ongaro (CD Stradivarius), “To the master” per cello and piano by Giacinto Scelsi (CD Stradivarius), “String Trio and works for cello and guitar by Camillo Togni (CD Naxos – world premiere). At present he teaches Cello at “Benedetto Marcello” Conservatory of Music in Venice.

Born in Bari in 1992 into a family of musicians, he graduated in 2013 cum laude and special mention at the Conservatory “Nino Rota” in Monopoli under the guidance of M° Marcello Forte, at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome in 2014 under the guidance of M° Giovanni Sollima and at the Conservatory of Italian Swiss with Prof. Monika Leskovar, where he obtained in 2016, with full marks, the Master of Arts in Music Performance. From 2009 to 2015 she followed the master classes of M° Rocco Filippini at the Academy “W. Stauffer” in Cremona and in 2014 at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena with Maestro Antonio Meneses. He also attended masterclasses with M° Maria Kliegel, M° Massimo Polidori, M° Gabriele Geminiani, M° Sandro Laffranchini and participated in the string orchestra course of the “Academy Gustav Mahler European Concertmaster” held by M° Wolfram Christ. He has won more than 20 national and international competitions. These include 1st prize at the “Mario Benvenuti” National String Competition in Vittorio Veneto in 2008 and 2010, 1st prize at the “Giussano” Music Competition in 2011, 2nd place at the “Premio Geminiani” Competition in Verona (2012) which allowed him to receive, a cello “Gaetano Vinaccia” (Naples 1886), special mention at the IX edition of the “Premio Nazionale delle Arti” promoted by the MIUR (Ministry of University and Research), Prize “Marco Allegri” at the XVIII Rassegna Migliori Diplomati 2013/2014. In 2009, following a selection at the Conservatory “Nino Rota”, he performed the Saint-Saens concerto for cello and orchestra as a soloist and in 2011, representing the same Conservatory, he played for Vatican Radio, as part of the broadcasts “Conservatories in concert”, performing live on radio. He was first cello in the National Orchestra of Conservatories from 2012 to 2014, in the Ensemble Novecento (2012), a group made up of the best students of the masterclasses of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome under the artistic direction of M° Carlo Rizzari, and currently in the Young Talents Orchestra EY, with which he also plays as a soloist. He has been invited to play the same role as first cello by the JuniOrchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Orchestra of the Teatro Cilea in Reggio Calabria and the Orchestra Filarmonica of the Calabria region. He won auditions at the Teatro “La Scala” (second cello, 2018), the Orchestra of the Teatro “La Fenice” in Venice and the Orchestra Haydn in Bolzano, Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He collaborates with the following orchestras: Teatro alla Scala, Filarmonica della Scala, Teatro Regio in Turin, Teatro “La Fenice” in Venice, Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, Teatro Sociale in Como, “Leonore” in Pistoia, “LaFil” in Milan and Internazionale d’Italia, playing with renowned conductors such as R. Chailly, F. Luisi, T. Netopil, X.Zhang, V. Gergiev, Z. Metha, P. Jarvi, M. W. Chung, D. Gatti, D. Harding, H. Blomstedt. He has given chamber music concerts with Oliver Kern, Ermanno Calzolari, Gabriella Dall’Olio, Oleksandr Semchuk. In 2013 he was the cellist of the “Quartetto Mitja” with which he played for important musical associations (Università Cattolica in Rome, Associazione Amici di Paganini in Genoa, Villa Walton in Ischia etc.) and won the first prize at the European Competition of Musical Execution “Jacopo Napoli”. In 2016 he was selected by M° Riccardo Muti to play the role of first cello in the Orchestra L. Cherubini. In 2017, following selection, he was appointed first cello and tutor of the UniMi Orchestra. Currently, after winning the competition, he is the second cello with the obligation of the first and the row at the Theatre “Giuseppe Verdi” in Trieste.

Caroline Oblasser was born in Nuremberg and started playing the cello at the age of four. Her first teachers were Ms Kuno and Lübomir Dragov at the Erlangen Music Institute. As a child, she was the youngest guest student at the Meistersinger Conservatory in Nuremberg in Prof. Claus Reichardt’s class and later continued her studies with Walter Nothas in Munich. She graduated with honours from the Mozarteum University of Salzburg with Prof. Wilfried Tachezi and specialised in concert and chamber music. Already during her studies she established herself at home and abroad as a founding member of the Salzburg Piano Trio together with Angelika Schopper (piano), with whom she performed as a duo in numerous concerts. At the same time, Caroline completed a second degree at the Paris Lodron University in Salzburg in the field of linguistics. After a year abroad in Japan and her dissertation on anglicisms in the language of the press and advertising, she first worked in a major advertising agency in Salzburg and then founded her own publishing house Edition Riedenburg in 2007. The publishing house now includes around 200 titles in the field of guidebooks and non-fiction, as well as books for children and young people. For some of them, the SOWAS! essays, Caroline has composed songs appropriate to the theme and recorded them on Edition Riedenburg’s YouTube channel.

Karmen Pečar Koritnik was born in Ljubljana. She started studying cello at the age of five. In 2003, she obtained her certificate of secondary education at the Maribor Music and Ballet Secondary School; the same year she received her first degree at the Academy of Music at the University of Zagreb. In 2005, she also received a master’s degree in the class of Professor Valter Dešpalj. She pursued further studies under the mentorship of Professor Reinhard Latzko at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.

Karmen Pečar Koritnik came to the attention of the Slovene music community as a thirteen-year-old girl when she made a debut with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, performing Elgar’s Cello Concerto. In 2001, Karmen won the prestigious International cello competition “Dr. Luis Sigall” in Chile (Viña del Mar). In 2002, at the Eurovision Young Musicians competition, she placed third, and in 2004, at the International Cello Competition “Antonio Janigro” in Zagreb, she placed second.

As a soloist, Karmen Pečar Koritnik has already performed with numerous orchestras and ensembles. Among Slovene ones are The Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, The RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony Orchestra of Slovene National Theatre in Maribor. Outside Slovenia, she performed as a soloist with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Santiago Philharmonic Orchestra, the I Solisti di Zagreb ensemble, the Spirit of Europe orchestra, the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, The Varaždin Chamber Orchestra and the Cellomania ensemble. Karmen has worked with great conductors, such as Marek Janowski, Martin Sieghart, Marko Letonja, En Shao, Vjekoslav Šutej, Israel Yinon, Sian Edwards, Uroš Lajovic, Pavle Dešpalj, Alain Francis and David del Pino Klinge. She has played alongside many renowned artists, such as Boris Pergamenščikov, Misha Maisky, Giovanni Sollima, Gottlieb Wallisch, Melina Mandozzi, Dmitri Ferstman, Božo Paradžik, Monika Leskovar, Latica Honda-Rosenberg, Rudolf Leopold and others.
Since 2014, she has been a member of a trio consisting of Eva-Nina Kozmus (flute), Karmen Pečar Koritnik (cello), and Mojca Zlobko Vajgl (harp), and since 2021 she has been a member of a piano trio consisting of Janez Podlesek (violin), Karmen Pečar Koritnik (cello), and Aleksandar Serdar (piano).
Karmen Pečar has given concerts in Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, France, as well as Italy, the Czech Republic, Russia and Central America. As a soloist and as a member of chamber ensembles she has performed at numerous festivals, and numerous venues in Slovenia and abroad, for example at the Ljubljana Festival (Slovenia), Cankarjev dom (Slovenia), Narodni dom Maribor (Slovenia), the Dubrovnik Festival (Croatia), Cellobienale Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Varaždin Evenings (Croatia), Zadar Music Evenings in S. Donat (Croatia), Bruneck Music Evenings (Italy), and Piran/Pirano Music Evenings (Slovenia).

In 2006, the publishing house ZKP RTV Slovenija released Karmen Pečar’s first CD with her performances of Dvořák and Shostakovich Cello Concertos. Since then, she has participated in the recording of many CDs (Nejc Kuhar – composer, Marko Hatlak “The Musical Offering”, Duet Marko Hatlak & Karmen Pečar, authorial CD by the composer Črt Sojar Voglar, authorial CD by the composer Janez Matičič, “Esspressivo” together with Eva-Nina Kozmus – flute and Mojca Zlobko Vajgl – harp), and recorded numerous concerts for cello and orchestra for the Slovenian Radio and Television (Lojze Lebič, Janez Matičič, Črt Sojar Voglar, Aram Khachaturian, Edward Elgar). In 2015 her second solo CD with Beethoven and Poulenc Cello Sonatas was published for the label ZKP RTV Slovenija (her partner on piano was the outstanding austrian pianist Gottlieb Wallisch). 

For many years, she was employed at the Academy of Music of the University of Zagreb as an assistant to Prof. Valter Dešpalj. Since 2007, she has been a professor of cello at the Conservatory of Music and Ballet Ljubljana. Between 2019 and 2023, she also taught at the Academy of Music of the University of Ljubljana. For many years, she has led masterclasses during the summer as part of the Bled Festival, the Podsreda Castle Musical Summer, and the Amadeo Festival. She is the artistic director of the Cellofest Ljubljana festival.

Cellist Branimir Pustički (Zagreb, 1981) graduated from the Zagreb Academy of Music under the guidance of Valter Dešpalj, and later studied with Reinhard Latzko in Vienna and Jakob Kullberg in Stavanger, Norway. He is the winner of numerous national and international competitions and awards, including the Young Musician of the Year award of the Zagreb Philharmonic and American Express, the first prize and audience prize at the International “J. Brahms” competition in Austria and the first prize and HDS award at the “Boris Papandopulo” competition in the chamber music category. He performs as a soloist with the Zagreb Philharmonic, Croatian Radio and Television Symphony, Zagreb Soloist, Croatian Baroque Ensemble, Ukrainian State Philharmonic, Varaždin Chamber Orchestra, Human Rights Orchestra and Zadar Chamber Orchestra. He regularly participates in festivals and important seasons in Croatia (Dubrovnik Summer Festival, Osorskifestival, Zagreb Music Biennale, Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall, etc.). For the music archive of the Croatian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra he has recorded works for cello and orchestra by Croatian composers J. Tkalčić, M. Ruždjak, M. Kelemen, K. Seletković, G. Tudor and R. Matz. Thanks to a long collaboration with the pianist Peter Gilming and the Trio 1887, he often performs with important artists in Croatia and abroad, in most European countries, Japan, Mexico and the USA. He is the first cello in the Croatian Radio and TV Symphony Orchestra, and in the same role he collaborates with the Copenhagen Philharmonic, the Zadar Chamber Orchestra and the HumanRights Orchestra. He is professor of cello at the Academy of Music in Zagreb and the Academy of Arts in Split and gives master classes in Croatia, Norway and Sweden.