Peter
Stojanovic (Petar Stojanovic Lazar) was a Serbian violinist, composer, and
teacher born (in Budapest) on September 7, 1877. He is largely forgotten. Several sources have him studying with Jeno
Hubay in Vienna and Budapest. I am not
aware that Hubay taught in Vienna but I do know he was at the Budapest College
of Music and Budapest Conservatory from 1886 onward. At the Vienna Conservatory Stojanovic studied
with Jacob Grun, who was also concertmaster of the Vienna Opera Orchestra. Grun was Joseph Joachim's close friend and colleague. In 1925, Stojanovic was appointed professor
of violin and composition at the conservatory in Belgrade. He was 48 years old. Stojanovic also concertized throughout Europe
as a soloist and with his string quartet. He later founded the Music Academy in
Belgrade. Among his compositions are 5
violin concertos, 2 viola concertos, 1 horn concerto, one flute concerto, 2
ballets, 2 tone poems, 3 operas, and diverse chamber music. His most famous pupil is probably Robert Virovai, another obscure violinist. Stojanovic died (in Belgrade) on September
11, 1957, at age 80. The world of
classical music had changed drastically by then and he had already become so
obscure that the Grove Dictionary of Music (edition of 1953) has no mention of
him. You can listen to one of his violin
concertos here.
Stefan
Milenkovich (Milenkovic) is a Serbian violinist and teacher born (in Belgrade) on January 25,
1977. He began studying at an extremely
young age – age 3, just like Jascha Heifetz. His first teacher was his father – again, just as Heifetz’ father was his first teacher as well. As have other famous violinists – Bronislaw
Huberman, Bronislaw Gimpel, Leonora Jackson, Julia Igonina, Hilary Hahn,
Natasha Korsakova, and Chloe Hanslip among them - he has performed for world
leaders, including President Reagan, President Gorbachev, and Pope John Paul
II. By age 6, he had already given his
first public concert. By 1994, he had
played over 1000 concerts. He was only 16
years old. Ruggiero Ricci played over 5000
concerts by the time he retired at age 85.
That is probably a world record, although I am not sure about that. At the rate he was going, Milenkovich would
have to play until age 57 before he would surpass the 5000 number; however, few
concert artists nowadays play more than 50 concerts per season. Also in that year (1994), Milenkovic
graduated from the University of Belgrade.
He then began studying in New York with Dorothy Delay at Juilliard. In 2003, he began teaching at that same
school. He was 26 years old. All the while, he was concertizing all over
the world. He has been known to dance - in the fashion of Maxim Vengerov - during special recitals. Three other violinists that I know of are (or were) also very good dancers; Jean Marie Leclair, Andrew Sords, and Tai Murray. As does Simone Lamsma,
Milenkovich loves violin competitions and has won a number of them or placed in
the top three, including the Indianapolis, the Queen Elizabeth, the Yehudi
Menuhin, the Paganini, and the Spohr competitions. He has recorded several CDs which are easy to
find on the internet. Currently he
teaches at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana (about 130 miles
south of Chicago) and at the University of Belgrade (since December 26, 2011.) Here is one of many YouTube videos of him –
it features Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen. Milenkovich currently plays a modern violin - a 2006 violin by Chicago luthier Peter Aznavoorian.
Tijana
Milosevic is a Serbian violinist and teacher born on March 1, 1978. She is the youngest concertmaster in the
history of the Belgrade Philharmonic.
She is also the only concertmaster – and perhaps the only violinist in
history – to pose nude for Playboy magazine.
The Belgrade Philharmonic has been described as Serbia’s “cult”orchestra. Though the orchestra itself
is 90 years old, the average age of the 96 musicians is only 35. When you visit the orchestra’s website,
you’ll have an understanding of what makes this orchestra work so well – it is exciting,
stimulating, and imaginative. As
Milosevic’s historic and unafraid entry into the pages of Playboy indicate, the
orchestra does not shy away from provocative marketing. In the U.S., Milosevic might have gotten
fired for doing something so daring.
Tijana
Milosevic began her violin studies at age 4.
By age 15, she had been admitted into the Belgrade School of Music. She studied with, among others, violin
pedagogue Dejan Mihailovic. After
graduation, she further studied in New York with Dorothy Delay and Lewis Kaplan
at the Juilliard School of Music. Milosevic
also participated in master classes with Itzhak Perlman and Joshua Bell. Soon thereafter and for a brief time she was
assistant concertmaster of the Athens Camerata under Neville Marriner, the
famous British conductor. At age 20, she
was appointed concertmaster of the Belgrade Philharmonic. Milosevic has already recorded several CDs
and performed with various well-known artists including Maxim Vengerov, Zubin
Mehta, Hagai Shaham, Sarah Chang, and Kurt Masur.
At the time that she appeared on Playboy,
Milosevic caused a scandal in the classical music world, even though the nude
profile was, in my view, quite artistic.
When pianist Yuja Wang appeared on stage wearing a mini dress (as shown
on the bottom photo at left), she caused a scandal too. But she was on stage, not doing a photo shoot
for a fashion or a gentleman’s magazine.
The question arises whether a female concert artist should ever appear
in very short and showy attire (or no attire at all) and when and where. Opinions will vary, of course, but I think
Milosevic’s nude pictorial in Playboy is far more appropriate than Yuja Wang’s
on the stage since Wang’s short dress is very distracting during performance -
Milosevic wears professional concert dress in performance. It’s an issue about which you will have to
decide for yourself.
Here is one of
Milosevic’s YouTube videos of a work for violin and piano by Serbian composer Aleksandra
Dokic - it is beautifully played. Until
the very end, one cannot tell that it is a live recording. Of herself and the orchestra Milosevic says:
“I take special pride in my common sense, adamantly standing between the Old
Russian School and the Juilliard – the American school. I am proud of my orchestra and the energy we
radiate in our creative trance.” Her
violin is a 1910 Enrico Rocca (1847-1915), a relatively modern violin.
