The sixty-first edition of the Ohrid Summer Festival tonight will bring a concert by Belgian violinist Nadja Nevolovich and Macedonian pianist Kalina Mrmevska. The concert will be held in the church “St. Sophia” in the standard festival term, from 21:00.
Violinist Nadja Nevolovitsch’s refined musical intuition, virtuosic technique and playing of special integrity have bought her a flourishing career both as a soloist and a chamber musician. Like many musically gifted Russian children, she was educated from the age of six at the specialized music school at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. After moving to Germany, she was accepted into the class of the famous pedagogue Zakhar Bron. She went on to study with Anna Netchiporouk-Bron, Thomas Brandis, Itzhak Rashkovsky and Liviu Prunaru, and with Igor Oistrakh at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, where she was awarded a master’s degree with greatest distinction. This was followed in 2013 by a performer’s diploma at the Rostock University of Music and Drama under Petru Munteanu. She received further inspiration and guidance from Ivry Gitlis.
Nadja made her first appearances with orchestra early, at the age of eleven. Since then, she has performed with numerous orchestras, including the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra, the Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock, the New Russia State Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonie Baden Baden, Camerata Menuhin and Harmos Festival Orchestra, working with conductors such as Shlomo Mintz, Dirk Vermeulen, Ronald Zollman, Andrej Petrenko and Ivo Venkov. Nadja Nevolovitsch has been successful in numerous competitions internationally, including the Henri Wieniawsky Competition in Poland and the Toshiya Eto Competition in Tokyo. She is a passionate chamber musician and plays in various ensemble formations. In 2011 she was the first violinist of the Menuhin Academy string quartet. In the same year the quartet was awarded both the first prize and audience prize at the Chamonix Mont Blanc competition in France. She recorded numerous CDs with her duo partner, Antwerp cathedral organist Peter Van de Velde. It has always been important to Nadja to pass on her knowledge. From 2008 to 2009 she taught as Igor Oistrakh’s assistant in Brussels. Since 2011 she has given masterclasses in Cairo, at the Rimsky-Korsakov Academy in Brussels as guest tutor, at the ‘Opus 74’ summer music academy in France and she is a tutor at the Danube International Concerto Masterclass and Competition in Budapest. Since 2017 Nadja is holding a concertmaster position at Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra. She is as well regularly invited as guest concertmaster to other European orchestras, such as Het Ballet Orkest Amsterdam, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and Ataneres Ensemble.
Hailed by critics as “a pianist of enviable power,” “an artist of clear and vivid vision,” Kalina Mrmevska made her debut at the age of 9, winning first prizes in national competitions. At 12, she made her orchestral debut with the Macedonian Philharmonic. At 18, she represented N. Macedonia at the EBU Eurovision Contest for young musicians. She took 1st prize at the International Piano Competition for Young Talents “Rovere d’Oro” and 2 nd prize at the “Schumann-Young Chang”. Mrmevska has performed as a recitalist and orchestra soloist across Europe and the U.S. in venues such as Musikhalle Hamburg, Warsaw Philharmonic Hall, Danube Palace in Budapest, Chicago Cultural Center.
As a humanitarian, Mrmevska was active in an NGO which rescued children during the Balkan wars. She was awarded the “13th November Prize of the City of Skopje for outstanding achievement. In 2006 Mrmevska appeared in the movie Shadows, directed by M. Manchevski. Committed to promoting Macedonian music, Mrmevska has given world premieres of Macedonian composers. Her next CD will feature further examples of this genre. In her native Macedonia, she often appears on national media and in Chicago she was broadcast live by WFMT at the prestigious Dame Myra Hess concert series. She is a DAAD scholar, as well as the recipient of O. Stöterau and the Oscar and Vera Stiftung. She received the J. Bradley Award from the University of Denver, as well as the prestigious Staller Scholar Award from SUNY at Stony Brook, where she completed her DMA in piano performance under the renowned pianist Gilbert Kalish.
Ms. Mrmevska is also an active teaching artist and educator. At SUNY in New York, she coached advanced students and taught undergraduate courses. Her students have won soloist competitions and performed at Lincoln Center. She is a jury member at competitions such as LIC Soloist, Danube International Concerto, Sound Symphony Solo and Yamaha Piano/Breckenridge Concerto. In 2018 she joined the distinguished piano faculty at Scriabin Summer Piano Academy, where she continues to teach individual lessons and lecture on music history. In the season of 2021/22 Ms. Mrmevska will be an Artist in Residence at universities and colleges in the USA, including Tennessee Tech and Houston Community College. She will be a guest artist with Chandler Symphony Orchestra and the German Consulate in New York, as well as festivals throughout the U.S. and Europe.
