Zagreb Soloists, Croatia

The Ensemble of Zagreb Soloists was founded in 1953 as part of Radio Zagreb, under the artistic direction of the famous cellist Antonij Janigro. During almost seven decades – under the leadership of equally famous concertmasters, such as Dragutin Hrdjok, Tonko Ninić, Andjelko Krpan and Borivoj Martinić-Jerčić – the Zagreb soloist have achieved quality of musicianship at an enviable level, which they regularly present on prestigious world concert stages.

Since 2012, Sreten Krstic- concert master of the Munich Philharmonic has taken the post of concertmaster of the Ensemble.

To date, the Zagreb soloists have held almost 4,000 concerts on all continents, in the world’s largest centers and most famous concert halls such as Musikverein (Vienna), Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Royal Festival Hall (London), Berlin Philharmonic Hall, Tchaikowski Hall (Moscow), Santa Cecilia (Rome), Carnegie Hall (New York), Opera House (Sydney), Victoria Hall (Geneva), Teatro Real (Madrid), Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires), Versailles, etc.

They were regular guests at the most famous music festivals such as those in Salzburg, Prague, Edinburgh, Berlin, Bergen, Barcelona, Istanbul,  Dubrovnik and  have played with many distinguished soloists including Henryk Szeryng, Alfred Brendel, Julian Rachlin, Christian Ferras, Pierre Fournier, Leonard Rose, James Galway, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Aldo Ciccolini, Katia Ricciarelli, Lily Laskine, Zuzana Ružičkova, Mario Brunello, Isabelle Moretti, Guy Touvron, Marc Coppey, Ray Chen and many others.

The Zagreb soloists perform a repertoire that includes baroque, classical, romantic, and contemporary music, with special attention focused on the actualization of earlier works, as well as the presentation of younger generations of Croatian composers.

Their over 70 recordings include releases for Vanguard, EMI, ASV, Eurodisc, Melodia, Hispa-vox, Pickwick and Croatia Records. Among the more recent releases, the CD featuring  the works of Ernesto Cordero with prominent soloists – violinist Guillermo Figueroa and guitarist Pepe Romero for Naxos was nominated for the Latin Grammy award. In June 2014, the Ensemble also released a compact disc with the works of Boris Papandopulo, with pianist Oliver Triendl, which delighted both domestic and foreign critics. A year later, with the cellist Marc Coppey, the Zagreb Soloists recorded a CD on which the three Cello Concertos were presented, published by the German record company Audite.

Zagreb soloists have been presented with numerous awards and recognitions, both international (first prize in Mar del Plata, the Pablo Casals Medal, the Elisabeth Sprague Coolidge Medal) and domestic  (“Vladimir Nazor”, “Milka Trnina”, “Josip Štolcer Slavenski” awards at the Varaždin Baroque Evenings, UNESCO and City of Zagreb Award, Croatia Records Silver Compact Disc, Order of Merit of the People with Silver Rays, City of Zagreb Plaque, several Croatian Porin discography awards (in 1994 for life’s work), Silver Plaque of the Croatian Musical Youth and numerous others.

The charitable work of the Ensemble is highly commendable and in 2010, the Ensemble was awarded the Orlando Grand Prix award for special artistic contributions to the Dubrovnik Summer Festival.

Almost seventy years of successful activity of this renowned Croatian classical music ensemble is mainly due to the engagement of numerous great musicians who have been its members over the years and have shared the same passion, skill, discipline and enthusiasm for chamber music.