Your teachers:
Dejan Ivanović
Born in Tuzla in 1976. Dejan started making music as a five year old. His studied guitar with P. Stankovic and V. Ivanovic at the Music School in Tuzla and with D. Petrinjak at the Music Academy in Zagreb. He gave concerts at some of the most well-known music festivals, among others in Spolet (personal invitation from Maestro Gian Carlo Menotti), Edinburg, Estoril, Lisbon and Gevelsberg. As a soloist he has performed among others with orchestras from Valonia (BEL), Benicassim (ESP), Aveiro and Setubal (POR). As a chamber musician he collaborates with string quartet Lyra (POR), cellist J. Brahal (USA), soprano A. E. Neves (POR) and guitarist M. Kontaxakis (GER). He has received first and special awards in Madrid, Sinaia (ROM, 1998.), Herradura, Benicássim (ESP, 2001.) and Kretha (GRE, 2005.). His debut CD was released by Naxos in 2002. In preparation are two more solo albums: Mediterraneo and Dedicatórias Vol. 1: Música Contemporânea Portuguesa para guitarra solo. In 2010. came the first CD of Duo Kontaxakis-Ivanović named Les Deux Amis. Since 2007 Dejan is guitar professor at the Music Department of University in Evora (POR), where he in 2015 got his PhD. In 2021 his first guitar-book, created for young guitarists, has been published by AvA Musical Editions from Lisbon.
Boris Tešić
As a „Gentleman on guitar“ Boris captivates audiences with a powerful combination of rich
musicality and smooth virtuosity. Being a „Swiss-knife“ of programming, immersing into all
styles and periods of music - be it an album of pure classical period pieces „Les
Adieux“, late
20th century music „Tonal Atonal“ or crossover finger-style guitar music („Exploring the other
way“ and „Mike Oldfield re-scaled“) - Boris brings quality music all genres to his audience. His own musical journey started in the class of
Predrag
Stankovic, teacher that has helped set
new standards of classical guitar and has seen many well-known guitarists our time develop
under his guidance. Afterwards Boris was a scholar at the prestigious Royal College of Music in
London and has polished his skills at the
Conservatorium
Maastricht with Carlo
Marchione
and in
Kassel with Michael
Tröster. Since 2013 he teaches at the
Musikakademie in
Kassel, Germany where he enjoys sharing his
vast knowledge with students from many parts of the world. On top of that Boris writes
regularly for “
Akustik
Gitarre” magazine and is conducting the local amateur plucked-strings
ensemble “
Herkules”.
He is a member of D´
Addario artist group (using
HT Carbon melodic strings combined with LP
Composite Bases) and plays a guitar by
Boguslaw
Teryks.
More informations: Boris Tesic
Belmin Okanović
Belmin Okanović is currently completing his master's studies at the Robert Schumann University in Düsseldorf in the class of Prof. Joaquin Clerch (Cuba, Germany), where he also completed his undergraduate studies in 2022 with top marks and special distinction.
He performs regularly and has given a number of concerts in Germany, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Poland, Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. He has won more than 30 prizes and recognitions in International competitions. In the last three years he has won seven prizes at festivals in Germany, Belgium, Italy and Romania. He is particularly proud of his first prize at the 28th International Guitar Festival in Mottola (Italy), which allowed him to record his first CD in early 2023, to be released this year.
Due to his achievements during his studies, he received a German scholarship (Deutschlandstipendium) for three years, which helped him a lot in financing his studies. In addition, he was selected as a soloist by the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation in 2019, for which he played numerous concerts in Germany. In addition, Belmin Okanović has received a number of awards in his home country of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is particularly proud of the recognition of the Federal Ministry of Science and Culture, which declared him the most successful student of music schools in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the school year 2011/2012.
Belmin Okanović was born in Tuzla in 1997. He started his friendship with the guitar at the age of eight. He graduated from the elementary and high school of music in the class of Predrag Stanković. Okanović plays a guitar of the Paco Santiago Marin from Spain.
Predrag Stanković
Predrag Stanković took first guitar steps in 1961 as a 12 year old. After finishing his High School education he went to Sarajevo to learn guitar from Ivan Kalcina, renown Bosnian guitarist, as well as studying pedagogy and psychology. In 1972 he started teaching guitar in a Youth Center in Tuzla. Parallel his concert career took him to Sarajevo and Mostar. Since 1979 he was the guitar teacher in Elementary Music School Tuzla, where he stayed till his retirement. In 1991, after the guitar department was created at the Music High School in Tuzla and the beginning of the Bosnian War, Predrag started teaching guitar there as well, spending more then 25 years teaching numerous pupils at both institutions. On top of his teaching career he has been the director of OAC (Youth Art Center) for 26 years. As a teacher and juror he has been invited to many international and national festivals, competitions and summer/winter schools. Under his tutelage a great number of guitarist has gone to make great careers, becoming well known musicians and teachers both in Bosnia and World-wide, the most notable are Denis Azabagić, Dejan Ivanović, Alen Garagić, Boris Tešić and Sanel Redžić. His pupils have received more then 200 awards – more than half are 1st prizes at international competitions. Even now, as a pensioner, Predrag continues to share his knowledge with pupils form Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro.
Daily schedule:
8 - 9 : Breakfast
9 - 9.45 : Group warm-up/technique
10 - 14 : Individual classes
14 - 15 : Lunch
15 - 16.30 : Individual classes
17 - 18.30 : Guitar orchestra/chamber music/lectures
19 - 20: Dinner