Viola
Serbia
Saša Mirković
Saša Mirković is a Serbian violist, artistic director, and full professor, internationally recognised for his work in contemporary music, interdisciplinary artistic practice, conductorless ensembles, and the promotion of contemporary repertoire for viola and chamber orchestra. Born in 1980 in Čačak, he began his musical education as a violinist before continuing his viola studies in the class of Prof. Petar Ivanović. He received his primary and secondary musical education at the School for Musically Gifted Students in Ćuprija, graduated from the Faculty of Music Arts at the University of Arts in Belgrade in the class of Prof. Dejan Mlađenović, and completed postgraduate master's studies in viola performance there in 2008. He has built a rich academic profile: having worked as an assistant at the Faculty of Music Arts in Belgrade and at the Faculty of Philology and Arts (FILUM) at the University of Kragujevac, where he was appointed lecturer, associate professor, and since 2021 full professor for Viola. He served as Head of the String Instruments Department at FILUM from 2015 to 2019. He is the founder, artistic director, and principal violist of Ensemble Metamorphosis (founded 2005), one of the most significant chamber ensembles for contemporary music in the region. From 2012 to 2020, he served as principal violist of the No Borders Orchestra, and has also collaborated with the Dresden Sinfoniker as guest principal violist. As a soloist, he has collaborated with the London Mozart Players, Lublin Philharmonic, RTS Symphony Orchestra, Belgrade Philharmonic, Jena Philharmonic, Deutsche Philharmonie Merck, Łódź Philharmonic, Slovak Sinfonietta Žilina, Ensemble Resonanz (Hamburg), Ensemble Reflektor (Berlin), and numerous others. He has cultivated close collaboration with composers including Mark Sinan, Lera Auerbach, Giya Kancheli, Aleksandra Vrebalov, Ayrat Ichmouratov, Dobrinka Tabakova, Branka Popović, Dragana Jovanović, and Ivan Brkljačić, among many others. He has given world premieres of more than 120 compositions for viola and orchestra and over 100 works for chamber orchestra — many dedicated to him. His repertoire spans Baroque to avant-garde, with a special focus on interdisciplinary productions synthesising music, theatre, electronics, visual arts, and multimedia. As a performer and artistic director, Mirković has appeared at the Sydney Opera House, Carnegie Hall in New York, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Barbican Hall in London, the Palau de la Música Catalana, the Santa Cecilia Hall in Rome, the Salle Pleyel in Paris, and major festivals including the Lincoln Center Festival, Beethoven-Fest in Bonn, Wiener Festwochen, Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels, and festivals in Brisbane, Melbourne, Hong Kong, and Gwangju. Among his most significant recent engagements are collaborations with Ensemble Reflektor and the Augsburg Philharmonic on Mark Sinan's Befreiung, performances with the London Mozart Players, and concertos by Penderecki, Schnittke, and Bartók with the Lublin Philharmonic, RTS Symphony Orchestra, and Deutsche Philharmonie Merck. He is the recipient of the Muzika Klasika Award for male performer of the year (2016) and the Aleksandar Pavlović Award (2016, 2019, 2023). He is also the founder and artistic director of the International Festival of Contemporary Arts Meta World. His work has been featured in The Strad magazine. Saša Mirković is represented by Schouman Music Management, Paris.