CROATIAN SACRED CHORAL MUSIC

The Ivan Goran Kovačić Academic Choir, a nationally and internationally renowned, multi-award winning ensemble, was founded in 1948. The Choir has performed under the direction of many prominent Croatian musicians such as: Mladen Jagušt, Duško Prašelj, Lovro Županović, Adalbert Marković, Dinko Fio, Vladimir Kranjčević, and Saša Britvić. Since 2003, Luka Vukšić has served as the Choir’s Artistic Director, with Assistant Directors Stjepan Vuger and Ivan Šćepanović. The Choir has been conducted by many of the nation’s and world’s greatest conductors, among them: Lovro von Matačić, Milan Horvat, Zubin Mehta, Yehudi Menuhin, Krzysztof Penderecki, Lorin Maazel, Ennio Morricone, Valery Gergiev, and Neville Marriner, among others. The Choir has given numerous concerts abroad, and has performed with renowned orchestras such as the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow State Philharmonic, the Teatro Comunale Florence, the Monte Carlo National Opera Orchestra, the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Symphony Orchestra, the Bari Symphony Orchestra, the German Youth Orchestra, the Slovenian Philharmonic, and the Sarajevo Philharmonic, among others. The Choir continuously collaborates with the Zagreb Philharmonic, the Croatian Radio-and-Television Symphony Orchestra, and the Croatian Baroque Ensemble.

Luka Vukšić, conductor, completed his Bachelor studies in Conducting at the Academy of Music in Zagreb, under maestro Igor Gjadrov, and his postgraduate studies at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, under maestros Ervin Lukács and Tamás Gál. He was the winner of the Ivo Vuljević Croatian Music Youth Award for the most successful young musician in 2000 and in the same year began serving as the permanent conductor of the Ivan Goran Kovačić Academic Choir. Since 2001, Luka Vukšić has been collaborating with the Croatian Radio-and-Television Choir. He has performed with nearly all major Croatian ensembles, including the Zagreb Philharmonic, the Croatian Radio-and-Television Symphony Orchestra and Choir, the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, the Croatian Baroque Ensemble, the Rijeka Philharmonic, the Symphonic Wind Orchestra of the Croatian Armed Forces, and the Croatian Chamber Philharmonic, among others. Luka Vukšić regularly performs abroad and has realized successful guest appearances in Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Mexico. As the conductor of the Ivan Goran Kovačić Academic Choir, he has performed numerous pieces from the Croatian and world repertoire, and in 2009, he won the first-prize of the Slovakia Cantat competition in Bratislava. In 2010, Luka Vukšić was appointed Artistic Director of the Croatian Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra.