In the Spotlight
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Please see my Future page for upcoming events!
News
Rave review in The Strad
Eastern Wind CD in The Strad May 2018 issue
“…gloriously honeyed, fiery, eloquent and fervent”
Applications opened for summer course in Italy!
Applications are now opened for Ms. Bogdanovic’s summer course in colorful Cividale. Other teachers include cellists Julian Arp & Thomas Carroll, pianist Nino Gvetadze, violinist Daniel Rowland, guitarist Alberto Mesirca, flutist Adriana Ferreira, double bassist Zoran Markovic, violists Vladimir Mendelssohn and Ivan Vukcevic.
Podium Witteman
Trio Gvetadze-Saeijs-Bogdanovic appeared in Podium Witteman, dutch live TV show, performing a fragment of Fanny Mendelssohn’s trio
New CD release for Orchid Classics
New release “EASTERN WIND” with Maja Bogdanovic and Maria Belooussova with Reinhold Glière’s 12 Album Leaves for cello and piano and Rachmaninov’s Cello Sonata op 19, on the label ORCHID CLASSICS. A real discovery!!
Stepping in for Mischa Maisky
Ms. Bogdanovic will step in for Mischa Maisky, for a performance of Yusupov’s Cello Concerto, in Haifa (Israel) on 20th of March 2017, with composer conducting
New CD release
Maja’s newest live CD Trios Russes, recorded with Caroline Sageman and David Galoustov in Marseille for the french label Lyrinx, is just released and available for purchase
http://musique.fnac.com/a10294985/Serguei-Rachmaninov-Trios-Russes-Super-Audio-CD
Rave review in The Spokesman
Raving review in The Spokesman by Larry Lapidus, after Maja Bogdanovic’s debut with the Spokane Symphony and Maestro Eckart Preu.
click here to read the article “Devotee of ‘French School’ lights up cello masterpiece”
“Du Pre set an interpretive standard for the piece by emphasizing its tragic and emotionally harrowing elements, expressive of Elgar’s sorrow and disillusionment at the cultural devastation of World War I.
Not surprisingly, Bogdanovic viewed the Elgar concerto differently. While not ignoring the work’s elegiac element, she insisted on seeing beyond it. Her tempos were brisk and even, which kept her from being bogged down in the tragic implications of every phrase. Her technical command of the instrument allowed her to satisfy the virtuoso demands without making heavy weather of them, producing an interpretation that squared with the contemporary assessment of the work by the great English critic and musicologist Ernest Newman: “The work itself is lovely stuff, very simple … but with a profound wisdom and beauty underlying its simplicity.
Interview for The Spokesman
Maja Bogdanovic gave an interview for The Spokesman.
click here to read the article written by Nathan Weinbender
SR: Is there anything historically or aesthetically significant about the Elgar concerto? Do you have a personal history with the piece or the composer?
Bogdanovic: Very much so! The concerto was written just after the destruction of WWI, and it is a painful lament toward a lost world. The message is especially relevant in today’s world, as it serves as a profound reminder to humanity not to repeat the same irreversible mistake. However, it teaches us to be resolutely optimistic. … My connection to it is personal, since I grew up in Yugoslavia during the 10-year Civil War. It was this concerto and its message of hope … that helped me get through. I enjoy sharing our mutual personal victory every time I play it for audiences around the world.
The Artist
Maja Bogdanović
“Serbian-born cellist Maja Bogdanovic, gave an outstanding recital that offered an uncommon tonal beauty of distinctive character, interpretative maturity and technical security.” Dennis Rooney, The Strad
“Cellist Maja Bogdanovic is a real thing : a true, soulful artist with a brazenly expressive sound who has a lot to show off, but who is never pretentious.” – New York Concert Review
Following her stunning recital debut at Carnegie’s Weill Hall The Strad hailed Maja Bogdanovic for “an outstanding performance of exceptional tonal beauty and great maturity of interpretation.” Since then, she has taken her place among today’s foremost cellists. Concerto engagements have included the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, Tokyo Philharmonic, Minas Gerais Symphony, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Belgrade Philharmonic, Berlin Symphony, and the Slovenian Radio Symphony Orchestra. In the U.S., Ms. Bogdanovic made her debut at the 2017 Grand Teton Music Festival under the baton of Cristian Macelaru. She has also performed with the Forth Worth Symphony, Spokane Symphony, Lubbock Symphony, Portland Symphony, Columbus Symphony and Princeton Symphony.
An avid chamber musician, Maja Bogdanovic is a frequent guest at leading chamber music festivals and worlds leading venues such as Kuhmo Festival in Finland,, Amsterdamse Cello Biënnale, Festival de Radio France et Montpellier, Folle Journée/Nantes, Storioni Festival, and the Stift International Chamber Music Festival in The Netherlands, performing with artists such as Martha Argerich, Yuri Bashmet, Julian Rachlin, Nino Gvetadze, Daniel Rowland, Nemanja Radulovic and Marianna Schiriniyan. Maja has produced several internationally-released CDs for labels Lyrinx and Nimbus and her recital disc ‘Eastern wind’ (Orchid Classics), with pianist Maria Belooussova, dedicated to Glière and Rachmaninoff received rave reviews. Maja’s latest CD release (Challenge Records) with violinist Daniel Rowland, ‘Pas de deux’, includes world premiere recordings of works by Penderecki, Vasks, Sollima and Nisinman, and was described as ‘a magical meeting of cello and violin’ by leading Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad.
Within her wide repertoire, Maja Bogdanovic devotes a special place to contemporary music. She has premiered works of Nicolas Bacri, Sofia Gubaidulina, Krzysztof Penderecki, Philip Sawyers, Eric Tanguy, Benjamin Yusupov, Natasha Bogojević, Isidora Žebeljan, among others. Her collaboration with Krzysztof Penderecki began with the Belgrade Philharmonic in 2008, and with the Slovenian Philharmonic in Ljubljana, where she performed his Cello Concerto No. 2 under the baton of the composer. This led to several further collaborations, such as with the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, the Orchestra National de Pays de la Loire and the Krakow Philharmonic. Amongst a select group of the world’s leading artists, including Lorin Maazel, Anne-Sophie Mutter and others, she was invited to play for special performances in Warsaw and Krakow celebrating Maestro Penderecki’s 80th and 85th birthdays. In 2019, Maja recorded Krzysztof Penderecki’s Second Cello Concerto under the guidance of Maestro Penderecki, for the DUX Label.
Laureate of numerous international competitions, Ms. Bogdanovic won First Prize at the third Aldo Parisot Cello Competition in South Korea and received the Second Prize and Special Audience Award at the Gaspar Cassado International Competition in Tokyo. She was awarded the Special Prize at the Concours Rostropovich in Paris and, in the same year.
Born in Belgrade, Serbia, Maja began playing the cello at a very early age, studying with Professor Nada Jovanovic in Zemun. She went on to graduate with a First Prize from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, where she completed her postgraduate course with Michel Strauss; while there, she also studied chamber music with Itamar Golan and Pierre-Laurent Aimard. Following her studies in Paris, she pursued further training at the Universität der Künste Berlin with Professor Jens Peter Maintz, as well as Bernard Greenhouse, Alban Gerhardt, and Heinrich Schiff.
Maja’s instrument was custom made for her by French luthier Frank Ravatin. She lives in Amsterdam with her partner Daniel Rowland violinist and their daughter Lily.
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Contacts
General Management
Management
USA
Schmidt Artists International, Inc.
M. Patricia Handy
Managing Director
59 East 54th Street, Suite 83
New York, NY 10022
T (212) 421-8500
F (212) 421-8583
mph@schmidtart.com
www.schmidtart.com
Management
Turkey, North Cyprus Turkish Republic
Ruya Evren
ruya@konserarkasi.com
T +905326890414
www.kam-management.com
Postcards from the Road