Robert LAKATOŠ, violin – Oskar VARGA, violin
Jožef BISAK, viola – Irena JOSIFOSKA, cello
Rita KINKA, piano
Programme:
J. BRAHMS:
String quartet No.2 in A minor, Op.51 (1873)
***
J. BRAHMS:
Piano quintet in F minor, Op.34 (1864/65)
Tickets are available at: Musical Youth of Novi Sad (Katolicka porta street 2, tel. 021/452-344).
Buy on-line tickets here

ROBERT LAKATOS, violin, Serbia
He began studying his instrument as a seven-year old, at the Isidor Bajić Music School, in his hometown of Novi Sad. He grew up in the family of musicians and his father Imre Lakatos was also his first mentor. As the youngest violin student in the history of the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, Lakatos completed his undergraduate and master studies in the class of the renowned pedagogue Dejan Mihailović. He continued his formal education at Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK), where he was awarded a scholarship for exceptionally talented musicians by the Swiss Lyra Foundation. Since 2015 he has been co-operating with Julian Rachlin at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and attending PhD studies under the mentorship of Roman Simović
Among numerous first and special prizes Robert has won at national and international competitions, the most notable ones are the first prizes at Pablo Sarasate Competition (Pamplona, Spain, 2015), Mary Smart Concerto Competition (New York, 2013), Societe Generale Serbia (Belgrade, 2009), as well as the second prizes at competitions of Jeunesses Musicales Romania (Bucharest, 2012), Andrea Postacchini (Fermo, Italy, 2012) and International Violin Competition in Brentonico (Italy, 2004).
Robert Lakatos has been developing his concert career as a soloist and chamber musician performing in Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Norway, Israel, USA, Romania, Greece, Croatia, and Montenegro.
As a soloist he performed with numerous orchestras such as the Symphony Orchestra of Navara (Spain), Kraków Philharmonic, Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, Monterrey Symphony Orchestra Mexico), “Stanislav Binički” Art Ensemble of the Ministry of Defence, Vojvodina Symphonists, Niš Symphony Orchestra, Novi Sad Academic Orchestra, Summit Music Festival Orchestra from New York, Novi Sad Chamber Orchestra, Banja Luka Philharmonic, Vojvodina Chamber Orchestra, and ZHdK-Strings Zurich Chamber Orchestra and Camerata Janáček. He has co-operated with the conductors Lior Shambadal, Antoni Wit, Philip Greenberg, Manuel Hernandez Silva, and Eduard Schmieder.
Robert Lakatos has made recordings for radio and television stations in the country and abroad, including permanent recordings made for Radio-Television Vojvodina. He was awarded the recognition of the Institute for Culture of Vojvodina “Iskra kulture” for 2017. At the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad he holds the position of Violin Associate Professor. In 2016 he became a Thomastik Artist. The emphasis during the current season (2017/2018) is placed on his concerts with the Belgrade Philharmonic, Minas Gerais Philharmonic from Belo Orizonte (Brazil) and Malaga Philharmonic (Spain).
He plays using a hand made bow manufactured by our famous bow maker Vladimir Radosavljević.

OSZKÁR VARGA, violin, Hungary
Born in Novi Sad, in a family of renowned musicians, this young artist is currently at his PhD studies at the Doctoral School of the Liszt Academy in Budapest, where he already teaches himself. He started taking violin classes at the age of four and later continued his education in Budapest where he moved with his family in 1999. During the studies he regularly attended classes in Bergamo (Italy), Kaposvár (Hungary) and Karellis (France) learning with renowned musicians of different generations such as Dejan Bogdanović, Barnabás Kelemen, Alexander and Albert Markov. He also attended classes of Maxim Rysanov, Boris Brovtsyn, and Ivry Gitlis and spent a year in New York as an invited scholarship holder with all the privileges that such a status implied. Varga made his debut as soloist in Budapest in 2009 playing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with Zugló Philharmonics. During 2014/2015 he was a member of the Kelemen Quartet with which he performed at the prestigious venues famous after chamber music performing, such as Leiszhalle in Hamburg, Wigmore Hall in London, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Palais des Beaux-Arts – BOZAR in Brussels, Musikverein in Vienna, and Tetaro la Fenice in Venice.
Within the last six years he has been performing with great success as soloist and chamber musician at many festivals in France (Karellis), Holland (Arnhem), Israel (Jerusalem), Austria (Lockenhaus), and Hungary. He is highly committed to contemporary music and in that field he has had a number of successful, acclaimed by the critics, performances with pieces by Witold Lutosłavski, Steve Reich, György Ligeti, György Kurtag, Peter Eötves, and Laszlo Tihanyi. He has also co-operated with the most renowned artists of international concert scene among who we could mention a few that also performed in Novi Sad, such as a cellist Nikolas Altstaedt, violinist Barnabás Kelemen, and cellist Lazslo Fenÿo, as well as with the participants of Nomus 2018 Zoltán Fejérvári and János Palojtay. Varga’s graduation exam, which also included Béla Bartók’s Violin Concerto no. 2, which he played together with Pannon Philharmonic in the famous Great Hall of the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest. The most brilliant events in Oszkár Varga’s career during the previous season include the interpretations of Double Concerto for Violin and Cello by Johannes Brahms, which a young violinist played all around Hungary and in Barcelona together with his father, the cellist István Varga and the Miskolc Symphony Orchestra under the conductor Tamás Gál. In addition to his first guest performance at Nomus, a young artist will also have his debut this season in Japan with the Violin Concerto no. 5 in D major, K.175 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, which he will play together with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra under the conductor Stefan Vladar, the artists who were the guests of our festival in 2016. He will also perform as a concert master in Singapore under the conductor Gabor Takacs-Nagy and he also plans a number of different concerts at the national scene, the most important of which is the one at the Great Hall of the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest.

JOZEF BISAK, viola, Serbia
He acquired lower and secondary music education at Isidor Bajić Music School in Novi Sad.
Jozef graduated viola at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, in the class of Prof. Dušica Polovina. As a teenager, he won numerous awards at provincial, republic and state competitions. During his education, he attended numerous master classes (Prof. Zoran Jakovčić at the Columbus State University in the USA, Prof. Pierre Henri Xuereb at the Paris National Conservatory, Prof. Gerard Causse at the Eskuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia, Felix Schwartz, the prime violist of the Staatskapelle Berlin, Prof. Dejan Mladjenović at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade).
He has been a solo violist in the Opera Orchestra of the Serbian National Theatre since 2006. In October 2015, he passed successfully the audition for the position of solo viola in the Symphony Orchestra of the RTV Slovenia. At the same position he plays as a permanent member of the Vojvodina Symphony Orchestra, Žebeljan Orchestra, No Borders Orchestra, and Camerata Academica and Academia Ars Musicae ensembles in Austria. Since 2016, he has been a member of the Austrian Acies Quartet with which he has performed and recorded intensively. With the above-mentioned ensembles, he has performed at home and abroad (United Kingdom, Germany, France, Austria, Netherlands, Italy, Hungary, Slovenia, and Greece).
As a soloist, he has played with the Symphony Orchestra of the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad and Camerata Academica. He recorded numerous performances in chamber ensembles as well as solo recitals and collaborated with world-renowned conductors and soloists.
Bisak has performed at Bemus, Nomus, Somus, and Nimus festivals, at a series of concerts on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of composer Ljubica Marić, the 20th International Review of Composers in Belgrade, as well as at a gala concert on the occasion of 170 years of founding of the Serbian Academy of Science and Art, with prominent artists from the country and abroad (Ksenija Janković, Julija Hartig, Aleksandar Latković).
In 2013, as a solo violist of the No Borders Orchestra, he took part in recording of a compact disc for Universal Music Austria GmbH and Deutsche Grammophon labels and that same year in recording of a CD with chamber music by Isidora Žebeljan titled Balkan Bolero together with the Žebeljan Orchestra that was released in London in 2014. In 2016, he recorded a CD with the Acies Quartet under Granola Vienna label.

IRENA JOSIFOSKA, cello, Serbia
She was born 1996 into a family of musicians and started playing cello at the age of 5 at the Isidor Bajić Music School in Novi Sad, in the class of her mother, Judit Niederholzer-Josifoska, where she acquired her elementary and secondary education in music. Irena graduated from the Academy of Arts in the same city where she currently attends master studies in the class of Prof. Marko Miletić. In parallel, she attends the same level of studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold (Germany), in the class of Prof. Xenia Jankovic. Until now she has won around fifty high recognitions at different renowned competitions such as Dotzauer (Germany), Herann (Czech Republic), International Cello Competition in Liezen (Austria), Petar Konjović in Belgrade and Belgrade Stage of Young Talents. For four times she was the laureate of the Republic Competition of Music and Ballet Schools in Serbia, and at the Jeunesses Musicales Competition in Belgrade in 2015 she was the youngest participant, finalist and winner of special prizes. Irena is the recipient of many important recognitions such as Stanojlo Rajačić, St. Sava Award, Golden Bell Award and Art-link Societe Generale Award for the “most promising young music artist in 2013”. Irena has performed in the country and abroad (England, Italy, France, Spain, Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary) accompanied by a significant number of renowned national and world orchestras and she also participated at many festivals (Austria, Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia) and master classes held by the world known cello artists and pedagogues (David Geringas, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, Jens Peter Maintz, Mineo Hayashi, Marc Coppey, Alexander Kniazev, István Varga, David Starkwether, Mark Kosower, etc.). She has co-operated with many great instrumentalists of the international concert scene while several national composers such as Dejan Despić, Svetozar Kovačević, Tibor Hartig and Aleksandar Vujić committed their works to her. Irena issued her first CD under the Swedish label “A Records” and the second one was issued by “Art Link” and “Societe Generale” in 2014.

RITA KINKA, piano, Serbia
Until today, Rita Kinka has given more than 800 recitals and performed with many renowned orchestras in almost all European countries, as well as in the USA, Taiwan, Japan, Israel, Canada and Australia. In addition to her career as a pianist, she is also involved in pedagogical work. Rita Kinka is an associate professor for piano as a major subject at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad.
She has received a number of Yugoslav awards and prizes, and rewards at international piano competitions in Senigallia (1979), Vercelli (Viotti, 1981), Belgrade (Jeunesses Musicales Competition, 1983), Zwickau (Schumann, 1985), Sydney (1985), Munich (ARD, 1987), Bordeaux (Golden medal, 1988), Washington (1990), Brussels (Queen Elisabeth, 1991) and Orleans (20th Century Piano Music, 1996).
Rita Kinka was the first winner of the European Parliament Prix Femmes d`Europe reward for the best European female interpreter of classical music, which was awarded to her in Brussels in June 1991. She is also the laureate of the February Prize of the City of Novi Sad for the year 2002.
Rita Kinka made recordings for radio and television centres in several countries (Serbia, Macedonia, Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Austria, Germany, Belgium, France, Russia, Estonia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, England, Greece, Spain, Israel, Canada, USA, Australia and Taiwan). She recorded three CDs released by the Digital Media Production (Brussels) and PGP RTS, and one LP issue before that.
She studied at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad (Prof. E. Timakin and A. Valdma) and completed her master studies at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade (Prof. D. Trbojević) and Academy of Arts in Novi Sad (A. Valdma). Rita Kinka continued her master studies at the Julliard School of Music in New York (class of György Sándor) thanks to the scholarship of Gina Bachauer Foundation, which she won at the international Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels in 1987 as the “most promising young artist”. Throughout her entire career, Rita Kinka has been “moving” passionately and with love, but also with gradually acquired comprehensive interpreting experience, a unique style of playing, and with full sensitivity and suggestivity through selected pieces of the most demanding piano repertoire. Her latest recital project dates back to December 2016 in the cycle titled Editor/Artist as a Guest of the Centre for Music of the Kolarac Endowment in Belgrade within which she connected the works of Bach, Brahms and Chopin using a specific concept of programme shaping. After that, she was awarded the Performer of the Year prize of the Musica Classica Magazine. Last year she was also the President of the Artistic Council of the Novi Sad 2021 Project for the European Capital of Culture.