Ivana Kuljerić Bilić
Ivana Kuljerić Bilić is an internationally acclaimed marimba virtuoso and versatile percussionist.
A graduate of Professor I. Lešnik’s class, she is currently a full professor at the Music Academy in Zagreb and, as of autumn 2025, serves as Vice Dean for Teaching.
In the 2024/25 academic year, she is engaged as Professor of Marimba and Percussion at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA.
In the same year, she was appointed Artistic Director of one of Croatia’s longest-running classical music festivals, Glazbene večeri u sv. Donatu (Musical Evenings at St. Donatus).
She regularly performs with European orchestras, including the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Witold Lutosławski Philharmonic, Pannon Philharmonic, Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Presidential Symphony Orchestra and the Croatian Radiotelevision Symphony Orchestra, among others. She has also appeared at international festivals such as Music Biennale Zagreb, Musicora, Tempus Fugit Festival, Melos Ethos, Dubrovačke ljetne igre, Splitsko ljeto and Julian Rachlin and Friends.
Ivana gives masterclasses at leading institutions including the Manhattan School of Music, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Conservatorium van Amsterdam, Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart, Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität, conservatories in Paris and Lyon, universities in Wuhan, Dalian, Shenyang and Beijing, the Royal Northern College of Music, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, the Salzburg Summer Academy, and others.
She also participates in percussion and marimba festivals such as Tomarimbando, Shenyang Percussion Festival, KALIMA, Tenerife Percussion Festival, Amsterdam Marimba Weekend, Santa Fe Marimba Festival, Marimba International Festival and Conference, ZMF, PASIC, Belgium Marimba Competition and Festival and Festival de Marimbistas, among many others.
She frequently serves as a jury member at international marimba and percussion competitions (marimba competitions in Linz, Salzburg, Stuttgart and Paris; the August Everding Competition in Munich; percussion competitions in Timișoara and Beijing, etc.).
Ivana takes part in chamber, stage and crossover productions across Europe, South America, China and the USA, appearing in halls such as Merkin Hall, Palacio de Bellas Artes and the Franz Liszt Academy of Music.
She collaborates intensively with the Music Tribune, where she leads contemporary music workshops for students and develops original artistic projects. She is also a member of the international contemporary music ensemble Synchronos.
2021. In 2021, she founded The Percussion Club ensemble, opening the Dubrovačke ljetne igre. In 2023, the ensemble toured the United States. 2023. the ensemble toured the United States.
Since 2014, Ivana has performed regularly with Nikola Krbanyevitch in the I.N.K. Experiment Duo, appearing at festivals throughout Europe, the USA and Asia. In Croatia, their performances at the Dubrovačke ljetne igre (2018) and Music Biennale Zagreb (2021) received particular acclaim. In collaboration with the group Chui, they won a Porin Award in 2020 for Best Instrumental Performance (outside classical and jazz). In 2022, 2022. the duo released the CD Collage Part I on Nota Bene Records.
2008. As the artistic director of the festival, she founded IBMW (Ivana Bilic Marimba Week), which has been operating for years as part of the Samobor Music Autumns. Since 2019, the festival has become independent and changed its name to ISPF (Ivana Summer Percussion Festival). So far, the festival has featured some of the world’s greatest percussion names today from the fields of classical, jazz, ethno music and rock.
For many years, Ivana has served as solo timpanist of the Croatian Radiotelevision Symphony Orchestra. She is the recipient of Croatia’s most prestigious performance and recording awards — the Milka Trnina Award, the Ivo Vuljević Award and three Porin Awards for Best Performance.
She is the author of compositions and arrangements published by Edition Svitzer, Malletworks, Inkoplastika and Cantus.
Ivana is a Marimba One artist with her own signature line of mallets.
Jan Niković
“What is truly remarkable is his complete dedication to music, in whose service are harnessed not only his fingers and mind, but his entire being. This is a truly extraordinary combination of virtuosity, imagination and thoughtfulness.” – Ferdo Livadić Competition
Jan Niković is one of the most sought-after young Croatian pianists, whose interpretations have attracted the attention of music lovers around the world. He regularly performs on stages across Europe, North and South America, and Asia, where his combination of lyricism and virtuosity has earned both critical and audience acclaim.
He has appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras, most notably the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under Maestro Domingo Hindoyan in a performance internationally broadcast on Classic FM, as well as the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, Croatian Radio-Television Symphony Orchestra, Zagreb Soloists, and the Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra under Maestro Ken Takaseki, among others.
His concerts have reached international audiences through broadcasts on NHK Japan, CNN Brazil, and WQXR (New York’s most prestigious classical radio station), as well as frequent appearances in leading Croatian media, cementing his status as one of the most prominent young Croatian artists.
He is the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions at international competitions including Hilton Head, Sendai, Bösendorfer USASU, James Mottram, Eppan, EPTA, Ferdo Livadić and Papandopulo, among others. He is a seven-time recipient of the “Oscar of Knowledge,” an award granted by the Ministry of Science and Education for exceptional artistic achievement, as well as the recipient of the Yamaha Scholarship and the Rector’s Award of the University of Zagreb.
He completed his Master’s degree at the Music Academy in Zagreb in the class of Prof. Ruben Dalibaltayan, and continues his artistic development with Prof. Natalija Trull, as well as at the Music Academy in Liechtenstein. His artistry has also been shaped by Eliso Virsaladze, Milana Chernyavska, Sergio Tiempo, Claudio Martínez Mehner and Rena Shereshevskaya. He currently lives in Berlin, where he is pursuing further studies with Professor Eldar Nebolsin.
At the outset of his career, he performed alongside Lang Lang at the Junior Music Camp in Barcelona, and later joined him at the Allianz Arena in Munich before an audience of 70,000. Niković is a regular guest at Croatia’s leading festivals, including the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, the Osor Musical Evenings and the Zadar Musical Evenings, where his performances consistently draw full houses and outstanding reviews. He frequently performs with leading Croatian orchestras and in the country’s most prestigious concert venues.
Before devoting himself entirely to music, he played football and worked as a voice actor, lending his voice to several feature and animated films, including Madagascar 2, Charlotte’s Web and Aladdin. Niković’s performances on social media attract audiences through their musicality and a unique visual-creative approach, and have garnered millions of views.
In 2024, he received the “Young Musician of the Year” award presented by the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, and received the same distinction for his achievements in 2025 from the Croatian Music Youth organization (the Ivo Vuljević Award). He is featured in the Radar project, a book highlighting the most exceptional young individuals in Croatia, subtitled Choosing a Career in the 21st Century.
Michael Martin Kofler
Michael Martin Kofler (b. 1966 in Villach) studied flute with Werner Tripp and Wolfgang Schulz at the Vienna Musikhochschule (now the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna), graduating with distinction, and later with Peter-Lukas Graf at the Musikakademie in Basel. In 1987 he was appointed principal flute of the Munich Philharmonic by Sergiu Celibidache. Since 1989 he has maintained a busy international performance schedule, appearing in solo concerts, recitals, and chamber music.
Michael Martin Kofler has performed as a soloist with over 100 well-known orchestras, and is a regular guest of such prestigious ensembles as the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, the Vienna, Munich, Stuttgart and Pforzheim Chamber Orchestras,
The Budapest Strings, the Zagreb Soloists, as well as the Philharmonic and Symphonic Orchestras of Munich, Prague, Moscow, Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, Mexico City, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Warsaw, Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Istanbul, Antalya, Calgary, Toronto and many others.
As a soloist, he has had the pleasure of working with such renowned conductors as Lorin Maazel, James Levine, Tugan Sokhiev, Sir Neville Marriner, Fabio Luisi, Herbert Blomstedt, Frans Brüggen, Ton Koopman, Dimitrij Kitajenko, Jonathan Nott and Hans Graf. His chamber music partners, past and present, include the pianists Paul Badura-Skoda, Irwin Gage, Stefan Vladar, Stephan Kiefer, the harpists Sarah O’Brian, Xavier de Maistre and Regine Kofler, the clarinettist Martin Spangenberg, and string players Benjamin Schmid, Clemens and Veronika Hagen as well as the Mandelring and Mozart Quartet Salzburg. Since 2016, Michael M. Kofler has been increasingly invited to conduct various orchestras, such as the Pforzheim Chamber Orchestra, the Györ Philharmonic Orchestra (Hungary), the Sinfonietta Cracovia (Poland), the Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra (Korea).
Michael Martin Kofler was appointed Professor of Flute at the Mozarteum in 1989 and has since prepared numerous students who have gone on to achieve great success. Highly respected internationally, he is regularly invited to judge major competitions (ARD, Kobe, Prague, Cremona, Guangzhou) and to give masterclasses in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
Gordan Nikolić
Gordan Nikolić was born in Brus, Serbia in 1968 and began playing violin at the age of seven. He entered the Young Talent Institute at the age of 9.
He graduated with the highest acclaims at the Musikhochschule Basel in the class of Jean-Jacques Kantorow in 1990. He also studied with Walter Levin, Hans Werner Henze, Witold Lutoslawsky and György Kurtág, developing an interest in both baroque and contemporary music. He is the winner of several international awards, which include the Tibor Varga, Niccolò Paganini, Cità di Brescia, and Vaclaw Huml prizes.
After being leader of the Orchestre d’Auvergne, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, and later with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the London Symphony Orchestra, he often conducted the Chamber Orchestra of the London Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France, Manchester Camerata, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de Lille and Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse.
In 2000, he was appointed “Prince Consort Professor” of String Ensembles at the Royal College of Music. In September 2003, he became a professor at the Guildhall School of Music in London and the Royal College of Music in Rotterdam. In 2017, he began teaching at the Saarbrücken University of Music.
In 2004, he became Artistic Director of the Nederlands Kamerorkest in Amsterdam. He was principal guest conductor at the Manchester Camerata, musical director of the Saint George Strings Chamber Orchestra in Belgrade and created the independent orchestra BandArt in Spain.
He has performed as a soloist with prestigious orchestras and under conductors such as Sir Colin Davis, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Arie van Beek, André Previn, Daniel Harding, Myung Wung Chung, Bernard Haitink, Laurence Foster, Marc Albrecht, Jakob Kreizberg.
Gordan Nikolic has made many recordings for various labels (Alpha, Pentatone, LSO Live, Olympia, BNL, Warner Classics, Onyx Classics) For the label Tacet, he recorded Gound’s symphonies as well as Mozart’s violin concerti and last symphonies.
Gordan Nikolic plays a Paul Belin made in 2016 and a Venetian Petrus Guarnerius kindly lent by an anonymous sponsor.