Zagreb soloists
The cult ensemble, which in the 80s had the best-selling classical music album in the world, the favorites of the Spanish royal court, for whom it is said in Vienna: ‘if you want to listen to Mozart, go to Zagreb’, has been giving concerts to citizens and playing on the streets of Zagreb and Croatia for several years.
The Ensemble of Zagreb Soloists was founded in 1953 as part of Radio Zagreb, and they held their first concert in 1954 under the artistic direction of the famous cellist Antonij Janigro. They recorded more than seventy sound carriers for companies such as Vanguard, EMI, ASV, Eurodisc, Melodia, Hispa-vox, Pickwick and Croatia Records. Among the latest releases, the audio carrier with the works of Ernesto Cordero, which was also nominated for the Latin Grammy award, stands out. Zagreb soloists have been awarded many high prizes and recognitions, among which stand out: the first prize in Mar del Plata (for the album Concerts of the 18th Century), the Pablo Casals Medal, the Elisabeth Sprague Coolidge Medal (for the performance of contemporary music).
During the Homeland War, the Zagreb soloists held around seventy charity concerts (for the city of Dubrovnik, for the destroyed music schools in Croatia, the demolished HNK building in Osijek, the Zagreb Children’s Hospital, for numerous destroyed Croatian monuments, etc.), and they also performed a large number of festive concerts on the occasion of the presentation of the new Croatian state. In the spring of 2021, they held the first concert in the earthquake-affected area for the destroyed Fran Lhotka Music School in Sisak.
In 2023/24 are celebrating their first 70 years.