Antonio Garcia Egea, Mihnea Ignat, Sarajevo Philharmonic
Biography Antonio Garcia Egea, Mihnea Ignat, Sarajevo Philharmonic
Antonio García Egea
"I would like to state that the violinist Antonio García Egea demonstrates a great capacity as an instrumentalist and artist. His discipline and dedication augur well for an excellent career (...) for all these reasons, I am pleased to express my warm recognition of his qualities as an artist and I recommend him to take on musical competitions at the highest level" (Plácido Domingo, 2015).
Considered as one of the most important Spanish violinists of his generation, Antonio García (1989) has given concerts in the United States, China, Germany, Italy, France, Austria, Spain, Lithuania, etc., whose performances have been acclaimed by the specialised critics: "...Antonio García Egea, who at the age of 21 has shown himself to be one of the unquestionable talents of violin performance" (De juan, 2011).
".... García Egea is a musician with a powerful and very clean sound (...) He responded with a deep reading, dense at times, with powerful cadences and an exceptional sound" (Artaza, 2018). "...The clarity of García Egea's violin stood out against the thick, condensed sound of the cello..." (Cantón, 2020).
Born in Cieza, he graduated from the conservatory of Murcia, under the tutelage of Concepción Fernández, Vicente Cobacho and Joaquín Palomares. He continued his studies at the prestigious Mozarteum University of Salzburg, at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, and in Vienna, with Professor Boris Kuschnir.
During this period, he won first prizes in the competitions of Molina de Segura, the International Festival of Youth Orchestras of the Region of Murcia and the national competition for young performers "Ciudad de Xátiva", in which he was also awarded the competition's scholarship.
He has also been distinguished by the Asociación Pro Música de Murcia as "Pro Musician of the Year 2012" for his career as a soloist and chamber musician, and has been awarded the 2012 scholarship of the Fundación Galindo de Calasparra.
Alongside the development of his concert and pedagogical career, he has also developed his facet as an orchestral musician, playing for 5 seasons in the prestigious Orquesta de la Comunidad Valenciana del Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, co-directed by Lorin Maazel and Zubin Metha, through which the most outstanding personalities in conducting parade, both in symphonic concerts and opera performances.
He has been under the baton of conductors of the stature of Valery Gergiev, George Petre, Ricardo Chailly, Vladimir Jurowski, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Omer Meir Wellber, Nicola Luisotti, Plácido Domingo, among others.
He has recorded with the Orquesta de la Comunidad Valenciana the opera Bohème, conducted by Ricardo Chailly; Onegin by Tchaikovsky, with Omer Meir Wellber; arias by G. Verdi interpreted by Plácido Domingo; "Paris Mon amour" interpreted by Sonya Yoncheva, etc.
In August 2015 he obtained a position, by competitive examination, in the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, and has recently won, by competitive examination, the position of Professor of violin at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Murcia. He is also a founding member of the Quercus trio and Arbós duo.
Mihnea Ignat
Born in Craiova (Romania) in 1980, Mr. Ignat is one of the leading Romanian conductors of his generation. He is currently serving as Principal Conductor of the Romanian National Opera House of Timisoara, Music Director of the City of Elche Symphony Orchestra (Spain). Between 2018 and 2020 Mihnea Ignat was Principal Guest Conductor of the Romanian National Opera of Bucharest (Romania). Between 2005 and 2017 Mr. Ignat has served as Music Director of the Philharmonic Orchestra of the University of Alicante (Spain) and also Associated Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of the Dominican Republic during the 2009/2010 season.
In October 2010, Mr. Ignat was awarded the Special Prize of the Toscanini Philharmonic Orchestra in the “A. Toscanini” International Conducting Competition held in Parma (Italy). He has also been a semifinalist in the "D. Flick" International Conducting Competition (London, 2008) and also in the "G. Solti" International Conducting Competition (Frankfurt, 2008).
Between 2009 and 2014 he worked as assistant to Maestro D. Kitajenko with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra or the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. He has also been assistant to Maestro Jesús López Cobos and Maestro Josep Pons.
Among the orchestras Mr. Ignat has been invited to conduct there are orchestras such as the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Madrid (Spain), the Irish National Symphony Orchestra (RTÉ), the Romanian National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of the Romanian Radio, the Royal Symphony Orchestra of Seville (Spain), the "G. Enescu"Philharmonic Orchestra, the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, the Toscanini Philharmonic Orchestra (Parma, Italy), the Castilla and León Symphony Orchestra (Valladolid, Spain), the Royal Philharmonic of Galicia (Santiago de Compostela, Spain), the Philharmonic Orchestra of Málaga, the Symphony Orchestra of Murcia, the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra, the "Freixenet" Symphony Orchestra of the School of Music "Reina Sofía" of Madrid (Spain) and most of the symphony orchestras of his native country, Romania.
A notable opera conductor Mr. Ignat has been appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Romanian National Opera House (Bucharest, Romania) in 2018. Recent highlights that cemented his reputation as an operatic conductor includes conducting the new production of Verdi’ Otello at the Romanian National Opera House with the stage direction of Giancarlo del Monaco and the acclaimed new production of Pergolesi' La Serva Padrona with the stage direction of Silviu Purcarete. He regularly conducts titles such as Nabucco, Il Trovatore, La Traviata, Carmen, Rigoletto, Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, L’Elisir d’Amore, Madama Butterfly, The Marriage of Figaro among others.
Mihnea Ignat has accompanied on stage great soloists such as Juan Diego Flórez, Jerome Lowenthal, John O'Conor, Stefan Milenkovich, Ning Feng, Celine Byrne, Liviu Prunaru, Lina Tur Bonet, Renata Pokupic, Ilana Vered, Miguel Ángel Estrella, Viktor Derevianko, Alexandru Tomescu, Erzhan Kulibaev among others.
Mr. Ignat graduated as an orchestra conductor with the highest distinctions at the National University of Music in Bucharest (Romania), where he has also studied composition. He has subsequently obtained the Master in Orchestra Conducting at the same university under the direction of the renowned Romanian conductor Horia Andreescu.
Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra
is the first professionally organized symphonic orchestra in Bosnia and Herzegovina and its foundation was already rooted in ensembles established during the Austro-Hungarian rule of our country. Since 1923, the existence of the Philharmonic Orchestra in Bosnia and Herzegovina represents one of the pillars of music culture and the music institution of the fundamental significance for Sarajevo and Bosnian region. Counting decades of work in the environment where social developments ruthlessly affect the cultural circumstances, the Philharmonic Orchestra has been repeatedly forced to start reprinting the pages of its history.
First ideas about establishing one professional ensemble in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which would perform the West European art music originated from the County Music School. Thus, the Quartet of Philharmonic Association was formed, which was mainly composed of the County Music School teachers. The Quartet members were Josip Hladek and Dr. Joseph Goldberg (violins), Jakov Sternberg (viola), Belus Jungic (cello) and Klemens Mensík (piano). The first concert was held on 15 April 1920 in the Sarajevo Imperial cinema. These small, but significant steps, led to the meeting of Founding Assembly of the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra, which took place on 6 July three years later, and Bogdan Milankovic was appointed its first president. With the slogan “more and better music”, the Organizing Committee began implementing tasks so that the newly established ensemble could start their activities as soon as possible. The very first concert was held on 24 October 1923. Piano soloist was Klemens Mensik and conductors were Aleksandar Lukinic and Josip Rozdjalovski. The program included Overture of opera Porin by Vatroslav Lisinski, Piano Concerto in G minor by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, and the Second Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven. Until 1941, the conductors were Belus Jungic, Maks Unger, Aleksandar Lukinic, Josip Rozdjalovski, Edo Křenek and Oskar Danon. During this period, the Philharmonic Orchestra marked the anniversaries of important composers such as 100 years of Smetana, Schubert and Beethoven.
Due to World War II, the Philharmonic Orchestra stopped working in the period between 1941 and 1945 and in 1948, continued with its activities. At that time, the main tasks of the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra were defined by efforts to perform symphonic music by national and international authors, encourage the creation of new symphonic works, contribute to the raising in quality of music performers, and satisfy cultural needs of citizens and in such, work with other institutions and organizations in order to raise the music culture and the development of music life.
The first concert of the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra after the World War II was held on 20 October 1948, conducted by Oskar Danon, and the soloist was Antonio Janigro, cellist from Zagreb. The program included Overture of opera Ruslan and Lyudmila by M. I. Glinke, Concerto for Cello and Orchestra by A. Dvorak, Sárka by B. Smetana, Night on Bald Mountain by M. Mussorgsky and the dances from the ballet “The Legend of Ohrid” by S. Hristic. In this period, the policy of the Philharmonic Orchestra was to give preference to national conductors, while guest conductors conducted a smaller number of concerts. In this period, Directors of the Philharmonic Orchestra were: Tihomir Miric (1948 – 1973), Teodor Romanic (1974 – 1976), Mirko Janjcic (1976 – 1984), Vladimir Maunagic (1984 – 1988), Miroslav Homen (1988 – 1989) and Ninoslav Verber (1989-1992). Ivan Stajcer, Mladen Pozajic, Teodor Romanic, Miroslav Homen, Oskar Danon, Julio Maric, Dragisa Savic, Radivoj Spasic, Boris Papandopulo and many others conducted the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra. Compared to the period before 1941, the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra has significantly expanded its repertoire by performing pieces not only by international, but also Yugoslav and Bosnian composers. In this sense, we should mention very fruitful cooperation with the Association of Composers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has resulted in the concert repertoire regularly consisting of the works by national authors. ...
