Rossi Fest
About us
Festival director
Stefan Zekić
Founder and director of Rossi Fest. Graduated from the University of Arts, Faculty of Music in Belgrade, in two departments: conducting and solo singing. Additional education includes trainings and workshops with the most prominent european conductors, such as: Uros Lajovic (AU), Michael Sheck (BE), Andrew Parrott (UK), and Max Frey (GE). Currently, he’s pursuing Phd at the University of Arts in Belgrade in the field of opera conducting. He began conducting at the age of 17 and since 2006 he’s the chief conductor of the Baruch Brothers Choir. He’s a founder and artistic director of the ensemble for early music Canticum Novum, and is the conductor of the Jewish chamber orchestra. Since the season 2009/10 he’s engaged at the National Theatre of Belgrade where his first performance was Le nozze di Figaro (W. A. Mozart). In 2014. he became the chief conductor of the Opera studio of the National Theatre and successfully performed two premieres – Die Zauberflote and Bastien und Bastienne. He also performed a notable concerts in cooperation with many different ensembles such as Madrigal Choir and Symphony Orchestra of University of Arts in Belgrade, Vocal Ensemble Oktoih, Musica (Slovenia), Vocal Ensemble Marienhain (Germany), St. George Royal Strings, Jewish Chamber Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra Stanislav Binički, Montenegro Symphony orchestra, etc. Stefan Zekic won numerous national and international rewards at the prestige festivals and competition, as well as special reward of the state of Israel for a remarkable contribution to strengthening Israel-Serbia relations. Among the prominent artists he has collaborated with are Oscar-winner Jiří Menzel, John Ramster, Martin Evans, Olga Makarina, István Székely, Eraldo Salmieri, Claudia Eder and others.
Artistic committee
Ana Stefanović
Full-time professor at the University of Arts, Faculty of Music in Belgrade and associate Researcher at IreMus, Paris. She earned her MA degree at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade and her PhD in musicology at the Paris-Sorbonne University (Université Paris-Sorbonne, Paris IV). Main areas of her research are: baroque opera, solo song, relation between music and text, as well as questions of musical style and stylistic analysis. She is also the author of six volumes of The Anthology of Serbian Art Song (Belgrade, UKS, 2008-2014), books La musique comme métaphore, La relation de la musique et du texte dans l’opéra baroque français: de Lully à Rameau, (Paris, L’Harmattan, 2006), Temporality and Narrativity in Music Drama (Belgrade, FMU, 2017), along with a large number of studies and articles published in reviews for musicology and music theory. Prof. Stefanović organized various international conferences in the field of music theory and is the author of various collections of papers in the field of music theory.
Branka Cvejić-Mezei
For most of her career she held the leading positions in cultural institutions in Serbia. She graduated Flute and Piano at the Faculty of Music, Belgrade, where she also earned her MA degree. She specialised in Paris at the École Normale de Musique, where she receives a diploma Licence de concertes. Since 1971 she was a full-time member of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, firstly as a soloist (first flute), and in 1988 she became its director, a position she held for 12 years. Later she’ll become a deputy director at the National Theater in Belgrade (2000-2001), and then filled the role of coordinator and counselor on cultural and humanitarian matters within Karic Foundation (2001-2006).
Ladislav Mezei
Full-time professor at the Chamber Music Department of the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, where he earned his BA and MA degrees. He specialised at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. His extensive artistic biography includes two seasons playing as a solo cellist of Sarajevo Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra, full-time membership in Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra and lead cellist position (1975–2004), then solo performances with Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra, Vojvodina Symphony Orchestra, RTS Symphony Orchestra, Military Orchestra of Yugoslavia and more. He was a soloist and member of baroque ensemble Muzika Florida and academic chamber ensemble Ensemble Jeunesse Musicale. Among his performances stands out the Millenium Gala Concert in NY Lincoln Center in 1999. He is a permanent associate at the orchestra Camerata Serbica, as well as the member of Pancevo string quartet (today: Arco String Quartet). He’s the founder of Jewish Chamber Orchestra, with which he has made a large number of performances. The string quartet TAJJ, whose member mr. Mezei is, became in 2005 the first quartet that earned an MA degree at the Faculty of Music, Belgrade.
Organising team
- Jelena Zekić
- Mila Pavlović
Volunteers
Thank you to the many friends and everyone who has supported the festival over the years.