Playing of great clarity and sterling musicianship allied to a technical command of brilliance and authority.It brought a welcome breath of fresh air to the Chopin B minor Sonata and earned this young man a standing ovation from the eclectic audience that Dr Mather has nurtured over the years with his many seasons that give a platform to young musicians at the start of their career.

Schubert’s Moment Musicaux in F minor and Impromptu in G flat had the same simple musicianship that allowed the music to speak so directly as did the Eleven Bagatelles by Beethoven op 119.
Eleven jewels that did not quite glitter and shine with the composers impish personality but which glowed with a light of purity and precision.

It was Chopin with his Barcarolle op 60 and Sonata op 58 that illuminated this young man’s soul and using more pedal ,which is indeed the soul of the piano, he allowed the music to unfold with even more authority and poetry. A remarkable clarity and technical mastery but in Chopin allied more to a world of fantasy and artistry that obviously touched this young man more than the respectable beauty of his Schubert and Beethoven.

A kaleidoscope of colours though were saved for the encore by his fellow Croatian, Dora Pejacevic ,with a Nocturne of fantasy and ravishing shimmering sounds.It was here that this young Croation pianist allowed us a glimpse into his inner world of fantasy and imagination with a freedom that he had held remarkably under control until this final heartfelt glimpse of his homeland.

Croatian young pianist Zvjezdan Vojvodic made his concerto debut at the age of 15, as a laureate of the 50 th prestigious international piano competition “Virtuosi per musica di pianoforte” in the Czech Republic where he got the opportunity to perform Chopin’s Piano Concerto in f minor at the opening concert of that competition in the following year. Zvjezdan was born in Croatia in 2003, where he completed his primary and secondary music education in the class of professor and excellent advisor Ivanka Kordic. Since the autumn of 2021, Zvjezdan has been studying at the Royal College of Music in London, UK. His teachers are Ian Jones and Dinara Klinton, and Zvjezdan is now 3 rd year student at RCM as William Mealings Scholar supported by the Cosmina and Douglas Liversidge Scholarship.

He won over 80 first and special awards at national and international competitions. At the Croatian national competitions (2015-2021) he continuously won four first prizes in the piano category and twice in the piano duo. Among international awards we can point some 1 st prizes: “Merci maestro”, (Brussels, 2017); „Jurica Murai”, laureate of the competition (Varaždin, 2017); “Ars nova”, laureate of the competition (Trieste, 2017); “Isidor Bajic”, (Novi Sad, 2018); “EPTA” (Osijek, 2019).
At the renowned XII. Darmstadt International Chopin Piano Competition, held in Autumn 2022, as the youngest competitor he reached the final stage and was one of the prize winners. And in 2023. Zvjezdan won 1 st prize at the Watford International Piano Competition held in the UK.