Milena Injac - SRBMemeber of the Jury
Dr. Milena Injac, conductor, full professor and dean of the Faculty of Arts in Nis. She received her doctorate in conducting at the Faculty of Music, University of Arts in Belgrade under mentorship of prof. emeritus Darinka Matić-Marović. She is trained with Jorma Panula, Peter Eötvös , Mladen Jagušt and Salvador Mas Conda in Vienna and perfected choral singing and conducting in Sweden as a member of the first session of the World Choir, working with Erik Eriksson, Stefan Sköld and Thomas Kaplin. During her studies, she was an assistant in the Collegium musicum and Lola choirs in Belgrade. After arriving in Niš, she was the conductor of the Niš Chamber Choir, with whom she performed numerous concerts and several vocal and instrumental works. He won the IHS Golden Badge in 2004 for his contribution to the work of the festival and the performance of world premieres of vocal-instrumental works. For several years, she conducted the Aleksinac Mixed Choir Šumatovac, with which she won prizes in Ohrid and Pardubice. Since 2011, Milena Injac has been a member and president of the jury of the sock competition in Antalya and Çankale, Turkey. She won the first prize at the 3rd international festival "World of Music" in Italy conducting the chamber ensemble of the Nis Symphony Orchestra. . She has performed with almost all the leading orchestras in the country, the opera in Belgrade and Skopje, as well as the musical theater in Rome, all the leading orchestras and philharmonics in the region and has been a guest several times in Latin America and at festivals in Uruguay, El Salvador, Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Sweden, Austria, Montenegro, Greece and Russia. She was the conductor of the stage performances of J. Strauss's operetta: The Bat and the opera G. Rossini: The Barber of Seville in Niš. Milena Injac is a regular guest conductor of the Niš Symphony Orchestra and a guest lecturer of conducting at the Academia Diesis in Spain.
Jeroen Beckers - BELPresident of the Jury
Jeroen Beckers (born 1980) studied at the Conservatorium Maastricht, Lemmensinstituut Leuven, the South Netherlands Conservatory of Music, and Conservatorium Utrecht, where he earned degrees in Music Theory, Violin, Viola, and Choral Conducting. He subsequently attended masterclasses in violin and chamber music with Kati Sebestyèn (Belgium), Zigmund Kowalski (Belgium), Freddy Arteel (Belgium), Jaap Kruithof (Belgium), Donald Oehler (USA), and Benjamin Rawitz (Israel). He also took choral conducting classes with Anne-Marie Cabut (France), Kari Ala-Pöllänen (Finland), Michael Gohl (Switzerland), and Denes Szabo (Hungary). Additionally, he studied orchestral conducting with Edmond Saveniers and Patrick Davin. As a violist, he was affiliated with the symphony orchestra of 'de Munt', 'Brussels Philharmonic - VRO', 'Brabants Orkest Eindhoven', 'Opéra Royal de Wallonie - Liège', and the International Chamber Orchestra ‘iPalpiti’. His performances have taken him to major Flemish stages, the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), the Kimmel Center (Philadelphia), and Carnegie Hall (New York). He is the conductor of the choral group Cantitare Maaseik and Pro Cantione Genk and is frequently invited as a guest conductor and workshop leader both domestically and internationally. Highlights of his career include collaborations with British composer/conductor John Rutter, conducting the French youth choir ‘La Cigale de Lyon’ during a concert in Örebrö (Sweden), and leading the Hungarian choirs 'Cantemus’ and 'Pro Musica’. He has also conducted performances of Haydn's and Mozart's Requiems, Vivaldi's Gloria, and Jenkins' Stabat Mater. Currently, he is a teacher at the Academy of Arts Maaseik (Belgium), chairman of the ‘Flemish Federation of Young Choirs’, and a Board Member of the ‘European Choral Association – Europa Cantat’.
Jasenka Ostojic - CROPresident of the Jury
Conductor Jasenka Ostojić is a full professor at the Music Academy of the University of Zagreb. He teaches conducting courses and courses Choir and Chamber Choir with which he realizes excellent vocal - instrumental projects praised by the public and music critics. From the academic year 2018/2019 He is also a professor at the Music Academy in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina), where he teaches conducting and related professional subjects. He is a lecturer and leader of seminars and professional trainings in the country, and a guest lecturer at universities in Poland, Austria, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the USA. She is a member of expert judging panels in competitions of conductors, orchestras and choirs (Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia and Bulgaria). As a conductor of choirs and orchestras, she has won dozens of national and international awards, including two international Grand Prix. He has a rich concert activity at prestigious festivals in Croatia, as well as Great Britain, France, Belgium, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Greece and the USA. She has conducted the premieres of numerous composers, for whose performances she has been awarded special recognitions on several occasions. As a conductor, she collaborated with the Zagreb Soloists, the Croatian Chamber Orchestra, the Varaždin Chamber Orchestra, the CAF Symphony Wind Orchestra, the Croatian Radio and Television Choir and others. She specialized in vocal training for youth singers with the Vienna Boys, Austria. She has been the conductor of the Zagreb Boys Choir, and has been a mentor to many boys who have performed as soloists in professional productions of national opera and concert houses in the last two decades. In 2006, he founded the Croatian Society Collegium pro arte, which includes renowned and award-winning choirs Cappella Zinka and Cappella Odak, as well as the ensembles Odak Camerata and the Ensemble Celeste, a musical theater. She is the editor of the collection Anthology of Croatian Choral Music published by the Zadar Concert Office. She is the artistic director of the World Choir Festival on Musical, Thessaloniki, Greece