“…an impressive level of accomplishment…in total control of his huge talent, his difficult material, his platform persona, his life, you might say; a fully-fledged artist…”
Goran Krivokapić, guitar
A native of Montenegro, guitarist Goran Krivokapić made a reputation as an inimitable talent at a young age for his musical and technical prowess, displayed through his public performances, which inspired the famous Montenegrin poet and TV personality Dragan Radulovic to produce a documentary about him in 1993. Today he sets a new standard for Classical Guitar performance with his distinctive interpretations of old and new repertoire. As an artist, lecturer and adjudicator, he is a frequent guest at many international festivals. His musical focus is on the development of new works for classical guitar through his own transcriptions of the Baroque and Classical era, while collaborating with contemporary composers.
For his outstanding musicianship, he has received several awards including the Golden Guitar award, presented to him during the 10th International Guitar Convention in Alessandria (Italy) in 2005, for “The Best Up And Coming Guitarist” and a year later received another “Golden Guitar” for his Naxos recording as the “Best CD Of The Year”. As a soloist, he has performed with the Slovak Chamber Orchestra of Bohdan Warchal, New Russia Symphony Orchestra, Symphonic Orchestra of Moscow “Russian Filharmony”, Belgrade Philharmonic, Montenegro Symphony Orchestra, Chilean Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of Romanian National Radio and Turin Philharmonic. He has given solo recitals and master classes at guitar festivals, music festivals, and concert series around the world, appearing at such prestigious halls as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam (The Netherlands), the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow (Russia), Lubkowitz Palace in Vienna (Austria), and Auditorio Conde Duque in Madrid (Spain).
He won his first international competition (Petar Konjovic in Belgrade, Serbia). His victories continued thereafter at many prestigious international competitions (total of eighteen first prizes) culminating at the “XXXI Dr. Luis Sigall International Competition for Musical Performance (member of WFIMC)” in Viña del Mar (Chile) in 2004 and Guitar Foundation of America International Solo Competition (GFA) in Montréal (Canada) that same year, which earned him the following year’s tour of North America, a Naxos recording (distributed worldwide), and cash prize. He has been featured in several television documentaries including TV Montenegro, TV Arte, and TV Politika as well as performances and interviews for TV and radio stations such as WDR, Hessischer Rundfunk, RTS, RTCG, FOX7, WGBH Radio Boston, and Fine Music Radio. He’s also been featured in various newspapers and music magazines including: Classical Guitar Magazine (UK), Akustik Gitarre (Germany), Gendai Guitar Magazine (Japan), Les Cahiers de la Guitare (France), Musica (Italy), Seicorde (Italy), MobilArt (Montenegro), and Stampa (Italy). His recent highlights and upcoming projects included solo recitals and masterclasses in Europe, America, Russia, Turkey and South Africa. An active recording artists, his new CD recordings include Guitar and Piano works by Diabelli, D. Bogdanovic, H. Hofmeyr, and Castelnuovo-Tedesco for KSG Exaudio (duos with Corneli Smit, piano); solo recital recording of Sonata by C.P.E. Bach, Haydn and Jose. As a member of Montenegrin Guitar Duo, recent recording include duet works of D. Bogdanovic, Domeniconi, and Piazzolla. More recently, a project with two discs for Naxos recording all six J.S. Bach Partitas BWV 825–830 arranged and performed for guitar duo.
Born in 1979, he started his music education at eight with Mićo Poznanović at the Music School of Herceg Novi (Montenegro) and continued his studies at the Faculty of Music Art in Belgrade (class of Srdjan Tošić), graduating in 2000, and further with Hubert Käppel and Roberto Aussel at the “Hochschule für Musik Köln” in Germany, where he graduated and received the “Konzertexamen” degree. He then pursued his master’s degree at the Conservatorium Maastricht (the Netherlands), under the tutelage of Carlo Marchione. Since 2010 he has been teaching at the prestigious Koblenz International Guitar Academy, where he leads the postgraduate studies. He resides in Cologne, Germany with his wife, Pianist Corneli Smit and son Luka.
For more information please visit www.goran-krivokapic.com
Quotations:
“…an impressive level of accomplishment…in total control of his huge talent, his difficult material, his platform persona, his life, you might say; a fully-fledged artist…”
– Classical Guitar Magazine (United Kingdom)
“His musicality, profound and instinctive, is always controlled by an interpretative style of great elegance and balance.”
– La Stampa (Italy)
“Playing for a large audience, he showed a sovereign steadiness and an astounding virtuosic and interpretative artistic maturity.”
– Akustik Gitarre (Germany)
“Musicians particularly value his steady concentration, natural virtuosity, mature contemplation of music and high professionalism.”
– MobilArt (Montenegro)
“Montenegrin guitarist impressed with his interpretation of the fifth Rossiniana by Giuliani, through concentrated instrumental brilliance and overall perfect timing a convincing portrayal of the operatic style; the themes were defined by ideal articulation, a palette of colours and dynamic bringing them to life.”
– Musica (Italy)
“…an impressive level of accomplishment…in total control of his huge talent, his difficult material, his platform persona, his life, you might say; a fully-fledged artist…”
– Classical Guitar Magazine (United Kingdom)
“… the guitar version of these brilliant and demanding Scarlatti sonatas sounded totally natural, magically taking you back to the sound of the 1700s; “like Harpsichord”
– Vijesti (Montenegro)
“Heart renderingly beautiful with fine nuances performed to perfection.”
– Overstrand Herald (South Africa)