Ivo Pogorelic – piano master

Ivo Pogorelić began his music education at the age of seven in Belgrade at the Dr. Vojislav Vučković and Mokranjac music schools and continued his studies at the Central Music School in Moscow in 1970. He enrolled at the Moscow State Conservatory, named after Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, in 1975. In 1976, he began an intensive collaboration with the renowned Georgian pianist Alisa Kazeradze, whom he later married, remaining together until her death in 1996.

After several victories in national competitions in the former Yugoslavia, Pogorelić won first prize at the International Piano Competition Alessandro Casagrande in Terni in 1978. His broader international recognition began after his exclusion from the finals of the prestigious International Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 1980. In protest, renowned pianist Martha Argerich dramatically left the jury, declaring him a genius. This media coverage catapulted him to the top of the international music scene.

Following his debut at Carnegie Hall in New York in 1981, Pogorelić has performed in prestigious concert halls across the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, Japan, South America, and Israel. He has played with leading world orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Tonhalle Orchestra, and the London Symphony Orchestra.