Acclaimed as “A genius, a poet, a super-sensitive musician,” on sandiego.com, Young Concert Artists will present Croatian guitarist ROBERT BELINIĆ’s* New York concerto debut on April 29, 2008 with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s conducted by Michael Stern, as well as a solo recital in February 2008 at the Morgan Library & Museum.  During the 2007-2008 season he also performs at the Glenridge Performing Arts Center (FL), the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts (CA), and the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts (CA).

Mr. Belinić has given recitals in the U.S. at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, La Jolla Music Society, the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Western Michigan University, Southwest Missouri State University, and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (NY), and has appeared on the Grand Teton (WY) Music Festival’s Medalist Series, the John E. Marlow Guitar Series in Washington, DC, and the Gainesville Pro Musica Concert Series.  He has performed as soloist with the Phoenix Symphony, the Paducah (KY) Symphony Orchestra, the Zagreb Philharmonic and the Zagreb Soloists.  Mr. Belinić has performed abroad in Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Poland, Italy, Germany, Lichtenstein, and The Czech Republic, and is a founding member of the Croatian Guitar Quartet.  

Mr. Belinić was the sole winner of the 2001 Young Concert Artists European Auditions in Leipzig, Germany.  In 2002, he became the first guitarist to win the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York.  He was also recipient of the 2002 Ivo Vuljevic Award for the best young Croatian musician.  Mr. Belinić recently was recently a prizewinner in the first Parkening International Guitar Competition.

The Young Concert Artists Series presented Mr. Belinić’s New York recital debut at the 92nd Street Y, sponsored by the Claire Tow Debut Prize, his Washington, DC debut at the Kennedy Center, sponsored by the Alexander Kasza-Kasser Prize, and his Boston debut at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.  Mr. Belinić was also awarded YCA’s Fergus New Artist Prize and The Beracasa Foundation Prize for an appearance at the Montpellier Radio-France Festival. 

Born in 1981 in Zagreb, Croatia, Robert Belinić grew up in the nearby town of Popovača.  He began to play the drums at the age of three.  When he was eight years old, he starred in “Tale from Croatia,” the first film released in newly-independent Croatia.  He began to study classical guitar at the age of eleven at the music school in Kutina with Zvonko Susnjar, and continued his studies with Ante Cagalj in Zagreb.  Every year since 1995, he has participated in the International Summer School for Guitar on the Croatian island of Hvar.  He graduated from the Leopold Mozart Hochschule für Musik in Augsburg, Germany, where he currently holds an assistantship and is pursuing postgraduate studies with Franz Halasz. 

*[pronounced BELL-in-itch]

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