Hammer Piano Festival

PROGRAM
HAMMER PIANO FESTIVAL 2022

OPENING
CEREMONY

CONTEMPORARY
MUSIC

ANNIVERSARIES OF
GREAT
COMPOSERS

CLOSING
CEREMONY

PROGRAM HAMMER PIANO FESTIVAL 2022

OPENING
CEREMONY

October 6,
8 p.m

Francesco
Libetta

piano (Italy)

CONTEMPORARY
MUSIC

October 7,
8 p.m
MIRKO
TOPALSKI

composer (Serbia)

ANDRIJA
MAMUTOVIĆ

piano (Serbia)

ANNIVERSARIES OF
GREAT
COMPOSERS

160 Years of the Birth of Claude Debussy and 150 Years of the Birth of Alexander Scriabin

October 8,
8 p.m
SANJA
BIZJAK

piano (Serbia/France)

CLOSING
CEREMONY

October 9,
8 p.m
RITA
KINKA

piano (Serbia)

TAJJ

String Quartet, (Serbia)

PROGRAM

PROGRAM

Preludio No. 10 in E minor, Op. 3, MTN15

Two-Part Invention No. 3 in D-flat major, Op. 1, MTN13

Preludio and Fugue No. 1 in C minor, Op. 3, MTN4/5

Two-Part Invention No. 1 in C major, Op. 1, MTN3

Preludio and Fugue No. 2 in C minor, Op. 3, MTN6/7

Minuet No. 1 in G major, Op. 14
Minuet No. 2 in G minor, Op. 14

Requiem for 2020, Op. 6, MTN17

Prelude No. 1 in C major, Op. 2, MTN2

Corona Prelude No. 1 in C minor, Op. 5, MTN12

Preludio No. 6 in D minor, Op. 3, MTN8

Prelude for Aleksandra No. 2 in A minor, Op. 2, MTN21

Preludio and Fugue No. 3 in D-flat major, Op. 3, MTN9/10

Theme and Variations No. 1 in C major, Op. 4, MTN1

MIRKO

TOPALSKI

composer (Serbia)

ANDRIJA

MAMUTOVIĆ

piano (Serbia)
Photo by Aleksandar Jovanović

MIRKO TOPALSKI BIOGRAPHY

Mirko Topalski prides himself of being an entrepreneur during the day and a composer and hybrid drummer at night. He earned his Master’s Degree in sound design at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. He has a long lasting career as a pop music performer, where his performances include the music from the famous punk band Obojeni Program, to ethno sensation Sanja Ilic & Balkanika with whom he performed at the Alexandria Opera House. Mirko founded one of the first company dedicated to developing video games in Serbia, called Eipix Entertainment and is one of the founders of the Serbian Games Association. He founded several more companies, one of which being Sonic Dune, a company which deals with the development of studio devices used in the music production.
Until recently, he was the CEO of Playrix RS, which is part of the multinational group in the video games world – Playrix, and he is now preparing to launch a new gaming company. He also received many awards, some of which include, but are not limited to, Ernst & Young Fast Growing Entrepreneur in 2015, and the award Kapetan Miša Anastasijević in 2017. He acts two-fold as a composer. This includes electronic and classical music, which seldom intertwine, for now. Electronic music mostly resembles the ambient music of Vangelis and Jarre, and sometimes it includes the 8-bit music, which brings us back to old video games. Classical music is tonal and in a neo baroque style. The goal for the future is to combine these two styles into something new and unique.
He has more than 50 published works in the field of applied music, most of which is related to video game music, and others to theatre, film and advertisements. One theme music especially stands out here, and this is the theme for the video game called Hidden Expedition Smithsonian Hope Diamond, which was developed in cooperation with the largest museum complex in the world – The Smithsonian Institution from Washington. Mirko is an avid fan of science fiction and comic books, which is why it is interesting to point out that he is the co-author of the comic book Lightstep Chronicles, published by the renowned Dark Horse Comics publisher in 2018.

ANDRIJA MAMUTOVIĆ BIOGRAPHY

Andrija Mamutović was born on October 21, 1990 in Nis, Serbia. He obtained his primary and secondary music education in the class of prof. Borivoje Mladenović. During the course of his studies, he was awarded many prizes both at competitions in Serbia, and abroad: 1st prize at the International Competition of Young Pianists in Nis (2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010), 1st prize at the state competition of music and ballet schools of Serbia in Belgrade (2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009), 1st prize at the International Competition of Young Pianists in Šabac (2002, 2003, 2004). He earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree at the Faculty of Arts in Niš, in the class of prof. Aleksandar Serdar. He participated at the Young Pianists Competition in Niš (1st prize), “Chopin in Memoriam” Competition in Varna (4th prize), “Ohrid Pearls” Competition (1st prize), International Young Pianists competition “Davorin Jenko” 2014 (1st prize), International Competition of Young Pianists in Šabac in 2014 (1st prize).
He performed in almost all significant concert halls around Serbia, as well as in Greece, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, and United States of America. As a soloist and a chamber musician, he performed at the following festivals: BEMUS, NIMUS, Constantinus, Evmelia, A – fest, May, the Month of Music. He played Bach, Mozart and Chopin concertos with the Niš Symphony Orchestra with conductors Vesna Šouc and Milena Injac. He attended master classes hosted by prof. Boris Kraljević, Aleksandar Serdar, Yuri Kot, Michael Leslie, Bruno Canino and Stephen Kovacevich. He earned his doctoral degree at the Faculty of Arts in Belgrade in the class of prof. Aleksandar Serdar with the work called “Piano Music of Johannes Brahms in the Context of Developing Piano Art of the Second Half of the 19th Century: New Types of Pianistic Texture in Selected Piano Works by Brahms”.
He participated in organizing the BARTF scientific conference organized by the Faculty of Arts in Niš in 2019. He premiered the piece “Souffle et Contresoffle” by the American composer Gregory Mertl in Serbia. He was awarded the “Zografski” foundation award for promoting the work of composer Tomislav Zografski. The Ohrid award was one of the key reasons for being accepted into the EMCY organization that deals with promoting young artists, and award winners at international competitions. He was also awarded the Constantinus award for best young artists of Serbia up to the age of 18, as well as a Faculty of Arts in Niš Plaque for the best student of the music department. He performed with the violinist Nemanja Belej, cellist Bledar Zajmi, flutist Miroslav Matějka. He is currently performing in a piano duo with Mina Krasić.

ANDRIJA MAMUTOVIĆ BIOGRAPHY

He is employed as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Arts in Niš, piano department. His students have received numerous awards at piano competitions. He participated in competitions in Zaječar and Smederevo as a member of the jury.