Hammer Piano Festival

TAJJ STRING QUARTET

The ensemble was formed in Novi Sad, in 1997. Since its founding, it has been performing in an unchanged set up: Aleksandra Krčmar Ćulibrk (1 st violin), Jovanka Mazalica (2 nd violin), Jelena Filipović (viola) and Timea Kalmar (cello). Originating from the same string, namely quartet school, the artists gained invaluable experience over time, gradually finding their own interpretive expression. In addition to dedicated individual work, they have also studied with prominent artists at numerous master classes (members of the Amadeus, Alban Berg, Bartók, Medici, Janacek, Smetana string quartets and other distinguished musicians). They completed master studies of chamber music at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade in the class of Prof. Ladislav Mezei.The members of the TAJJ String Quartet are currently the final year students of doctoral studies at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad.
Quartet are currently the final year students of doctoral studies at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, in the class of Professor Istvan Varga (Budapest), where they exclusively study music of the 20 th and 21 st century. The knowledge and experience they have gathered in the field of chamber music they currently transfer to their students at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, where they are professors at the Department of Chamber Music, while Jovanka Mazalica holds the position of the second violins leader in the Serbian National Theatre Opera Orchestra. Over the past two decades, TAJJ has performed hundreds of times at concerts and festivals at home and abroad (from Croatia and Italy, through France, Germany and The Netherlands, to Scandinavian countries), and has also been a guest ensemble of several international competitions.
It also gets included in larger chamber formations and collaborates with great pleasure with most diverse soloists. TAJJ often and gladly steps out of the classical repertoire for string quartet, performing with great success the works of contemporary authors, many of whom, such as Jasmina Mitrušić, Dorotea Vejnović, Aleksandra Stepanović and, primarily Aleksandra Vrebalov, dedicated their works to this ensemble. The quartet has so far recorded five CDs. Thanks to a high level of professional and artistic work that has lasted over two decades, the TAJJ String Quartet is now one of the leading chamber ensembles in the region, showing from the beginning the tendency to subordinate individual characteristics to the common ideal of the uniqueness and assimilation of quartet sound.