On Friday, February 6, at 8:00 PM, at Kolarac Hall, the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra will perform with home-grown talents – conductor Dušan Vilić and clarinetist Ognjen Popović. The program, conceived by the beloved BPO chief conductor, late Gabriel Feltz, features some of the finest works of French music.

Friday’s concert of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra is dedicated to the memory of Gabriel Feltz, whose life was tragically cut short. The repertoire he curated is framed by popular Impressionist masterpieces, beginning with works by Maurice Ravel – the brilliant Alborada del gracioso and the sumptuous ballet Daphnis et Chloé, one of the crowning achievements of French music as a whole.

The neoclassical Clarinet Concerto by Jean Françaix will be performed by the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra’s principal clarinetist Ognjen Popović, one of the most distinguished clarinetists on the Serbian music scene. He made his debut as a soloist with the Belgrade Philharmonic at the age of thirteen and has served as the orchestra’s principal clarinet since 2002. Popović will perform Françaix’s concerto, a work that has earned a reputation as nearly unplayable or, at best, reserved for a select circle of virtuosos.

Dušan Vilić will be on the conductor’s podium. Vilić has been successfully developing his professional career in Russia, collaborating as a principal and guest conductor with numerous leading symphony orchestras and opera houses across the country. Since 2023, he has been engaged as a conductor of the Mariinsky Theatre, working on its stages in Vladivostok and Saint Petersburg.

It gives me particular joy, on this homecoming, to see familiar faces in the orchestra: colleagues with whom I studied, spent time, and with whom I now create artistically, professionally. I am very pleased with our work during rehearsals, and I particularly enjoy feeling the ensemble’s inner energy, quick responsiveness, and musicality – said Dušan Vilić