Famous Montenegrins – Part 3, Musicians

By Visit Montenegro On 24/02/2011 · 2 Comments

Milos Karadaglic

Now, we want to present you one great musician from Montenegro: Miloš Karadaglić

Source: Official Milos Karadaglic Website

Having won more than thirteen top prizes in various national and international competitions, Milos Karadaglic already established himself as one of the most promising young musical talents. He was born 26 years ago, in Montenegro – a small and beautiful country on the Adriatic coast. In fact, his very surname, pronounced ‘ka- ra- dá- glich’, means ‘Of Montenegro’.

Milos’ interest in music was very strong from an early age. Never shy to show what he can do, he became a soloist of the children’s choir in his hometown Podgorica. He toured the whole of the former Yugoslavia with the choir and won numerous awards as a child singer. While the Balkan Peninsula was erupting into civil war, he started playing classical guitar at the Specialist Primary Music School ‘Vasa Pavic’ and very quickly began to perform in public. By the age of 14 he had already performed in most of the major concert halls. He was a star performer on TV and Radio. In 1996 Serbian National Television Network made a TV documentary about his prodigious talent.

The school system in Montenegro was such that at the age of 14 Milos had to decide whether he will enter a Grammar School or a Specialist Secondary Music School. Before he made his final decision, in summer 1998 he travelled to Italy for a master-class with his guitar idol – the great David Russell. Maestro Russell was very encouraging towards his career in music and said that the best place to study guitar was the Royal Academy of Music in London, so when the time comes …

Hearing these words, Milos knew that music was his real love and made a decision. For two years between 1998 and 2000, while in the secondary music school, he won first prizes in literally every competition there was in Yugoslavia at the time.

To prove his worth and to follow his ambition, while his parents were at work he ‘secretly’ recorded an audition tape and sent it to the Royal Academy of Music in London. He was just sixteen years old at the time and was immediately offered a scholarship to commence his undergraduate studies. He studied with one of Europe’s finest guitar teachers – Prof. Michael Lewin, and as one of the youngest in the class, graduated with First Class Honours in June 2004. He continued his studies at the same institution for another two years and completed a Masters in Performance with Distinction. His final recital was awarded with DipRAM – a sign of the highest level of artistic excellence. Milos was then made a Meaker Junior Fellow- an accolade never before given to a guitarist at the institution. Throughout his studies he was generously supported by the John Hosier Music Trust, Musicians Benevolent Fund and the Hattori Foundation.

In 2007 Milos was awarded the Prince’s Prize – a music prize of HRH Price Charles – and a Silver Medal of the Worshipful Company of Musicians. He was the first guitarist ever to win such prestigious awards.

He won his first ‘Gold Lyre’ at the National Music Competition when he was eleven years old. Other awards include the Second Prize at the Haverhill Symphony International Soloist Competition (2006), the Julian Bream Prize (2005), adjudicated by maestro himself and the Ivor Mairants Guitar Award (2002).

Season 2008/09 marked Milos’ successful solo debut at the Luzern Festival in Switzerland. He also played Rodrigo’s Concerto de Aranjuez with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in two sold-out performances at the Brighton Dome and Eastbourne Congress Theatre. He also had the honour of sharing the stage with Julian Bream, in a Gala concert celebrating the life and work of Sir Malcolm Arnold.

Milos performed at the Purcell Room at the South Bank Centre in the Park Lane Group’s New Year Series. His performance was enthusiastically received by the music critics.

” … He punched through this trio of ballads (El Decameron Negro) with an innate poise and elegance that made you sit up and listen … And then the firecracker: A superbly inflected, impeccably judged rendition of Ginastera’s Sonata: a giant tapestry of sound combining luminous melancholy and bravura energy …” The Times

He also shared an evening recital at London’s Wigmore Hall in October 2006 (as a winner of the Maisie Lewis Young Artist Platform): “It is not very often that this sort of thing happens: where the forces of violin and piano, complete with centuries of repertoire and exuberance, are outmanoeuvred by the charm and eloquence of a single classical guitar”, wrote the Classical Guitar Magazine.

Other solo recitals and concerto performances include: various London venues: St. Martin-in-the-Fields, St. John’s, Smith Square, St. James’ Piccadilly, Duke’s Hall, Bolivar Hall; Edinburgh, Durness (Northern Lights Festival), Bristol’s Colston Hall, Royal & Derngate Theatre in Northampton, UK music societies and festivals; Italy, Malta, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro. He also gave a live broadcast on BBC Radio 3 ‘In Tune’ programme.

Current season includes a much anticipated solo debut at the Wigmore Hall, concerto debut with the English Chamber Orchestra in Leeds, recitals at the Spitalfields Music Festival in London, Cheltenham and the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad-Switzerland, various other solo and chamber music concert and recording collaborations in the UK, Holland, Switzerland, Italy and former Yugoslav Republics.

Taking an important part in his artistic development are various master classes he took from some of the leading musicians of today: David Russell, John Williams, Olivier Chassain, Chen Zhi, Antigoni Goni, John Mills, Timothy Walker, Carlos Bonell, Nicolas Maw, Howard Skempton, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and many others.

Milos uses D’Addario J 46 strings on his 2007 Greg Smallman guitar, lent to him by an anonymous benefactor.

Take a look on one of the new articles about this amazing young musician from Montenegro:

Source: The Telegraph

Listening to the debut album by guitarist Miloš Karadaglić, you find yourself wondering where on earth the classical guitar has been lately. As he moves from haunting compositions by Tarrega, Albeniz and Granados to the more abstract shapes of Carlo Domeniconi’s Koyunbaba suite, it’s as if Karadaglic is shining a brilliant light on the entire heritage of his instrument .

“The Seventies was the golden time of the guitar, but the situation was different because there was so much support from the media, the BBC and everybody,” says Milos (he’s known by just his first name).

“Because of Julian Bream and John Williams, the classical guitar really was a household name, but then the world changed, and the kind of music people wanted to listen to changed. I want to wake the guitar up from this hibernation, and show what I can do and what my instrument can do.”

“Can do” are two words that sit comfortably with Milos. Born 28 years ago in the tiny Balkan country of Montenegro, he felt driven from an early age to be an artist and performer. Since Montenegro has a population of only 600,000 and no discernable classical guitar tradition, making a career on the instrument was what might be called “a big ask”.

It all began when Milos discovered an ancient and dusty guitar with broken strings on top of a cupboard in his parents’ bedroom. Inexplicably, this sorry wreck of an instrument convinced him that he must become a guitarist. Since, as he puts it, “it was still kind of communist then” and there were no private music teachers, he enrolled in the state music school …

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