NIKOLA PEŠIĆ
Acerca de
Nikola Pešić
Nikola Pešić is a Serbian pianist and composer based in Switzerland. Studying and living in Bern had a decisive influence on his musical development. Musical improvisation became his every day, and the rich and colorful cultural scene in Bern is an ideal environment for creative activity and making music. Inspired by the music of Erik Satie, Frederic Mompou, Kurtag as well as contemporary composers like Ludovico Einaudi, Yann Tiersen, Yiruma, but mostly inspired by life and the world around him, Nikola creates his own musical language that is not easy to classify in one genre. He combines classical, pop and modern music using repetitive, meditative and at times almost hypnotic musical elements.
"I love simple and minimalist things, minimalist food and music. My idea is to say a lot with a few notes and through an unburdened, minimal musical form. Sometimes the simple things are the hardest to say. And that's exactly where I see the greatest challenge and satisfaction when I leave the audience room for personal imagination, questioning and the feeling that they understand and live my music".
Nikola Pešić actively performs throughout Europe as a soloist and chamber musician and is the recipient of a scholarship from the Rita Zimmerman Foundation, Dr. Pierre and Marie Spring-Tschanz in Bern as well as the Irène Dénéréaz Foundation in Lausanne. His debut album "East-West" published by Tasti'Era Projects, in addition to the works of Claude Debussy, includes the works of lesser-known composers such as Karol Szymanowski, Xavier Montsalvatge, Frederic Mompou. In 2020, Serbian label Prometej published the album "Duša Žene" (Woman's Soul) collection of songs by Dragan Vukašinović with 27 unique piano improvisations created in one breath.
In cooperation with colleagues from the class of prof. Pagny, Tasti'Era Projects and with the support of Yamaha Music Europe, Nikola recorded two humanitarian CDs, "Opus 1" and "Viva Piano-Viva Forte", to help vulnerable children in Africa and Switzerland. For Acanthus Music, he recorded a CD and a video for the piano textbook "Flying Fingers" by Daniel Hellbach (CH). Nikola performed with the OperaVox orchestra (Romania), under the direction of conductor Salvatore Cicero (Switzerland, Italy) and was also part of the project "Integral performance of all works for piano and orchestra by L. van Beethoven" where he played Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in Nis (Serbia) and Skopje (North Macedonia).
Born in 1987 into an artistic family in Pirot, he began his musical journey at the age of nine in primary music school in the class of professors Yuri Kirejchuk and Tatiana Slivinskaya (Ukraine). Later, he graduated from the Faculty of Arts in Niš with prof. Zoran Jančić (Bosnia and Herzegovina) where, by obtaining a diploma, he becomes the fifth generation of the direct pedagogical and pianistic lineage of the famous Franz Liszt. He completed a double Master's degree in Piano Performance and Piano Pedagogy at the University of the Arts in Bern in the class of Professor Patricia Pagny (France). In addition to piano, chamber music, improvisation and notation, he also studied fortepiano with prof. Edoardo Torbianelli (Italy), harpsichord with prof. Takashi Watanabe (Japan) as well as contemporary music by prof. Pierre Sublet (Switzerland).
Nikola has collaborated with many eminent professors and artists: Aleksandar Serdar, Marija Dinov Vasić, Michael Leslie (Royal Academy in Glasgow), Boris Romanov (Russia), Tatiana Koruntskaya (Switzerland), Barbara Doll, Patrik Jüdt (Germany), Robert Morawski (Frederic Chopin University in Warsaw - Poland), Mayumi Seiler, Yukiko Sugawara (Japan), amongst others.
Nikola Pešić began his teaching career in Serbia as a piano teacher and accompanist at the state music school "Dr. Dragutin Gostuški" in Pirot. He continues his very intensive and successful teaching activities in Switzerland, where he had the opportunity to teach in several music schools in the Canton of Zurich, Aargau, as well as the music school of the Bern Conservatory. He is also a part of the regional talent program and his students have achieved notable performances and results at national and international competitions. He is the author of the unique concept "First musical experiences on the piano", which includes original compositions and a manual for piano teachers. He was invited to present his work at the annual conference of the European Piano Pedagogical Association (EPTA) in Liestal (Switzerland).