15 November 7 pm City Hall
Ivan Krpan and Vedran Janjanin (Croatia) piano duo recital
Program
Antun Sorkočević: Sonata in F major for four hands
Johannes Brahms: Variations on a theme by Haydn for two pianos, op. 56b
Mozart/Busoni: Duettino concertante: Based on the Finale of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in F Major, K. 459
Johannes Brahms: a selection from Hungarian dances for piano four hands
Alfi Kabiljo: Theater suite for piano four hands
Francis Poulenc: Capriccio d’après Le Bal Masqué for two pianos
Ivan Krpan
Ivan Krpan was born in Zagreb in 1997 into a musical family and began studying the piano at the age of six at the Blagoje Bersa Music School in Zagreb, under the tutelage of Renata Strojin Richter. He studied the piano with Ruben Dalibaltayan at the Music Academy in Zagreb where he obtained his master’s degree in 2019. Subsequently, he completed his postgraduate Konzertexamen studies in 2023 at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln in the class of prof. Claudio Martinez Mehner.
At the age of twenty, Krpan was the winner of the first prize of the one of the world’s most prestigious piano competitions – the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition. His career took off, and he has since appeared in some of the world’s major venues, such as Vienna’s Konzerthaus, the Seoul Arts Center, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Rome’s Santa Cecilia Hall, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus and has collaborated with renowned orchestras. The Belgian National Orchestra, Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano and Trento, the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, the Daegu Symphony Orchestra of South Korea, the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra.
Besides the Busoni Prize, Ivan Krpan has also won several first prizes in national and international piano competitions, including the Ettlingen International Competition for Young Pianists, International Piano Competition for Young Musicians in Enschede, Netherlands, the Piano Competition for Young Pianists in Grez Doiceau in Belgium, the International Piano Competition Young Virtuosi in Zagreb.
Krpan has also been awarded the third prize at the 10th Moscow International Frederick Chopin Competition for Young Pianists, the Young Misician of the Year Award by the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra (2016), the Annual Ivo Vuljević Prize by the Jeunesses Musicales Croatia for the Best Young Misician in Croatia, the Award of the Dean and of the Rector of the University of Zagreb for international achievements.
Krpan’s debut album – produced by the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition Foundation and recorded at the Emil Berliner Studios in Berlin – featuring works by Chopin and Schumann is available exclusively on IDAGIO, the leading streaming service for classical music.
Ivan Krpan has also collaborated with Steinway and Sons and performed in their Prizewinner’s Concerts Series across Europe and in South Korea.
Vedran Janjanin
Croatian pianist Vedran Janjanin is an exceptional rising talent. His debut performance at Wigmore Hall in 2023 was warmly received by audiences and earned him a new invitation for a solo recital in 2024.
Janjanin studied at Zagreb Music Academy and at Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest as well as at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Janjanin has received guidance from artists such as Emanuel Krasovsky, Christopher Elton, Kalman Drafi, Dina Yoffe, Jerome Rose, Janos Devich, Eugen Indjic, Wayne Marshall, and Andrei Korobeinikov and has himself taught at the Music School in Varaždin, Croatia. He is the recipient of the prestigious Darko Lukić, Krajanski and St. Euphemia awards.
Janjanin has performed worldwide on stages such as the Stefaniensaal in Graz, Slovenian Philharmonic Hall in Ljubljana, Croatian Music Institute, Church of St. Mary in Oxford, Royal College of Music, and Wigmore Hall in London, and was featured as soloist in orchestras such as the Zagreb Philharmonic, Zagreb Academy Symphony and Croatian Young Musicians Orchestra. In 2016 he went on tour with the Central European Youth Orchestra, conducted by Mo. Mladen Tarbuk.
Janjanin has collaborated with renowned international musicians such as Andrey Gugnin, Sujari Britt, Julian Chan, Istvan Balazs, Darija Auguštan, Ivan Krpan. Most recently, he played alongside cellist Josephine Knight and violinist Tanja Sonc.
Notable performances include Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto N. 2 with the MA Symphony Orchestra as part of the “Zagreb Classic Open Air” festival and Gershwin’s Piano Concerto with Zagreb Philharmonic at the Lisinski Concert Hall. Janjanin’s performance in a night dedicated to honouring Scriabin was singled out as “excellent” in bringing out the nuanced complexities of the composer (Igor Koruga, Tjedno), while his execution of Rachmaninov’s arrangement of Bach’s Partita, Janjanin achieved the difficult balance of tones in a performance “characterized by airiness . . . and clarity of melodic lines” (Vedran Lesar, Jeunesses Musicales International).
Upcoming performances include recitals at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb,
the Norwich Chapel Concerts, and the inaugural season at the new Bechstein Hall in London, where he currently resides.
