Premil Petrović, conductor
Premil Petrović, conductor, graduated from the Faculty of Music in Belgrade (Department of Music Theory), and afterwards studied conducting with professor Winfried Müller at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik in Berlin. He graduated in 2005 conducting Il Cambiale di matrimonio by Rossini, and Wagner's Tannhäuser Overture with the Brandenburger Symphoniker. He was awarded the Heinrich Böll scholarship as well as the prestigious scholarship Musik Theater Heute of the Akademie der Deutschen Bank, which enabled him to attend interpretation courses held by the leading conductors of today.
In 1996, Premil Petrović started a music theater at the Cinema Rex - one of Belgrade's most important, politically active venues in the time of the dictatorship in the nineties.
He conducted Mozart’s singspiel Bastien und Bastienne performed at the Budva City-Theater Festival and Belgrade International Theater Festival (Bitef), Manuel de Falla’s El Retablo de Maese Pedro at the Belgrade Music Festival (Bemus) (1997), Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire at the International Review of Composers Belgrade (1998) as well as L’Histoire du Soldat by Stravinsky (2000). At the Belgrade Music Festival 2001, Petrović conducted Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde in Schönberg’s orchestration, with the Festival Ensemble. In 2002 he made his German debut as a conductor with the Berliner Symphoniker, with which he subsequently appeared on several occasions. He conducted the world première of Anja Đorđević’s opera Narcissus and Echo at the Belgrade Music Festival 2002. He opened the same festival in 2004 with the Belgrade première of the opera Zora D. by Isidora Žebeljan (directed by David Pountney). Premil Petrović is also regularly invited to perform at the Belgrade International Cello Fest, appearing with St. George Strings and the world’s leading cellists.
In 2005, he made his debut with the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra and has preformed with the ensemble several times.
From 2006 till 2008, he was a piano accompanist and conductor at the Nordhausen Opera in Germany. Since 2006, he has conducted world premiers of a series of compositions by contemporary composers in Berlin.
In April 2007, he conducted the opera Zora D. by Isidora Žebeljan at the renowned Music Biennale Zagreb, аnd three more performances of this work in Serbia (Belgrade, Sombor) and Croatia (Rijeka).
In 2008, he conducted several new productions: world premiere of the stage cantata Atlas by Anja Đorđević at the Yugoslav Drama Theatre in Belgrade (directed by Aleksandar Denić), world premiere of the new opera of Isidora Žebeljan The Marathon Family at the Opera Festival in Bregenz, Austria (Bregenzer Festspiele, directed by Nicola Raab) and the new production of W. A. Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the 42nd BITEF.
Since 2008, he performs regularly with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Belgrade (Mahler's 10th Symphony, Schubert's Unfinished Symphony) and he made several recordings of contemporary music with this ensemble.
After a very successful concert performance of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin at the Ponte de Lima Opera Festival in Portugal in 2009, Premil Petrović became the principal conductor of the Opera Faber, Opera Company in Portugal.
In 2010, he conducted concert of American contemporary music at Konzerthaus, Berlin and new production of Pergolesi’s La serva padrona and Jake Heggie’s To hell and back with renowned baroque orchestra Divino Sospiro at Viano do Castelo Festival in Portugal.
In 2010 Premil Petrović became the principal conductor and artistic director of the newly founded No Borders Orchestra (NBO).
Recently he made his debut at the National Theatre in Belgrade, where conducted new production of Mozart’s opera Le nozze di Figaro (directed by Jagoš Marković). This production received the annual award of the National Theatre for the best premiere in November 2010.
