Predrag Gosta

Life and career

Predrag Gosta was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (present day Serbia), on 14 January 1972. His father was born to Serbian and German parents in Vojvodina and his mother to a large Croatian family in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He studied at the Belgrade Music Academy, London's Trinity College of Music, and Georgia State University in Atlanta. He is the Artistic Director of an early music ensemble, baroque orchestra and choir New Trinity Baroque, based in Atlanta, United States, the Music Director and conductor of the Gwinnett Ballet Theatre in Duluth (metropolitan Atlanta), the Principal Guest Conductor of the New Europe Symphony Orchestra in Bulgaria, and the President of the international early music society Early Music Network. From 1991 to 1996 he was the Artistic Director of the Studio for Early Music Belgrade and the Belgrade International Early Music Festival, since its renewal in 2012. Between 2008 and 2009 he was the Assistant Conductor of the National Philharmonic in Washington, D.C.. Since 2010 he is the President of the Makris Foundation in Washington D.C. He is also an Artistic Advisor and U.S. Director of Peter the Great Music Academy in St. Petersburg, Russia. Since 2013 he is the Artistic Director of the Belgrade Baroque Academy, together with the famous Serbian contralto Marijana Mijanovic, and since 2014 of the New Belgrade Opera. In 2015 he became the Music Director of the New Symphony Orchestra of Belgrade, which now bears the name of the Greek-American composer Andreas Makris.

Predrag Gosta has recorded several critically acclaimed CDs, including recording of Henry Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas with British soprano Evelyn Tubb. Other musicians he collaborated with include British violinist John Holloway, Baroque harpist Andrew Lawrence-King, lutenists Anthony Rooley and Michael Fields, the Dutch recorder virtuoso Marion Verbruggen, British harpsichordist Steven Devine, Polish mezzo-soprano Magdalena Wór and others. He was the affiliate guest lecturer at Georgia State University, and choir professor and artist-in-residence at Oxford College of Emory University

Reviews

Piccolo Spoleto Festival 2011

"Each piece... was polished and sparkled like something new. The playing was technically elegant and warmed by loving interpretation infused with infectious personality..."

— CVNC: An Online Arts Journal in North Carolina, June 2011

Bach's B-minor Mass

"...a thoughtful, energising exception that gave the B-minor Mass a fresh sound. Under New Trinity founder and conductor Predrag Gosta, they illuminated the various madrigal-like choruses and operatic arias with individual attention... Emotionally heartfelt... strong performance... Saturday night at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal, which was filled to capacity... It's a special pleasure to hear a student choir sing at a high level with enthusiasm and clarity of purpose. ...The four vocal soloists were often compelling, more so in duets with the fine instrumentalists... Conductor Gosta kept it all pushing forward... His tempos were not overly fast, but they felt fleet and he ended sections with a crisp cutoff — a very pleasant sensation. The Serbian-born harpsichordist and conductor is audibly gaining in interpretive heft, in parallel with his nascent conducting career, from the Gwinnett Ballet to concerts in Russia and Eastern Europe..."

— ArtsCriticAtl.com, March 2011

White Nights Festival 2010 with the State Capella Symphony Orchestra of St. Petersburg

"... the concert was a brilliant and unforgettable event of this season... The orchestra responded not only to every gesture and every movement of the conductor - it seemed that even their breaths were united. Predrag Gosta knew how to achieve a true creative atmosphere in the hall..."

— St. Petersburg Times, Russia, June 30, 2010

Purcell's "Dido & Aeneas"

"...An excellent 2002 Edition Lilac recording [of Purcell's "Dido & Aeneas"] featuring Predrag Gosta leading the Atlanta-based Chorus and Orchestra of New Trinity Baroque... This is a wonderfully colourful yet always musical performance. It is what Noorman attempted but failed in the Parrott recording. Gosta's ensemble is excellent... the playing is so sensitive and secure. The choral work is excellent, too, with a true sense of character projected by the nameless witches, sailors, and attendants. This self-produced recording... is definitely well worth acquiring – a true sleeper... That's nine recordings of Dido and Aeneas and I haven't even scratched the surface. Which one is best? ...If I was forced to take one recording to a desert island, it would be the one by Lieberson and McGegan – but I would be sure to have Tubb with Gosta and Graham with Haim in my iPod."

— Early Music America magazine, Fall 2009