Korda Trio Premieres Sedlar's Corda Images at Kolarac
The trio commissioned Sedlar's Corda Images and plays it for the first time tonight, while the National Theatre has announced the cast for La Traviata on October 28.
Tonight at 8 pm, the Kolarac Endowment hosts a piece nobody has heard live before. At the 58th BEMUS, the Korda Piano Trio gives the first performance of “Corda Images” by Aleksandar Sedlar, a work the ensemble commissioned from the composer itself. The program also includes Beethoven’s Piano Trio No. 5 in D major, Op. 70 No. 1, known as the “Ghost,” and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 50.
Who is Korda, and why does it play here?
The trio is made up of Una Stanic (violin), Nemanja Stankovic (cello) and Vladimir Milosevic (piano). Founded in 2022, it has been the resident ensemble of the Kolarac Endowment since 2024, so tonight it plays in the house that keeps it under contract. The trio has appeared at the Musica con Vista, Kustendorf Classic and Ledamus festivals, with the Belgrade Philharmonic and at the City Concert Hall in Novi Sad, and in 2024 it toured towns across Serbia with support from the Ministry of Culture.
The first major recognition came in 2023. The magazine “Muzika klasika” gave the trio its Concert of the Year award for a performance at Kolarac that November, editors at Radio Belgrade 2 named the same performance the best chamber music concert of 2023, and the City of Belgrade awarded the ensemble the “Despot Stefan Lazarevic” prize for musical creativity. In early 2026 the trio released its studio album “The Art of Three” on the Hong Kong label Azure Sky, with works by Faure, Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich. The album was produced by Predrag Radisavljevic.
BEMUS audiences are used to hearing premieres by Serbian composers at this festival, and Sedlar’s piece joins that tradition.
What else is on the festival program?
BEMUS runs from October 17 to 30 under the slogan “Music Beyond Time.” It opened with a gala concert by the RTS Symphony Orchestra and Choir under Dusan Vilic, with soloists from the Russian opera stage, and it closes on October 30 with the Belgrade Philharmonic under conductor Uros Lajovic, pianist Lukas Vondracek and works by Tchaikovsky and Konjovic.
The biggest night of the program is October 28. At 7 pm, the Opera performs Verdi’s “La Traviata” on the Main Stage of the National Theatre, and at 8 pm pianist Arcadi Volodos plays Schubert and Chopin at Kolarac. The two events fall back to back, at two different addresses.
Who sings in La Traviata?
The National Theatre has announced the cast. The conductor is Romanian Cristian Sandu, who was principal guest conductor of the National Opera in Bucharest from 2013 to 2016. He first conducted at the National Theatre on October 3, 2021, at a gala concert marking 120 years since Verdi’s death.
Violetta Valery is sung by Romanian soprano Diana Cugui, a graduate of the George Enescu University in Bucharest with more than two decades of stage experience. Alfredo Germont is played by Ermin Asceric, soloist of the Opera of the National Theatre in Sarajevo, born in 1999 in Zenica, and Giorgio Germont by Zeljko Andric, a leading singer of the Opera of the Serbian National Theatre.
Andjela Simic (Flora Bervoix) and Stefan Pavlovic (Baron Douphol) sing these roles for the first time. The rest of the cast:
- Tatjana Mitic (Annina)
- Mihailo Sljivic (Doctor Grenvil)
- Slobodan Zivkovic (Gastone and Giuseppe)
- Milos Gasic (Marquis d’Obigny)
- Ranko Jovic (Commissioner)
The production follows Borislav Popovic’s 1991 staging, revived by Ivana Dragutinovic Maricic. The set designer is Boris Maksimovic, the costume designer Bozana Jovanovic and the choreographer Vladimir Logunov. The National Theatre Orchestra and Chorus take part.
