Thanks to his musicality and expressive playing, virtuosity, interpretation of guitar music from Renaissance to the music created in the 21st century, Vojin Kocić belongs to the very summit of the international guitar scene. Critics call him ‘Maestro of Gentle Tones’ (SRF, Switzerland).

 

Born in Smederevo, Republic of Serbia, in 1990, Vojin Kocić had his first guitar lessons at the age of 8, in his home town, with the Professor Jovica Milošević, and later under the tutelage of the Professor Darko Karajić, at the ‘Josip Slavenski’ School of Music in Belgrade. He received the offers to continue his studies in many countries (Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece, Switzerland) as well as scholarships. After one year of study at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, in the Professor Srđan Tošić’s class, upon the recommendation of Maestro Oscar Ghiglia (Segovia’s disciple), he decided to continue his studies in 2011 with the Professor Anders Miolin at the University of Arts in Zurich, Switzerland, where he acquired the titles of Bachelor of Arts, Master of Specialized Music Performance and Master of Pedagogy Diploma, achieved the uppermost results, and obtained numerous scholarships and acknowledgements as the best student.

 

Vojin was perfecting his playing in 2007, 2010, 2014 and 2015 with the Professor Oscar Ghiglia at “Accademia Chigiana” in Siena, Italy, where he received “Diploma d’Onore” for his artistic achievements, as the only guitarist to receive it in the history of this famous Academy. He also attended the masterclasses with other famous guitar maestros such as Pepe Romero, Leo Brouwer, Hubert Kappel, Zoran Dukić, Dušan Bogdanović, Carlo Marchione, Paul Galbraith, Pavel Steidl and many others.

 

Since the dawn of his career, when he was eight years old, Vojin has received over 50 international awards, among which are the first prizes at the prestigious international guitar competitions, special awards, scholarships, grants. He was acclaimed prodigy and the best young musician in every academic year of his. Besides the numerous first prizes won in his category at domestic and international competitions, he won his first international competition in the no age limit category when he was only 14, and then continued to win another 17 awards on prestigious guitar competitions, the most prominent being the 1st prize at “John Duarte” (Austria 2008), the 1st prize at “Citta di Gargnano” (Italy 2009), the 1st prize at “Ruggero Chiessa” International Guitar Competition (2010), the 1st prize at Enrico Mercatalli (Italy 2012), the 2nd prize at “Agustin Barrios” (Italy 2012), the 2nd prize (first prize was not awarded) at Hubert Kappel (Germany 2014), the 1st prize at Heinsberg International Guitar Competition (Germany, 2017). The last Vojin’s achievement is the 1st prize at International Guitar Competition Heinsberg (Germany 2017) where he, as a winner, was given an opportunity to record his first CD in Toronto for a famous record label NAXOS. In September 2018, Vojin won one of the most prestigious competition for classical guitar 51 International Guitar Competition “Michele Pittaluga” in Alessandria, Italy. Once again he has been given the opportunity to record a second CD for NAXOS Record Label as well as a concert tour in 2019 including concerts in Moscow (Tschaikovsky Hall), Verbier (Switzerland), St. Petersburg, etc.

 

In December 2014 in Geneva, at the eighth finals of “Prix Credit Suisse Jeunes Solistes” (competition of all instruments and opera singers), Vojin was a winner of this prestigious competition. He was chosen for the best young musician in Switzerland and besides the reward of CHF 25,000, was given an opportunity to debut at the prestigious Swiss Lucerne Festival in 2015.

 

Vojin Kocic has held over 200 solo concerts in various European countries such as Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Portugal, Greece, Ukraine, Slovenia, Slovakia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Macedonia, Serbia. As a soloist, he has performed with orchestras such as Atina Camerata (Greece), Symphony Orchestra of Radio Television of Serbia, Gudaci Svetog Djordja – Strings of St. George (Serbia), Orchestergesselschaft Zürich, Stringendo Orchestra Zürich, Orion Trio (Basel). He performed in Zurich with a famous violinist Ingolf Turban (Germany).

 

His concerts have been broadcast by radio and television companies such as SRF 2 radio (Switzerland), Radio Swiss Classic, NPO Radio 4 (Netherlands), Radio Television of Slovenia (Ars), Radio Televizija of Croatia, RTCG (Montenegro) , Radio Television of  Serbia etc.

 

He regularly holds masterclasses for disciples and students at international festivals (Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Serbia etc.). Also, he often sits on the juries of international music competitions.

 

Besides the classical guitar, Vojin is dedicated to performing early music on historical instruments such as vihuela, the Renaissance lute, the Baroque guitar and the Baroque lute, on which he performed in different projects.

 

Vojin Kocic currently plays on the classical guitar made by Masaki Sakurai and Jean-Nöel Rohé, uses Dâddario strings and records for the NAXOS record label.