Music of Live Composers 2023 | Malta Piano Academy

MILICA LAWRENCE

_________________________________________________________________________________

Dr Milica Lawrence was born in 1981 in Pancevo, Serbia. She started learning piano at the age of five. Her first piano teacher who brought her love for music and this instrument closer was prof. Xenia Elizabeth Zilli. This was continued by prof. Davorka Sperac - Polojac. She completed her piano studies with prof. Marija Djukic and harpsichord studies with prof. Zorica Cetkovic at the Faculty of Music Arts in Belgrade, Serbia. Here, Milica specialized in chamber music with prof. Uros Pesic and received her Doctor of Musical Arts Degree (DMA) degree under the mentorship of prof. Dejan Subotic at the same Faculty. She attended piano and harpsichord masterclasses with many distinguished Serbian and international artists such as Sergei Dorensky, Giorgi Chugaev, Pavel Nersessian, Huguette Dreyfus, Egon Mihajlovic, Olivera Djurdjevic, Yuri Kot, Maria Luisa Baldassari etc.

Milica has won numerous prizes for solo and ensemble performances at domestic and international competitions. She has also held a great number of solo recitals and chamber music concerts both in the country and abroad (Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Hungary, Montenegro, Macedonia, Libya etc.). Notably, her recital at the Italian Cultural Centre in Tripoli is noted as the first concert by a Serbian pianist in Africa. She has participated in reviews of modern classical music as well as in festivals BEMUS, OKTOH, Cello Fest, Basomanija and many more. Milica has taken part as an orchestra member in the Faculty of Music Arts Orchestra in Belgrade, and as a guest member in the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, Dusan Skovran String Orchestra, Schlesinger Orchestra, Mokranjac Chamber Orchestra, Zemun Chamber Orchestra.

Throughout her career has collaborated with many renowned artists - Sreten Krstic, Uros Lajovic, Dmitry and Alexander Sitkovetsky, Charles Zachary Bornstein, Milos Petrović. With the Chamber Orchestra Mokranjac, the FILUM Orchestra and the Schlesinger Orchestra Milica performed as a soloist. She has also recorded for radio and TV. At the First International Competition Beogradski pobednik in 2005, she was the only pianist who received recognition by the Russian Centre for Science and Culture in Serbia and Montenegro for special artistic participation - 'Ruski dom u Beogradu'.

Milica has worked for fifteen years as an independent artistic collaborator at the String Department at the Faculty of Philology and Arts in Kragujevac, Serbia. In 2019 she become resident of Malta and opens Malta Piano Academy in Mosta and Gozo while maintaining an active soloist career at the same time.

"Music of Live Composers"

Programme:

Marc Kowalczyk - Rêveries baroques

Paul Portelli - Eight Bagatelles based on Beethoven's Themes (World Premiere!)

Michael Pirotta - Constellations (Orion, Cassiopeia, Taurus, Ursa) (World Premiere!)

Tano Monseigneur - Game of Fourths (World Premiere!)

Brian Field - Three Passions for our Tortured Planet (Fire, Glaciers, Winds)

Luiz Castelões - 4 Choreographies (World Premiere!)

Paul Portelli - The Waiting...(World Premiere!)

Kerry Barnes - After All (World Premiere!)