Bojan Čičić & Steven Devine
Biographie Bojan Čičić & Steven Devine
Bojan Čičić
founded The Illyria Consort to explore rare repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries from the Venetian Republic and the Habsburg Empire. The group has recently appeared at the Korkyra Baroque Festival and the Antwerp Laus Polyphoniae Festival with a programme of 16th and 17th-century Adriatic music, and has also toured Holland and Belgium extensively, performing baroque music from Vienna and Venice.
In 2014, The Illyria Consort presented "Treasures of the Monastery" at the Utrecht Early Music Festival, performing violin sonatas kept in manuscript form in the library of the Minorite monastery in Vienna and in 2015, the group traveled to Ghent to present a programme entitled "Sounds of Imperial Vienna" and performed Vivaldi: L'Estro Armonico at the Festival de Sablé.
The Illyria Consort’s debut recording of Giovanni Stefano Carbonelli’s Sonate da camera Nos. 1-6 achieved great critical acclaim and was chosen as one of Presto Classical’s “Presto Recordings of the Year” for 2017. 2019 saw the release of two projects, the second volume of Carbonelli’s Sonatas Nos. 7-12, thus ending this project to completion and a world première recording of Giovanni Giornovich’s three London Violin Concertos. Their next recording will include a world premiere of a violin concerto by A. Vivaldi in a recording titled Pyrotechnia.
Croatian-born violinist Bojan Čičić specialises in repertoire ranging from the late 16th century to the Romantic violin concertos of Mendelssohn and Beethoven.
He has recently appeared as a soloist with the Kioi Hall Chamber Orchestra Tokyo in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, and with Instruments of Time and Truth in violin concertos by Mendelssohn and Beethoven. He is the leader of the Academy of Ancient Music and the ensemble Florilegium.
His recording of J.S. Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins with Rachel Podger was named the best available recording of the work by BBC Music Magazine.
In 2020 he will appear as director and soloist with several ensembles: Het Gelders Orkest, the Netherlands, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and the Washington Bach Consort.
Bojan formed his own group, the Illyria Consort, to explore rare repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries. They have performed at the Utrecht Early Music Festival, the Korkyra Baroque Festival, Festival Laus Polyphoniae, and at the Festival de Sablé. Their debut recording of Giovanni Stefano Carbonelli’s Sonate da camera Nos. 1-6 achieved great critical acclaim and was chosen as one of Presto Classical’s “Presto Recordings of the Year” for 2017. The Illyria Consort’s second disc, a world première recording of Giovanni Giornovich’s London Violin Concertos, was released in March 2019, followed by the second volume of Carbonelli’s Sonate da camera (Nos. 7-12).
In 2016 Bojan was appointed Professor of Baroque Violin at the Royal College of Music, and is passionate about training the next generation of instrumentalists in historically-informed playing styles. He lives in Oxfordshire with his wife and two children.
Steven Devine
enjoys a busy career as a music director and keyboard player working with some of the finest musicians.
He made his London conducting debut in 2002 at the Royal Albert Hall and is now a regular performer there - including making his BBC Proms directing debut in August 2007 with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE). He has conducted the Mozart Festival Orchestra in every major concert hall in the UK and also across Switzerland. Steven is Music Director for New Chamber Opera in Oxford and with them has conducted performances of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Mozart’s La Finta Semplice and Il Re Pastore, Stradella’s Il Trespolo Tutore, Rossini’s Le Comte Ory, Handel’s Xerxes and Tamerlano, Arne’s Artaxerxes, and Galuppi’s Il Mondo alla Roversa. He has directed the first performance of the newly-acquired score of Cavalli’s Erismena and Salieri’s Falstaff with the same forces. For the Dartington Festival Opera he has conducted Handel’s Orlando and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.
Since 2007 Steven has been the harpsichordist with London Baroque in addition to his position as Co-Principal keyboard player with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. He is also the principal keyboard player for The Gonzaga Band, Apollo and Pan, The Classical Opera Company and performs regularly with many other groups around Europe. He has recorded over thirty discs with other artists and ensembles and made a number of solo recordings. His recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations (Chandos Records) has been receiving critical acclaim - including Gramophone magazine describing it as ‘among the best’.
Steven is a regular member of the OAE education team, Professor of Harpsichord and Fortepiano at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and a visiting teacher, adjudicator and examiner for many other institutions. He is also Director of Development for the Finchcocks Collection of historical keyboard instruments, Kent.
