Aleksandar Tasic

Aleksandar Tasić is one of the most prominent clarinetists of his generation. He graduated in clarinet and completed postgraduate clarinet studies at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, Serbia, and refined his playing in masterclasses with Ricardo Morales, Michel Arrignon, and Metropolitan Opera bass clarinetist Jim Ognibene. He won first prizes in the Yugoslav competition for music pupils and students and first prize in the 1998 Jeunesses Musicales “Laureates of Orpheus” competition. The University of Novi Sad honored his artistic work with its Exceptional Award. Tasić has appeared as a soloist with the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, the Stanislav Binički Art Ensemble, the Dušan Skovran Belgrade String Orchestra, the Novi Sad Chamber Orchestra, the Vojvodina Symphony Orchestra, the Isidora Žebeljan Orchestra, Camerata Panonnica, and the Montenegro Symphony Orchestra. His festival appearances include NOMUS, BEMUS, NIMUS, the International Tribune of Composers, Les Classiques de Villars, the Verbier Festival and Academy, Y4Y Bangkok, Schloss Elmau, KotorArt, the Ljubljana Festival, the Granada Music Festival, the Mostar Spring Festival, the Siena Summer Session for Music, the Bregenzer Festspiele, A Tempo, and the Ohrid Summer Festival. From 2000 to 2006, he performed with the Verbier Festival Orchestra in major concert halls under conductors including James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Kent Nagano, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Valery Gergiev, and Claudio Vandelli. Since 2006, he has served as solo clarinetist of the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra under Gábor Takács-Nagy, and since the Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra was launched in 2013, he has coached its clarinet and woodwind musicians. His performances have been recorded or broadcast by RTS, BBC, ART TV, RAI, Netherlands Radio 4, Mezzo, and Medici TV. Tasić is Professor of Clarinet at the Academy of Arts, University of Novi Sad, and at FILUM, University of Kragujevac. He is an artist for Royal Global, Gonzalez Reeds, and SCV Ligatures and performs on Royal Global Firebird clarinets.

Aleksandar Tasić performs on the Royal Global Firebird Soprano clarinet, paired with Firebird and Polaris adjustable barrels and a Vandoren B45 mouthpiece that he has customized and refaced himself. He is also a Gonzales Reeds and SCV Ligature artist. He chose Royal — and switched to it — for the same three qualities: "great sound, intonation, and response." Asked what value playing Royal has brought to him, his artistry, and his studio, he offered a single, meaningful word: "Friendship."