Keynotes

Ivan Tasovac (Serbia) – Download Ivan Tasovac’s keynote speech (in English)

Born on June 21st 1966
– General Manager of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra since March 23rd, 2001
– As a pianist, at the age of 12, he made his debut appearances with the Belgrade and Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestras
– He finished his B.A. and M.A. degrees at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, as a student of Professor Sergei Dorensky
– He performed as a soloist and with numerous orchestras in Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Ireland, USA, Russia, Belgium, ex-Yugoslavia, and Yugoslavia
– He was the member of the jury in various international music competitions and managed master classes in Italy, Russia and Yugoslavia

Awards:
– 2010 – The MEN of the Year 2010 Award, presented by The MEN magazine
– 2009 – The Gorki list – Flame of Passion Award 2009
– 2009 – The Marketing person of 2009 and laureate of the award Full Steam Ahead of the Mark-Planetak magazine
– 2009 – Contribution to Europe of the Year 2009
– 2005 – Samsung Annual Award 2005
– 2004 – Be Good and Show It to the Others Award, presented by the Business School of Public Relations for best public relations in the period from July to December 2004
– 2004 – Disruption Award, presented by the TBWA advertising agency to those who do things differently, break the rules and change the well-established standards.

Jan Willem Loot (The Netherlands) Photo credits: Radio France – Christophe Abramowitz

Jan Willem Loot was educated for two different careers, lawyer and cellist. Since 1971 he has been active as an orchestra director for different orchestras in the Netherlands. Between 1985 and 1998 he was the general director of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, which was merged out of 3 different orchestras. This orchestra also plays productions from the Dutch Opera.

In 1998 Loot became the general director of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He worked closely with the principal conductors Riccardo Chailly and Mariss Jansons and also with honorary conductors Bernard Haitink and Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

After his retirement in 2009 he accepted the position of artistic director for the Orchestra National de France in Paris, where he works with the conductors Daniele Gatti and Kurt Masur.

Loot has many different positions in and outside the Netherlands.