Violinist

Sreten Krstić was born in Belgrade in 1953 and started the violin at the age of seven. He won highest awards at competitions, including the International Youth Music Competition in Belgrade, where he twice earned second prize (1973 and 1976) as well as a special award for his interpretation of Bach (1976). As concertmaster of the World Youth Orchestra, he played with soloists Henryk Szeryng and Pierre Fournier, and under the baton of conductors Jean Martinon and Bernhard Klee.Since 1980 he has been the principal concertmaster of the Munich Philharmonic, which was led by Sergiu Celibidache until his death, followed by James Levine (1999), Christian Thielemann (2004), Lorin Maazel (2012), and Valery Gergiev (2016). As a soloist, he has had the opportunity to play with many other celebrated conductors, including Zubin Mehta, Horst Stein, Dmitri Kitayenko, Hiroshi Wakasugi, among others. He appeared as a soloist with all orchestras of the former Yugoslavia, and has given solo concerts throughout Europe, Japan, America, and the former USSR.

With regard to chamber music, in 1985 he founded the Gasteig-Trio München, then the Philharmonic Sextet in 1996, and the Philharmonic Soloists Chamber Orchestra – which he directs – in 1999. Since 2011 he has been regular concertmaster and artistic leader of the Zagrebački Solisti chamber ensemble.
He recorded for all radio and television stations in the former Yugoslavia, along with Bavarian Radio, West German Radio, BBC Radio (Manchester), and Greek Radio (Thessaloniki). He has made several CDs of solo and chamber music for PGP, Thorofon, Arte Nova Classics, and other labels.

From 2007 to 2010 he was the artistic director of the Belgrade Music Festival (BEMUS), one of the oldest and largest classical music festivals in the region. He has been a member of the jury at the following international competitions: “Jeunesses Musicales” in Belgrade (2011), the Sixth Competition for Conductors “Lovro van Matačić” in Zagreb (2015), the Fifth International Competition for Young Composers in Samobor (2016), and the Isaac Stern International Violin Competition in Shanghai (2018).
For the last ten years, he has been intensively engaged in pedagogical work. In addition to private lessons, he also regularly holds violin master classes in Belgrade, Dubrovnik, Ljubljana, Valencia