Danijela Milutinović Nenić, cello and Branka van Goudzwaard, piano

The concert at the Residence of Princess Ljubica (Kneza Sime Markovića 8) is being held in cooperation with the Belgrade City Museum.

Program:
Leokadiya Kashperova
Sonata for cello and piano in G major, Op. 1/1
Allegro moderato
Scherzo (Allegretto vivace)
Andante
Rondo (Allegro)

Bohuslav Martinu
Sonata for cello and piano No. 3
Poco andante – Moderato
Andante
Allegro ma non presto

Biographies:
Danijela Milutinović Nenić began her musical journey seemingly late, at the age of 10, in the class of Professor Ljubomir Polojac at the “Dr. Vojislav Vučković” Music School in Belgrade. After only four years, she started giving solo concerts, first in Belgrade and later throughout Serbia. She enrolled at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade in the class of Professor Viktor Jakovčić and graduated under Professor Sandra Belić. She spent five years at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, where she completed her postgraduate studies with Professor Imre Kalman and worked as a teaching assistant for the cello department. She later completed a second Master’s degree in Hanover, Germany, at the University of Music, Drama and Media in the class of Professor Leonid Gorokhov.
Throughout her education, she dedicated herself to developing both as a soloist and chamber musician, studying with renowned cellists and pedagogues such as Ksenija Janković (University of Music Detmold, Germany), Roland Pidoux (Conservatoire Supérieur de Paris, France), Louise Hopkins (Royal College of Music, London, United Kingdom), Reinhard Latzko (University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria), Mark Kosower (principal cellist of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Germany), László Mező (Franz Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest, Hungary), among others.
As a soloist and chamber musician, she has performed in Serbia, Austria, Germany, France, and Italy, as well as with orchestras throughout Europe and the United States. She collaborated with the renowned Serbian violinist Stanko Madić, with whom she performed in a trio for several years, as well as with pianists Bojana Dimković and Tea Andrejić.
Since 2010, she has been teaching at the “Dr. Vojislav Vučković” Music School, where she passes on her knowledge and artistry to younger generations. Her pedagogical work is reflected in more than 80 awards won by her students at national and international competitions, as well as countless concerts in Serbia and abroad — solo, chamber, and within projects supported by foundations for young talents, the City of Belgrade, and other institutions.
Since 2019, she has served as a mentor in “El Sistema” projects in Serbia, which focus on working with children from marginalized social groups. Since 2021, she has been actively involved in the organization of Cello Fest in Belgrade, participating both as a lecturer and chamber musician. She is a regular jury member at national and international competitions, including the National Competition organized by the Association of Music and Ballet Schools of Serbia.

Branka van Goudzwaard (née Žiravac), pianist and chamber musician, worked as a piano professor at the “Dr. Vojislav Vučković” Music School in Belgrade for the past 36 years. She has been collaborating and performing since 2021 in a duo with cellist Danijela Milutinović Nenić.
Born in Belgrade, she began playing the piano at the age of four. At the age of five, she enrolled in the “Vučković” Music School, where she completed both her elementary and secondary music education. She graduated in piano performance and completed her postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. She further specialized in Paris at the European Conservatory and at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, where she spent two academic years.
She studied with Professors Gordana Jovanović, Olga Jovanović, Igor Lazko, Zora Mihailović, and Alexei Nasedkin.
She has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in all major concert halls in Belgrade and Serbia, as well as in the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, and Russia. She has also recorded for Radio Belgrade and RAI.
She is the author of a professional development seminar entitled Working on Compositions of Different Styles in Piano Pedagogy. She is also the author of the lecture The Microcosm of Mozart’s Fantasy in C minor, which she presented in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, as part of the Mozart Symposium. She has received numerous awards for pedagogy from the Association of Music and Ballet Schools of Serbia, the Association of Music and Ballet Pedagogues of Serbia, and from many competitions where her students performed and won prizes.
She has served as a jury member at numerous competitions in Serbia and abroad, including the National Competitions of Music School Students, the international competitions Petar Konjović, Vučković, Slavenski, EPTA Serbia in Belgrade, international competitions at the “M. Vukdragović” Music School in Šabac, the Nikolai Rubinstein Competition in Paris, Musicians for the New Millennium in Skopje, the Alexei Nasedkin Competition in Yaroslavl, Russia, the Schumann-Brahms Competition in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, the National Talent Review of Montenegro in Cetinje, and many others.
She also served as the director of the international piano competition “Vučković”.
Over the decades, she educated many young pianists in her class, nurturing in them a love for music and helping develop their talents. Her students have given numerous concerts and performances as soloists and with orchestras, won many awards at school, national, and international competitions, became laureates, and received scholarships for further studies. Many continued their studies in piano or composition and today are her esteemed colleagues, performing and teaching in music schools in Belgrade and throughout Serbia, at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, in Republika Srpska, Switzerland, Slovenia, Norway, Italy, and elsewhere.
Branka has recently moved to The Hague, in the Netherlands.