Doctoral researcher
Ivana Jelača (Croatia, 1985) is active as a pianist, historical keyboard player and creative leader.
She graduated from Music Academy, University of Zagreb (Croatia) in 2008, where she furthered her education at the Postgraduate specialization studies- piano, with written work entitled The Art of Playing Piano Sonata in the Context of Cultural Change (under the supervision of Ljubomir Gašparović, prof. art. - Department of keyboard instruments and Dalibor Davidović, PhD, associate prof. - Department of Musicology. With this work she has started her research on aspects of musical performance in context of cultural changes and committed herself to performance on both historical and modern instruments.
During her education, she participated in numerous international Master courses in Croatia and abroad; led by Rudolph Kehrer, Jean François Antonioli, Dag Achatz, Vladimir Krpan, Eugen Indjic, Maria Jõao Pires, Malcolm Bilson etc. Since 2006, after she had attended the International Summer Akademie Prag-Wien-Budapest, she has taken additional studies, in both Zagreb and Vienna, with prof. Noel Flores.
At the age of 12, she performed for the first time with the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, with which she has performed regularly as a soloist since then. She collaborated with Dubrovnik chamber orchestra, Croatian chamber orchestra, under prominent Croatian and international conductors, performing both in Dubrovnik and Zagreb. She performed numerous solo and chamber recitals in Croatia and abroad. As artistic assistant, she has attended postgraduate Specialization studies at Music Academy in Zagreb, performing complete opus of Mozart and Beethoven violin sonatas.
Ivana Jelača is also active in music pedagogy. She was employed as a piano teacher and piano accompanist full-time and part-time in Luka Sorkočević Art School (Dubrovnik), Ferdo Livadić Music School (Samobor), Orebić Music School, Elly Bašić and Rudolf Matz Music School (Zagreb).
Ivana Jelača works as a freelance artist and creative leader of The Rest is Music NGO. As its founder and artistic leader, she is developing and implementing projects that promote universal values of music (ARDEA project, co-funded by the European Union Programme Creative Europe), interpret cultural heritage (Renaissance Garden project, The other side of History- multimedia presentation of the Dubrovnik Walter‘s fortepiano, CD edition Croatian composers and their contemporaries on Walter's fortepiano from the Rector's Palace in Dubrovnik), and stress the important role of music in both upbringing and education as well as in social changes (Educational Cycle Gioachino's Cuisine and Slušaonica M.U.Z.A., Women in Music), conducted in partnership with the Caboga Stiftung, City of Dubrovnik, Dubrovnik Museums, Dubrovnik Summer Festival, Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, Croatian History Museum.
