Irena Josifoska

The Serbo-Croatian cellist Irena Josifoska has won numerous prizes at major national and international competitions: she gained first prize at the Gabrielli Wettbewerb in Berlin and was awarded the Prix Jean-Nicolas Firmenich for the best young cellist of the Verbier Festival as a member of the academy. Josifoska won an honorary certificate at the Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann (including a debut at the Großen Saal in the Philharmonie Berlin) and was the youngest semi-finalist at the Queen Elisabeth Competition  in Brussels in 2017. In 2024, she also won the Hans Gál Prize with the Confringo Piano Quartet. She was artist in residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel for chamber music in Brussels. She has held a scholarship at the Landesstiftung Villa Musica (Rhineland-Palatinate) since the season 2022/23.

Josifoska studied at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold with Xenia Jankovic and completed her Masters course at the Berlin University of the Arts studying with Jens Peter Maintz where she has been studying for her graduation recital since 2022. She regularly plays in concerts and gives recitals across Europe and in the USA and Mexico. She has already performed with renowned orchestras including the Deutsche Sinfonietta Berlin, the Philharmonischen Orchester Hagen, Metamorphosen Berlin, the Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen, the Detmold Kammerorchester and the Staatsphilharmonie Kaunas. As a chamber musician, she has performed with musicians such as Albrecht Mayer, Guy Braunstein, Alexander Sitkovetsky, Sacha Rattle, Vadim Gluzman, Roman Simovic, Yeol Eum Son, Svetlin Roussev and Jens Peter Maintz and received invitations to festivals including the Verbier Festival, Krzyzowa Music, the Bebersee Festival, Musiktage Mondsee, Fränkischer Sommer, Vaduz Classic, KonzertLEBEN and the Paax Festival GNP in Mexico. She has made recordings for STAGE+ with Deutsche Grammophon and Sony and her first CD entitled Cogitationes was issued in 2024.

Josifoska plays on a William Forster violoncello (London) which has been made available by the foundation Stiftung Rheinland-Pfalz für Kultur.