KAAO

Serbia

The Kragujevac Academic Accordionists Orchestra was founded in 2018, having the aim to promote the accordion as an academic instrument, specially if we have in mind that the city of Kragujevac is recognized worldwide for its accordion school. There is no city or stage (Belgrade, Pula, Tivat, Trebinje, Slavonski Brod, Vitanje and many others) where the orchestra, led by Prof. Predrag Kostović performed, without making it immediately clear to any true music lover that it was an ensemble of high artistic achievements. The absolute victories at the competitions in Pula in 2018 and Tivat in 2019 speak in favour of that.

Predrag Kostović (1972) finished "Dr. Miloje Milojević" Music school in Kragujevac, after which, he completed his Accordion studies at the P.I.Tchaikovsky Conservatory in the class of prof. V. Besfamilnov. Along with his accordion studies, he showed great interest in conducting. He is professor at the Department of Accordion at FILUM in Kragujevac, where he has been successfully engaged in both academic and artistic work. As a conductor with orchestra and as a soloist, he made a significant number of performances. He participated in the work of the jury in numerous national and international competitions.