Dragan Karolić

Dragan Karolić (Cyrillic: Драган Каролић) is a Serbian-German flutist, singer, musicologist, and composer.Biography at the InstantEncore web site He was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (present day Serbia), on 18 February 1960, into a family that was not musically inclined. At the age of 14, he enrolled in a music school Music School Kosta Manojlović, Zemun|"Kosta Manojlović" where he started to study flute. Within a few years, he demonstrated remarkable results by winning several music competitions. His professor, Ljubomir Dimitrijević, who was the founder of the first Yugoslav early music Ensemble Renaissance, developed in him a strong affinity for early music and historically informed performance on period instruments, thus predetermining the direction of his musical development.
After attending the Belgrade Music Academy, he received his Performer's Diploma in 1983, and then went to Rome and Vienna to specialise traverso flute and recorder. As the scholarship recipient from the Yugoslav Government, he graduated from the Società Italiana del Flauto Dolce in Rome in 1986 (studying with Prof. Claudio Rufa), and from the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna in 1989 (Prof. Helmut Schaller). His further studies were in London with Nancy Hadden and Lisa Beznosiuk. In addition to playing the flute, Karolić also studied singing, piano, and composition, further deepening his musical education.
Between 1979 and 1991 Karolić was a member of early music ensembles Renaissance, Musica Antiqua, Baroque Consort, and Elisabethan Consort with whom he toured extensively and published several CDs.History of Ensemble Renaissance at the group's web site. Also see the wikipedia entry of Ensemble Renaissance with relevant links to various CD albums featuring Dragan Karolić. He was active as a soloist, and was a member of the Association of Musical Artists of Serbia (UMUS). In 1989 he published his first solo album "Baroque Flutes", and in 1991 (together with Predrag Gosta) he co-founded the Belgrade Early Music Festival.Belgrade Early Music Festival's history on the FestivalFinder.eu web site. He also collaborated with ensemble New Trinity BaroqueList of concerts in the season 2001/02 on New Trinity Baroque's web site.. 
In 1991 he moved to Germany, where he was the solo traverso flute and recorder player at the Telemann-Kammerorchester Michaelstein in Blankenburg. In Germany, he continued his advancements with renowned artists such as Konrad Hünteler, Wilbert Hazelzet, Barthold Kuijken, Hans Martin Linde, and Clas Pehrsson. In 1996 Karolić moved to Halle. In 1998 he got engaged as a flute teacher at the "Georg Friedrich Händel" Conservatory in Halle, where he stayed until 2008.
Dragan Karolić's interest towards singing brought him to study voice with Emma Kirkby, David Thomas, Klaus Mertens, Barbara Schlick, Harry van den Kamp, Jill Feldman, and Isabelle Poulenard. In 1998 he founded ensemble "Cantare e sonare", and with it he released his first vocal CD album entitled "Bella Italia".
Throughout his 40-year career, he has performed hundreds of concerts in 20 countries across Europe and America and has recorded numerous records, cassettes, and CDs.
As a composer, until 2024 Karolić has written around 40 compositions in Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and modern styles, including three operas, three symphonies, two concertos, and various works for choral and chamber ensembles, as well as a number of pieces for solo instrument or voice. Notable successes include the Divertimento for wind quartet (premiered in Blankenburg in 1996), the children's opera "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (premiered in Berlin in 2004), and the Hexophony for flute and piano (premiered in Paris in 2006). The fore-mentioned opera "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" has achieved international acclaim, having received multiple performances at the Belgrade National TheatreOpera "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" on the Belgrade National Theatre's web site (in Serbian language) (translated into Serbian as "Snežana i sedam patuljaka").Article "Karolić's 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' on the Belgrade National Theatre's stage "Raša Plaović" (in Serbian language).
Furthermore, Karolić began to engage in musicological research and music publishing, releasing his editions through publishing houses Furore VerlagEdition of Francesca Caccini's "Il primo libro delle musiche" on the Furore Verlag's web site., Mediterranean PressWorks of Andreas Makris on Mediterranean Press & Makris Music Society's web site, and Music Edition Baroque OperaEditions of Dragan Karolic on the Music Edition Baroque Opera's web site.. He edited over 600 works, most of which represent first modern publications. Since 2022 he is part of the editorial team of the Parnassus Arts Productions and the Bayreuth Baroque Opera FestivalAnnouncement about opera "Griselda" for which Dragan Karolić reconstructed the missing fragments., under the artistic direction of Max Emanuel Cenčić.Announcement about new edition of the opera "Griselda" on the Parnassus Arts Productions's web site.
Category:Living people
Category:1960 births
Category:List of flautists
Category:Serbian composers
Category:German composers
Category:Serbian emigrants to Germany
Category:Musicians from Belgrade