2016 Coaches

Originally from Slovenia, Daniela Candillari is active as a pianist, conductor and composer. Her work has taken her across Europe, North America and Asia. She has collaborated with Bryn Terfel, Dame Felicity Lott, Carol Vaness, Martina Arroyo Foundation, Roger Vignoles, Dominic Argento, William Bolcom, Håkan Hagegård, Anton Nanut, Marko Letonja and Bernarda Bobro. Past engagements include Indiana University School of Music (Bloomington), Sarasota Opera, International Vocal Arts Institute (Montréal), Lidal North (Oslo), Bergen National Opera, and Brevard Music Festival (North Carolina). She has also served as a pianist for Australian Chamber Orchestra. She collaborates regularly with the European Opera Centre in the UK, most recently in a Così fan tutte production and recording with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. From 2009 - 2012 she has worked at Slovenian National Opera as head coach, chorus master and assistant conductor for some twenty productions. Ms. Candillari has recorded for ORF, Slovenian National Radio and TV, Serbian National TV, and National Public Radio in the United States. She has participated in a production for Bravo Channel (Montréal) on TV series Shakespeare in Words and Music and her recital titled Les chemins de l’amour at the Slovenian National Opera in Maribor was also recorded for Slovenian National Radio. She is the first musician from Slovenia to win a Fulbright Scholarship, holds Masters degrees from Graz and Indiana and a PhD from Vienna. Her upcoming engagements during the forthcoming season include concerts with her ensemble Gravity Shift, premiere of a piece commissioned by Third Coast Trombone Retreat, a recording with Fernando Otero and a recording with a brass ensemble, all in New York, as well as a collaboration with Alex Hummingson in the UK.

Djordje Stevan Nesic’s pianism has been described as ‘artful‘, ‘assertive‘, ‘sensitive‘ and ‘quietly virtuosic‘, and his career has been highlighted by recital, concerto, chamber, and collaborative performances. Most recently, Mr Nesic performed in the New Works Sampler at the Opera America Conference in San Francisco, and visited the National Theater in Belgrade, Serbia, as a lecturer and masterclass technician.

In his capacity as an accomplished vocal coach, Djordje Nesic spent the summer of 2012 preparing Stravinsky’s A Soldier’s Tale at the Greenwich Music Festival, and Janacek’s Jenufa at the Bohemian National Hall in New York City. During Greenwich Music Festival’s 2009-2010 season, Mr. Nesic served as vocal coach and performed as pianist for Viktor Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis. A film of the production premiered at the 2010 Westchester Jewish Film Festival. That same season, he prepared and performed the operas Dinner and Delusion by Michael Sahl and Nancy Manocherian and Clarence and Anita by Benjamin Yarmolinsky at the Cell Theater in New York in collaboration with the Center for Contemporary Opera. He spent summers of 2003-2007 at Glimmerglass Opera, 2000-2002 at the Aspen Opera Theater Center, and 1998-1999 at the Tanglewood Festival.

Earlier, Mr. Nesic appeared with soprano Hanan Alattar at Carnegie Hall in a recital sponsored by the Marilyn Horne Foundation, and performed with soprano Monica Yunus at an honorary event for her father Professor Mohammad Yunus—winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. The pianist’s schedule included participation as a panelist for Opera America’s “Who’s in Charge of Rehearsal?”, and a Professional Workshop at Carnegie Hall with bass-baritone Daniel Gross, under the leadership of the famed German singer Thomas Quasthoff.

Mr. Nesic coached Audra McDonald in preparation for her Houston Grand Opera debut in Michael John La Chiusa’s Send (Who are You? I Love You) and Poulenc’s The Human Voice.