"The naturalness, modesty and simplicity of the interpretation of rich expressiveness are the basis of the charm with which these talented musicians of excellent technique captivate." -Srđana Vrsalović, Glazba.hr
"... interpretive imagination, up to the point of unusualness, represents the type of performance that will succeed in imposing itself on the listener and imprinting it on their memory" -Helena Novak Penga, Klasika.hr
Trio Elogio was founded in 2009 by Petrit Çeku, Pedro Ribeiro Rodrigues and Tomislav Vukšić, musicians educated in the class of prof. Darko Petrinjak at the Academy of Music in Zagreb. Although they all belong to this unique guitar school, members of Trio Elogio come from different backgrounds with their own musical and cultural diversity. In their repertoire, they pay special attention to Croatian composers, but also appreciate the historical aspect of large orchestral compositions, combining them with contemporary compositions. Trio Elogio persistently invests in the preservation of Croatian cultural heritage, so they made one of their contributions with a donor concert for the restoration of the Gvozdanović Palace, organized by the Museum of Arts and Crafts and Croatian Radio and Television.
They performed at major international festivals such as Grachtenfestival, Wonderfeel (Netherlands), Festival Internacional de Música de Marvão, Cistermúsica (Portugal), Kyburgiade (Switzerland) and Alpenarte (Austria), and at music festivals and concert series throughout Croatia such as Zagreb Kom, Dubrovnik Summer Festival, Musical Evenings at St. Donatus, Samobor Music Festival, Osor Music Evenings and Music Tribune in Osijek. Trio Elogio performed in renowned concert halls such as Het Concertgebouw (Amsterdam, Netherlands), Angelika Kauffmann Saal (Schwarzenberg, Austria) and Tiroler Festpiele (Erl, Austria). The trio has achieved successful collaborations with renowned musicians, including Santiago Cañon Valencia, Sara Ferrandez, Gili Schwarzman, Filip Merčep, Ivana Kuljerić Bilić and Sebastian Manz.
The value of Trio Elogio was recognized by contemporary composers Krešimir Seletković, Rafet Rudi and Hugo Vasco Reis, who dedicated their works to them. Their second studio recording contains original works written over the past ten years for guitar trio and was released on the Cantus label, while their debut album Mozart / Ruždjak / Dvořák was released in 2019 under the BuntArt label. Trio Elogio is the winner of the "Milka Trnina" award of the Croatian Society of Music Artists for the best musical achievement in 2022.
Petrit Çeku's exquisite sensibility and expressiveness have attracted and engaged audiences worldwide. He has performed recitals throughout the world and was a soloist with symphonic orchestras such as Baltimore Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Czech Chamber Philharmonic, Daejeon Philharmonic, State Hermitage Orchestra of St. Petersburg, Pannon Philharmonic and Zagreb Philharmonic. He collaborates regularly with The Zagreb Soloists and is a founding member of Guitar Trio Elogio.
Hailed by Calgary Herald as "an effortless player, with a strong, projecting sound", Çeku is the first prize winner of many international guitar competitions, including the most prestigious ones like Parkening (Malibu, USA), Schadt (Allentown, USA), Biasini (Bologna, Italy), and Pittaluga (Alessandria, Italy). He was the only classical music act in the 2018 Night of the Proms Tour with the Antwerp Philharmonic conducted by Alexandra Arrieche, featuring pop music greats like Brian Ferry, Milow, Seal and Suzanne Vega.
Born in Prizren, Kosovo, Çeku lives in Zagreb, Croatia and graduated at the Zagreb Academy of Music in the class of Darko Petrinjak and at the Peabody Conservatory (Baltimore, USA) in the class of Manuel Barrueco. Petrit Çeku teaches Chamber Music for Guitar at The University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria. His recordings have been released by BuntArt, Cantus, Croatia Records, Naxos and Eudora Records. Çeku's album The Cello Suites, which includes all six cello suites by Bach was nominated for ICMA Awards. Recording sessions for this album were the subject of documentary film 'Sarabande' by the award-winning director Kaltrina Krasniqi. Continuing the collaboration with the filmmaker, Petrit Çeku later composed the original score for her feature film 'Vera Dreams of the Sea', which premiered at the Venice Film Festival 2021.
Petrit Çeku is a D'Addario artist and plays on a Ross Gutmeier guitar.
Pedro Ribeiro Rodrigues is a classical guitarist from Portugal. His interests range from performing to teaching and arranging music. Pedro's debut album, with his own transcriptions of sonatas by Carlos Seixas, is the only solo guitar recording entirely dedicated to the Portuguese composer.Although his first passion was Karate, which he started intensively training at the age of 4, his elder brother soon taught him how to play several instruments. After his performance of Fado singing accompanied by José Fontes Rocha, the legendary Amália Rodrigues's guitarist influenced his parents to give him a formal music education.Pedro R. Rodrigues studied with Dejan Ivanović in Conservatório de Música Jaime Chavinha in Minde (Portugal) and with Darko Petrinjak at the Zagreb Music Academy (Croatia). Apart from being a soloist, he currently takes part in several chamber music projects, such as duos with soprano and flute. He is a founding member of Trio Elogio, with Petrit Çeku and Tomislav Vukšić. He teaches guitar and chamber music in Zagreb and Amsterdam, and he is a co-founder and a permanent teacher of Youngmasters Festival in Samobor, Croatia. His students have won an impressive number of prizes in international competitions. Lately, he's been presenting a new guitar teaching approach in his lecture "Well-tempered lesson". Pedro Ribeiro Rodrigues plays on a guitar made by Antonio Zwirn.
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TOMISLAV VUKŠIĆ
Tomislav Vukšić was born in 1980 in Zagreb, Croatia, where he began his music studies at the Vatroslav Lisinski Music School in the class of Ratko Podvorac. He graduated at the Zagreb Music Academy in the class of Darko Petrinjak and completed his master's degree at the Royal Conservatoire in Den Haag in the class of Zoran Dukić. He has attended masterclasses of world-famous guitarists such as Pavel Steidl, Carlo Marchione, Pablo Marquez, Aniello Desiderio, Timo Korhonen, Angelo Gilardino, Thomas Offerman, Ana Vidovic and others. During his studies in Den Haag, Tomislav Vukšić received a prestigious scholarship from the Huygens Scholarship Programme which is awarded only to the most talented students. He has won many high prizes in national competitions in Croatia as well as international competitions such as First Prize and Prize of the Audience at Alhambra Gitaar Festival 2007 (Alkmar, Netherlands), Second Prize at Twents Gitaar Festival 2007 (Enschede, Netherlands), First Prize at Guitarmania 2006 (Almada, Portugal), Second Prize at the National Competition of Music and Dance Students 2003 (Dubrovnik).Tomislav Vukšić has performed in many countries across Europe and is a member of Guitar Trio Elogio. He currently teaches at the Zagreb Music Academy.