"I've always had close ties to Bechstein pianos and enjoyed playing them very much for the last 25 years. Bechstein pianos have such a beutiful and long lasting and fully rounded tone that projects in every space or hall and thus enabling me to communicate directly with myself and audience through music."
Nebojša Maksimović
Nebojša Maksimović was born in Belgrade in 1979. He started to play piano at the age of 2, and when he was 4 he entered at the school of music in the class led by Prof. Gordana Jovanović. He graduated at the high school of music in 1994 in the class led by Prof. Olga Jovanović. In the same year he enrolled at the Faculty Of Music in Belgrade in the class led by Prof. Mirjana Šuica-Babić and he finished bachelor (1999), master (2004) and PhD (2009) studies in the class led by Prof. Nevena Popović with highest marks. In 2006, he also finished master studies at the Accademy "Santa Ceccilia" in Rome in the class led by Prof. Sergio Perticaroli with highest marks. He was instructed at masterclasses by Lazar Berman, Giovanni Umberto Battel, Sergio Perticaroli and Nina Makarova.
He won 1st prize at the Yugoslav Competitions twice (1987 and 1993), prizes for the best pianist both in high school of music (1994) and at Faculty Of Music (2000), 1st prize at EPTA Competition in Belgrade 2001. and the prize for best recital of the season in SANU (Belgrade) 2002. He was awarded the 3rd prize twice at the Piano Competition in Rome (1995 and 1998), and a special I prize with the maximum of points at the International Competition "Petar Konjović" in Belgrade (1997), as well as the 3rd prize at the Piano Competition in Athens in 1999.
At the age of 4 he started playing in public, including TV and Radio programmes. He played several hundreds of recitals and concerto performances in all major concert halls in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Italy and Greece. His live preformance from a recital at Kolarac Great Hall in Belgrade became The Hit of the year by wotes from listeners of Radio Belgrade in 2012 and The Hit of the week in 2014 with an all time record of listeners votes in that classical music radio show. In 2015, his performances were published on CD in classical music magazine “Muzika Klasika” and in 2016 PGP-RTS released his first full CD classical album. From 2002-2006, he was engaged as the demonstrator at Faculty Of Music in Belgrade, he was a piano teacher in music school „Mokranjac“ in Belgrade from 2006-2008, from 2008-2009 he was an associate professor at FILUM in Kragujevac, from 2009-2012 he was a piano teacher, from 2012 an assistant professor and from 2019 he is an associate professor at Faculty Of Music in Belgrade.
Photo: © Nebojša Maksimović / C. Bechstein Belgrade