So, how to really involve listeners?

Is there a better way of involving them, identifying with the composers, their life situations, struggles, dilemmas and seeing for ourselves how it all reflected in their music and how it all reflects in us ?

It is NOT – "A Lecture Recital"

It is about a pianist who uses love stories, the marriage accounts of great composers, their illnesses, family affairs, money matters, guiding the audience to start identifying with composers, understanding great art and possibly their own situation as never before.

That is why:
Faces at such a "classical concert" given
by Marina Milic-Apostolovic are lit with understanding and filled with joy and laughter		 Husbands choose to book Surprise Birthday Concerts for their wives and send birthday cakes while enjoying Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven, Preludium by Bach or Nocturno by Grieg


Marina's specialty also lies in the ability to design concerts that match all expectations: the audience's, organizer's and sponsor's. She has closely and successfully worked with a range of different businesses that are willing to invest in the company image and impress their clients. These include P&O, Steinway and Sons, Karic International Group, Acropolis Restaurant, etc.

 
Themes requested from her in the past:

Composers in Exile

"I am burdened with the harvest of sorrow that I have no country. I feel like a ghost wandering forever in the world."
Sergei Rachmaninoff

Unfortunately this is a theme that is still in 'vogue, with many people throughout the world experiencing exile and the sorrows of various wars.
What was similar, and what was different in the lives of Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev, all three of them refugees from their own countries?
Whose experience and whose music feels closest to our hearts and why?

PROGRAMME to include:

Chopin "Revolutionary" Study, Polonaise in C minor Op. 40,
Rachmaninoff selection of Preludes, Prokofiev II and III movements from Sonata No.7, three movements from the "Romeo and Juliet" suite
  

Marriages of Great Musicians

"Statistics say that married men live longer than single men but married men are more willing to die."

True or false? We find out exploring the marriages of Clara and Robert Schumann, Anna Magdalena and Johann Sebastian Bach, Edward and Nina Grieg, music which was the product of various situations. But eventually, we start looking at our own relationships, raising questions, trying to understand where we stand in our commitments.

Programme to include works by Bach, Grieg and Schumann


The Ideal Couple (J.S. Bach and Anna Magdalena Bach)

It was natural for him to come down from his heights, take time to compose simple pieces and have the patience to teach an instrument to his wife or each of his 20 children.
Although a tiny woman, Anna Magdalena was determined to learn the organ, a huge instrument, only to become more able to understand the instrument her husband loved most and for which he composed in the most sublime manner. What can we learn from J. Sebastian and Anna Magdalena? Can they teach US something?

Programme to include works by J. S. Bach and his children

  

Living with Illnesses

Who could think that Beethoven, the most honored and glorified man in Vienna would have fear of not being accepted! His deafness could not stop him from creating some of the greatest works on earth. Still, illness caused many problems and misunderstandings between him and the people surrounding him. How did Bach cope with his blindness? How did Chopin try to conquer his tuberculoses? Was Scriabin's condition an illness or a special blessing? Where does the lesson for all of us lie? Which music can soothe our pains?

Programme to include: Beethoven Sonata Op. 31 No.2 in D minor "Tempest"
Chopin Selection of Preludes, Bach "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" Scriabin Selection of Preludes and Studies


Composers and their Inspiration

What makes a composer tick and strikes his imagination
An easy listening, very light programme, to include works inspired by bells, spring, winds, leaves, folk dances, love, fairy tales…

Works by Grieg, Sinding, Statkic, Stular, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff

  

Musicians as Children and Parents

Are great artists equally great to their children?
How does a demanding career reflect on their successors?
How much parental support did they receive in their youth and how much was it crucial for their further development and future?

Domenico/Alexandro Scarlatti, Robert and Clara Schumann, J. S. Bach, Isaak Albeniz…


Money and Music

Have we ever found ourselves in such a difficult financial situation that we were unable to even feed our children? Have we had to do other things, not being able to survive from our profession?
Can the life stories and different situations Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, and Rachmaninoff found themselves in, help us in our search for the perfect answer in "money matters"?

Programme: Haydn, Schubert, Bach, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff.

Spanish Experience

For those in love with Spanish traditions, music, culture:
Albeniz, Granados, Mompou, Turina, Chopin. Ideal for Spanish cruises.


Norwegian Experience

Ideal for Norwegian Cruises. Grieg, Sinding


Composers and their Faith

Bach, Liszt, Franck