The Raymond Nicolet Trust patrons
Nikola Jokic, Nemanja Matic, Aleksandar Mitrovic, professor Sir John Ernest Walker, Patrick Hemmerle, Ljubica Stojanovic, Nemanja Radulovic, Marija Jelic, Miljana Popovic Materni, Victor Maslov, Slavica Plemic, Nikola Savic, Isabel Frias De La, Philippe Delestre
Read all about our patrons below
NIKOLA JOKIC
Nikola Jokic is born in 1995 in Sombor, Serbia. He played with the professional basketball team KK Mega Basket from 2012 to 2015. He was in the Adriatic League MVP in 2015. He was a member of the Serbian U-19 national basketball team that took home silver at the 2013 World Championships. He helped Serbia win silver at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
He is currently a professional basketball player for the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association in the USA. He also represents the Serbian national basketball team internationally.
Nemanja Matic
Nemanja was born in Sabac, Serbia on 1st August 1988. He is a Serbian professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for UK Premier League club Manchester United. Starting his career as an attacking midfielder, Matic shifted to a defensive midfielder during his spell at Benfica. He is known for his consistent performances on the pitch and his combative style of play.
José Mourinho commented on Matic, "At this moment, he is a giant, not for his size but for the way he plays."
Aleksandar Mitrovic
Aleksandar (born 16 September 1994) is a Serbian professional footballer who plays for EFL Championship club Fulham and the Serbia national team.
A youth product at Partizan, he turned professional after a loan at Teleoptik, and was a regular as they won the Serbian SuperLiga in his first season. At the age of 18, Mitrovic was named among the top 10 talents under the age of 19 in Europe by a selection of UEFA reporters
Mitrovic helped Serbia win the 2013 European Under-19 Championship, being voted the best player of the tournament. That same year, he played his first game for the senior national team and has since earned over 70 caps, representing Serbia at the 2018 FIFA World Cup. He is Serbia's highest goalscorer.
Professor Sir John Ernest Walker
Professor Sir John Ernest Walker is a British biochemist born on January 7th, 1941.
In 1974, he joined the Laboratory of Molecular Biology of the Medical Research Council (MRC), where he studied how energy in the food we eat is converted into the molecule adenosine triphosphate (or ATP), the fuel of life. In recognition of this work, in 1997 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for elucidating the enzymatic mechanism underlying the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate.
From 1998-2013, he was the Director of the MRC’s Dunn Human Nutrition Unit in Cambridge, which became the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit in 2008. He is currently Emeritus Director of the Unit.
He is an Emeritus Professor in the Clinical School in the University of Cahmbridge, a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and an Honorary Fellow of St Catherine's College, Oxford.
In 1995, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 2012, he was awarded its highest honour, The Copley Medal. He is a founding Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
In 1999, he was knighted for his services to molecular biology.
He is a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA , and a Foreign Member of The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, of L ’Accademia dei Lincei, and of The Royal Society of New Zealand.
Nemanja Radulovic
Born in Serbia in 1985, Nemanja Radulovic studied at the Faculty of Arts and Music in Belgrade, the Saarlandes Hochschule fur Musik und Theater in Saarbrucken, the Stauffer Academy in Cremona with Salvatore Accardo and the world-renowned Conservatoire de Paris with Patrice Fontanarosa.
Winner of the 2015 Echo Klassik Award for Newcomer of the Year, Serbian-French violinist Nemanja Radulovic has taken the classical music world by storm with his thrilling virtuosity, depth of expression and adventurous programming, both in the recording studio and on the concert stage.
An exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist, Nemanja’s most recent album, Baïka, features his evocative interpretations of Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto as well as Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade arranged for solo violin and chamber orchestra. Nemanja’s recognition for his work in classical music includes International Revelation of the Year by the Victoires de la musique classique in 2005, an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Arts in Nis, Serbia, and an ELLE Style Award for Musician of the Year in 2015. He is the winner of several international violin competitions, such as Joseph Joachim in Hannover, George Enescu in Bucharest and Stradivarius in Cremona.
Ljubica Stojanovic
Ljubica Stojanovic started to play piano at the age of 6. She obtained a Masters at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, with Prof. Caroline Palmer. After that, she was awarded a Fellowship to study with Prof. Ronan O’Hora and received mentoring sessions from violinist David Takeno.
Ljubica is the 1st prize-winner of over 20 national and international competitions, including the Windsor International Piano Competition in 2015, the Grand Prix International Competition for young pianists in Geneva, the National Competition of the Republic of Serbia in Belgrade and the Competition of Young Yugoslavian pianists. She also won the 2nd prize at the 5th Memorial Isidor Bajic in Novi Sad in Serbia.
She has collaborated with the Witold Lutoslawski Philharmonia from Wroclav, soloists from the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, the Serbian Radio Television Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra in Belgrade. In 2015, Ljubica became an artist for the Concordia Foundation in London and for KNS Classical Record Label in Spain.
Ljubica regularly performs across Europe. She is a very active musician who performs regularly as a soloist as well as with different Chambers.
PATRICK HEMMERLE
Patrick is a French pianist living in England. He is laureate of the international competition of Valencia, Toledo, Epinal, Grossetto, and more recently the CFRPM, in Paris, where his interpretation of Villa-Lobos’s Rudepoema, raised a great deal of interest.
Patrick was trained in Paris at the Conservatoire (CNR), under the tuition of Billy Eidi. He has also had lessons with Ventsislav Yankoff, Eric Heidsieck and Joaquin Soriano.
Patrick has published 3 CDs, which have been very well received by the international press and have led to an invitation to give the inaugural concert of the Novak Society, where he played Novak’s masterpiece, Pan, which had not been heard in Prague for 50 years.
His profound musicological knowledge, and his capacity to clarify complex musical concepts, mean he is in demand as a lecturer. He has given talks for Cambridge University, as well as a cycle of concert lectures on French music, presenting composers little known to the general public, their environment, their influence and their music. This led to the recordings of the piano music of Jean Roger-Ducasse and Maurice Emmanuel.
MARIJA JELIC
Marija Jelic was born on 23th of February 1993 in Belgrade, Republic of Serbia. After finishing Mathematical Gymnasium and High Music School "Kosta Manojlovic" for flute and solo singing, she finished the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University of Belgrade and continued to learn to sing from primadonna Jasmina Trumbetas Petrovic who is a soprano singer at the Belgrade National Theater.
In 2017 Marija passed an audition for the opera studio in the Belgrade National Theater and started to sing small and main roles in opera productions: Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro (Barbarina, La Contessa), Verdi: Il Trovatore (Ines), Puccini: Boheme (Mimi), Bizet: Carmen (Micaela), Puccini : Gianni Schicci (Lauretta), Puccini: Suor Angelica (Angelica), Puccini: Turandot (Liu), Leoncavallo Pagliacci (Nedda), Verdi Otello(Desdemona), Verdi: Nabucco (Anna), Binicki Na Uranku (Stanka).
Marija was awarded at national competitions in singing. Furthermore, she sang in the main halls and concerts in Serbia such as in Concert La Divina with orchestra Stanislav Binicki at Kolarac Hall, in Belgrade Philharmonic Spring Concert with Chinese Orchestra, Lid Concert of Rachmaninoff songs at Belgrade Summer Festival.
She sang in the opera gala concert End of Summer festival in Wernigerode (Germany). She sang ten concerts with St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Darrel Ang (Mariinsky Theater) in the National Library in Beijing, Dongying Grand Theater, Liniy Snow Lotus Theater. She has debuted with the role Mimi in Serbian National Theater in Novi Sad.
She sang with many conductors such as E. Plasson, C. Fitzner, D.Savic, A.Guliyev, F. Pavisic.
Her interpretations are well known for her freshness, her sincerity and the brightness of her soprano tessitura. She owns a beautiful vocal line, the mellow top notes, beautiful sustained piano which she uses skillfully and shows an unrivalled artistic intensity.
Miljana Popovic Materni
Miljana graduated at the top of her class from the school for the musically gifted in Cuprija. She got her bachelor’s, master’s, and graduate degrees from the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, under the guidance of Marija Spengler. Additionally, she attended masterclasses from David Takeno, Gordan Nikolic, Stefan Milenkovic, Igor Petrusevski, Julian Rachlin, and some others. She was also awarded a certificate from the International Youth Orchestra Conservatoire in Bern, under the guide of Ingo Beker.
Since 2009, she has held the permanent position as First Violin Tutti at the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra and has performed as a soloist with their chamber orchestra. For over 10 years she has been a member and long-standing concertmaster of St. George Chamber Orchestra with whom she performed as well as soloist in over 300 regional and international 300 concerts.
As a member of these orchestras, she has worked hand-in-hand with well-renowned artists such as Zubin Mehta, Gordan Nikolic, Nemanja Radulovic, Zeljko Lucic, Boris Berezovski, Misa Majski, and played at prestigious concert halls (New York Carnegie Hall, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, Konzerthaus in Vienna).
She has also performed concerts at renowned domestic festivals (Bemus, Nimus, Somus, Ljubljana Festival, Ohrid Summer Festival, Bolshoi Festival). Additionally, she participated in a project for reaffirming forgotten Serbian music; and at the explicit request of the Music Institute, debuted Petar Stojanovic’s Sonata for the violin and piano no. 2 op.18, which had premiered and was recorded live for a compact disc.
Miljana is the founder and a concertmaster of the Belgrade Chamber Orchestra.
Vasa Stajkic
In line with its special affiliation with the creative industries, the Raymond Nicolet Trust has added a further respected musician to its list of patrons.
Vasa Stajkic is an established opera singer with a rich baritone voice. He was born in Serbia’s second city, Novi Sad, in the Northern part, with somewhat separate traditions and status, known as Vojvodina, which is a semi-autonomous province. He started his musical education in the Isidor Bajic primary music school and high schools. After graduating from high school in vocal performance and theory of music, he went on to study vocal performance at the Music Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, and later at the Faculty of Musical Arts in Belgrade, with Prof. Violeta Pancetovic Radakovic.
Vasa has won numerous prizes for best male voice in national and international competitions in Negotin (1997), the Petar Konjovic prize in Belgrade (1998); also the, Nikola & Marica Cvejic (1998, 1999, 2000), and the Obzorja na Tisi prizes (2000, 2002). Internationally, he was prizewinner at the International Summer Academy Prague-Vienna-Budapest, held in Austria (2000).
Since 2000, Vasa has beens a regular soloist at the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad and since 2019, he has also been a regular guest singer at Terazije Theatre in Belgrade, for example in the original production of the Phantom of the Opera, by Andre Lloyd. Webber, singing the part of the Phantom. He also won the Muzika Klasika Award for best male performer in 2020. Among his acclaimed title roles at the Serbian National Theatre have been Don Giovanni (2009), Simon Boccanegra (2014), and Prince Ivo (2016). This last role is the lead in the important romantic opera Prince Ivo of Semberlija by the great composer and teacher Isidor Bajic (1878-1915). It is an interesting blend of Serbian folk with classical/romantic music, as seen in some Czech and Russian music from before the 1st world war. It has wide national appeal, being centred on the Serbian uprising against the Turks in the early 19th century.
Off the stage, Vasa performs regularly as a soloist for the Symphonic Orchestra of Serbian Radio and Televison (RTS), where he worked with many leading international conductors including Ion Iancu, Alexander Annissimov , Oliver Dohnanyi , Giampaolo Maria Bisanti, Fabio Luisi, Marco Parisotto, Gianluca Marciano, Mladen Jagušt, Imre Toplak, Miodrag Janoski, Zoran Juranic, Bojan Sudic, and Aleksandar Kojic.
VICTOR MASLOV
Coming of an eminent musical family Victor gave his first concert performance at the age of nine. He studied initially at the Gnessin Moscow Special School of Music, and also took masterclasses with the great Dmitry Bashkirov. International recognition came fully ten years ago with a concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall, where he was acclaimed for the breath of his mastery of the repertoire. Listening closely to his recordings reveals the depth of empathy for the singular properties of composition in all the main historical idioms: baroque, romantic and modernist.
In the last decade he has played with numerous major orchestras internationally and won many piano competitions, a rise crowned by his winning the Moscow Rachmaninov piano competition in 2020.
Victor currently holds the prestigious Carne Trust Fellowship at the Royal College of Music in London where he is studying with Professor D. Alexeev and V. Latarche. It is a distinctive feature of this Fellowship that the holder is an ambassador for the college and contributes to its life and public profile in diverse ways.
Philippe Delestre
Philippe Delestre is a famous French cartoonist born in 1951. After studying Law and graduating from a school of journalism, he started his career at the French newspaper The Républicain Lorrain before moving to its rival, L’Est Républicain in 1975 where he met Raymond Nicolet. They quickly became friends and Philippe regularly drew cartoons of Raymond in the newspaper.
Philippe Delestre also worked for other regional newspapers such as Le Courrier de l’Ouest, Presse-Océan and le Maine libre and specialized newspapers such as the International Herald Tribune and Intermonde presse. He is the author of different cartoon albums and has illustrated many books and covers.
Through his cartoons, Philippe has always fought for freedom of expression, human rights and against injustice.
Visit Philippe’s Facebook page here.
ISABEL FRIAS DE LA UZ
Born and brought up in Madrid, Spain, Isabel has been settled with her family in the UK about ten years ago, after spending many years in the US. Working with watercolour, oils and drawing media, Isabel has exhibited in the US and the UK, including participation in the Babylon Gallery Summer exhibitions. She is a member of the East Anglian Watercolourist Society and has exhibited with the society in both selected and members exhibitions.
In 2017, her landscape was chosen as the wild card winner of Landscape Artist of the year, awarding her a place in the semi-finals of the competition. Inspired by her surroundings, nature and people, it has made her art focus very dynamic. Although Isabel attended art school at Wright State University for a year, receiving a merit art scholarship, she is mainly self-taught. You can browse her work at www.friasdelauz.com
Nikola Savic
Nikola is born in 1973, Belgrade, Serbia where he completed his BA Fine Art degree in 1997. He post-graduated his MA Fine Art degree from Central Saint Martin’s College of Art & Design London in 1999. The following autumn, Savic was selected by Ida Branson Memorial, England as one of the best MA Fine Art post graduates in the UK. In the year 2001, he was invited to participate in Royal run auction ‘Save the Ocean’ and to create one of the 54 playing cards, alongside with names such as Damien Hirst, Julie Verhoeven, Anish Kapoor, Craigie Atchison, Mat Collishaw, to name just a few. From 1999 Savic has extensively exhibited at both solo and group shows in the UK and Europe.
In his paintings, Savic contemplates on post apocalyptic visions of our contemporary society. Focusing on his trademark object machine like shapes, he highlights the importance of the meaning coming directly from its post object-painting reference. His authentic quasi-organic forms take on canvases, star shaped boards, stainless steel and many other surfaces. Savic explores colour and form in savvy neo formalist way, where the colour is super flat and strongly led by hard edged and reconstructed mechanical forms. The biomorphic objects in his paintings usually have a kind of anaglyph float effect that reflects itself through perspective of spaced-out machine parts. These paintings are complexly beautiful and they challenge traditions of abstraction through the new abstract language order. Multiplicity of Savic’s classical irregular shapes and rectilinear geometrical forms take a new place in the realm of Industrial-Spatial and post-abstract constructions. Savic’s forms are more moderate and in tune with our current industrial reorganization of form and object. Savic’s paintings are in close relationship to Post American Art where we can recall Jasper Jones’s stars and John Chamberlain’s car constructions, hence his titles often recall American visions like: ‘Beverly Hills Fever’, ‘Manhattan Toys I’, etc. However Savic’s paintings do not recall ‘so familiar’ pop icons that we are used to see in American Pop Art culture. They take on global Pop Art iconography which Savic sees in the representation of Virtual Reality, 3D, superficial similarity, first contact, Outer Space Affairs and all other artificial generated identities. In a way, Savic explores a constant change of abstract painting today; the change, which is affected by all important social aspects of our times. In that respect he is mostly intrigued by the change of perception of ‘object painting’ of today, in comparison to the visual and theoretical laws of the same seen twenty years ago.
His idea is to transfer the strong religious message today in the painting but in a way that viewer can be woken up, shaken, intrigued by it, attracted by the word and challenged by what he can see. The most accurate and powerful way to transfer the religious message today is through the word of God. He is trying to make it very modern so that it can relate to everyone and post-modern graffiti like attraction so that the painting doesn’t lose its today’s quality but the message that is send across is eternal and powerful.
Visit Nikola’s LinkedIn page here.
Slavica Plemic
Slavica was born in Sarajevo, ex-Yugoslavia in 1959. She has worked in finances for 14 years and in 1995, she moved to London. In 2012 she acquired the title of glass designer in London (Warington Center). She has been for 15 Years a member of the Brent Artist Register.
Her Art has been exposed at the following locations: Solo exhibition: At the St Johns wood Gallery and Notting Hill Gate London and frequent participation in a group exhibition at Kensington Town Hall. Group exhibitions: Artifact Gallery USA: Manhattan New York, Monaco Yacht Show, Exhibitions in Miami and San Francisco.
All her life she has been painting in her free time but she has never found enough time to theoretically dedicate herself fully to painting. She is prone to abstract painting and conceptualism. Each of her pictures includes a story and a message. In her paintings, she explores Man through her own definition that the human being is at the same time an individual and social being and an inseparable part of nature. Man is also both a spiritual and a material being. This understanding of man enables the breadth of painting various topics, realizing that human life cannot and must not be placed in frames that do not touch each other. In addition to painting, she enjoys researching philosophy and history (especially those hidden without a logical basis) and writing.
You can browse her work at https://www.artglassphilosophy.blogspot.com/