Robert Lakatoš, violin
Robert Lakatoš grew up in a musical family and began studying violin at the age of seven in his hometown of Novi Sad, mentored by his father Imre Lakatoš. As the youngest violin student in the history of the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, Lakatoš completed his undergraduate and master studies under the renowned pedagogue Dejan Mihailović. He continued his formal education at Zurich University of the Arts under Professor Rudolf Koelman, where he was awarded a scholarship for the exceptionally talented musicians by the Swiss Lyra Foundation, and has attended study programs held by the world’s leading violinists, such as Aaron Rosand at the New York’s Summit Music Festival and Julian Rachlin at the Music and Arts University in Vienna.
Lakatoš won the First Prize at the prestigious International Violin Competition in Pamplona, Spain in 2015. This young artist previously won the First Prize at the Mary Smart Competition in New York in 2013, and the prestigious awards at the Andrea Postacchini Competitions in Italy and the Youth of Music Competitions in Romania. These successes opened the door to his international career on the world’s renowned music scenes.
Robert Lakatoš develops his concert career as a soloist and chamber musician performing in Europe, Israel and the United States. As a soloist, he has performed with numerous orchestras including the Spanish RTVE Orchestra, Navarra Symphony Orchestra, Malaga Philharmonic, Minas Gerais Philharmonic, The Krakow Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfónica de la UAN (Mexico), Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, New York Summit Festival Orchestra, RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, Vojvodina Symphony Orchestra and the Janáček Camerata. So far, he has collaborated with eminent conductors such as Antoni Wit, Manuel Hernández-Silva, Uros Lajovic, Philip Greenberg, Fabio Machetti, Gabriel Feltz, Lior Shambadal, Nicholas Milton, Aleksandar Markovic or James Judd.
Robert Lakatoš currently works as a Violin Professor at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad and the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. Since 2018, he has been Artistic Director of the Robert Lakatoš Chamber String Orchestra, composed of his students, which aims to promote young violin virtuosi.
He is the winner of the Cultural Sparkle Award 2017, a recognition of the Institute for Culture of Vojvodina, which is awarded for contemporary creativity to a young artist up to 35 years of age.
Robert plays on a 1709 Stradivari violin from the collection of bow maker Vladimir Radosavljevic, whose bow he also uses.
