Aco Bišćević

Career

Aco Aleksander Bišćević was born in Slovenia. He first studied music pedagogy at the University of Ljubljana and then continued his studies in singing and the harpsichord at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He completed his master degree in singing in June 2014 with Breda Zakotnik and KS Elisabeth Wilke. He has attended master classes with James Taylor, KS Angelika Kirschlager, Bernarda Fink, Thomas Moser, KS Christa Ludwig, Helmut Deutsch, and others.

Choir

In Slovenia, he led the Aeternum Chamber Choir, with which he won an award as the most promising young choral conductor at the 2005 Slovenian National Choral Competition. In 2008 he was awarded the Student Prešeren Award for his work with the choir – the highest honour a Slovenian student can achieve. In his work with the Aeternum Chamber Choir, he put a special emphasis on the music of the Baroque. He has attended choral conducting seminars with Gunnar Ericsson, Andreas Eby and Ragnar Rasmussen. Bišćević has also won several first prizes in competitions as an accompanist on the piano, harpsichord and organ. More recently, he has worked with world-class musicians such as Irena Grafenauer, Mate Bekavac, Davide Lattuada and Joanna Kamenarska.

As a member of the World Youth Choir he performed, inter alia, at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing. Furthermore, he was a member of the Salzburger Bachchor, where he also worked as a répétiteur with Marc Minkowski, and was a member of the Arnold Schönberg Chor under Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Claudio Abbado. As a harpsichordist and pianist, he has given numerous concerts in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, Serbia, Denmark, and the Netherlands.

Opera

Aco Bišćević made his opera debut in 2014 as Mercure in Rameau’s Castor et Pollux at the Komische Oper Berlin in a staging by Barrie Kosky. In 2017 he made his acclaimed debut in the demanding role of Orpheus in the French version of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice at the Tiroler Landestheater in Innsbruck. He has however performed in theaters and festivals all over Europe, including the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Festival Trame Sonore in Mantua, the Bach Festival in Lausanne, the Festival Styriarte in Graz, the Salzburg Festival and collaborated with conductors such as Christopher Curney, Vittorio Ghielmi, Reinhard Goebel, Theodor Guschlbauer, Michael Hofstetter, Gérard Korsten, Váklav Luks, Ingo Metzmacher, Federico Maria Sardelli, Jordi Savall, amongst others.

In 2023/24 he performed Gluck’s La Clemenza di Tito (title-role) at the Gluck Festival in Bayreuth, Galuppi’s La caduto di Adamo (title-role) with the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra in Helsinki and at the MusikTheater an der Wien as well as L’italiana in Algeri (Lindoro) at the Ljubljana Opera. In 2024/25 a new production of Comedian Harmonists awaits him at the Nationaltheater Mannheim.

According to historical practice, Aco Bišćević often performs recitals accompanied by the piano or fortepiano. Being an equally accomplished pianist, he also very much enjoys accompanying himself.

Recordings

Aco Bišćević has recently taken part in a recording of Cavalli’s Il Xerse (role of Elviro) at the Festival della Valle d'Itria in Martina Franca with Federico Maria Sardelli conducting. Already released on DVD (label Dynamic) it will soon be published on CD (Naxos) as well. He has also recorded so far unreleased, highly virtuosic cantatas for high tenor by Carl Heinrich Graun with the Baroque Orchestra of the Thuringia Philharmonie - Michael Hofstetter conducting.