Duo Aliada

Saxophonist Michał Knot and accordionist Bogdan Laketic founded Duo Aliada in 2013 while studying at the music university in Vienna. What sparked the curiosity and motivated the two musicians to form a duo were unique sound possibilities and enormous expressive potential of this unusual combination of instruments.

After unanimously winning the Grand Prix at the Fidelio Competition in 2013, the duo has quickly caught the attention of the classical music world through their passionate performances on stage and a signature approach to arranging and presenting classical music in a new light.

The duo‘s first artistic season 2015/16 was filled with over 70 concerts on five continents. This included performances in Carnegie Hall, Wiener Musikverein, Tonhalle Zürich, Teatro del Lago Chile, Hermitage Theatre St. Petersburg, Kolarac Belgrade and Katsushika Symphony Hills Tokyo, as well as tours in Austria, Poland, Taiwan, Malaysia, Chile and Mexico. Meanwhile, their debut album “New colors of the past” was recorded, and it has been received with tremendous critical acclaim.

In following years, Aliada have become regular guests at classical music festivals worldwide, such as Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Grafenegg Festival, Kissinger Sommer, Thüringer Bachwochen, Brandenburgische Sommerkonzerte, MITO Settembre Musica, Istanbul Music Festival, Festival de Música de Morelia and Johor Bahru Music Festival City to name a few.

Duo Aliada has been selected for the prestigious sponsorship platform “The New Austrian Sound of Music”, and within its framework they had the opportunity to perform in over 30 countries, what made them the most requested ensemble in the history of this program. In 2018, Duo Aliada became a prize winner at the M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition in Ann Arbor, University of Michigan. Their latest achievement was a title of “Featured Ensemble” of Jeunesse Austria. This collaboration brought their solo debut at the legendary Golden Hall of Wiener Musikverein in April 2022.

Aliada’s constant search for new soundscapes enabled them to bring their arrangement techniques to perfection, leading to groundbreaking versions of classical works for their instruments.

Having premiered more than twenty works for saxophone and accordion duo, they demonstrate a strong interest in new music. One of the most recent projects was a premiere of three new pieces by Wojtek Chałupka, Tomasz Skweres and Michal Knot, together with the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester and conductor Lars Mlekusch. Those works are amongst the first concertos written for saxophone, accordion and string orchestra.

Following the success of their 2015 debut album, the Duo decided to come back to the studio a few years later. Their second album “East West” (2021, Hänssler Classic) was nominated for International Classical Music Awards, as well as for OPUS Klassik Prize in two categories. Both Aliada albums have been broadcasted by major european radio stations, including BBC, SWR2, BR Klassik, ORF1 and Radio Klassik.

During the current season, Aliada has scheduled performances at festivals in Austria and Germany, as well as concert tours in Japan, Norway, France, Croatia and Spain.