One of the leading instrumentalists of his generation, Radovan Vlatkovic has travelled the globe performing extensively as soloist and popularising the horn as recording artist and teacher.
Born in Zagreb in 1962 he completed his studies with Professor Prerad Detièek at the Zagreb Academy of Music and Professor Michael Höltzel at the Music Academy in Detmold, Germany. Radovan Vlatkovic is the recipient of many first prizes in national and international competitions, including the Premio Ancona in 1979 and the ARD Competition in Munich in 1983 – the first to be awarded to a horn player for fourteen years. This led to numerous invitations to music festivals throughout Europe, including Salzburg, Vienna, Edinburg and Dubrovnik, to name a few, as well as the Americas, Australia, Israel, Korea and Japan.
From 1982 until 1990 he served as Principal Horn with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin (now Deutsches Symphonie Orchester) under Maestros Riccardo Chailly and Vladimir Ashkenazy. From 1992 to 1998 he held the post of Horn Professor at the Stuttgart Musikhochschule. In1998 he became Horn Professor at the renowned Mozarteum in Salzburg. Since 2000 he holds the Horn Chair “Canon” at the “Queen Sofia” School in Madrid.
Radovan Vlatkovic has appeared as soloist with many distinguished symphony and chamber orchestras including the Bavarian Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart Radio Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, Munich Chamber Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields, Mozarteum Orchestra, Camerata Academica Salzburg, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Santa Cecilia Orchestra Rome, Rotterdam Philharmonic, the orchestras of Berne, Basel and Zürich, the Lyon and Strasbourg Orchestras, NHK Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan and Yomiuri Orchestra, Adelaide and Melbourne Orchestras.
Very much in demand as chamber musician he regularly performs with András Schiff, Heinz Holliger, Elmar Schmid and Klaus Thunemann and has performed at Gidon Kremer’s Lockenhaus Festival, Svyatoslav Richter’s December Evenings in Moscow, Oleg Kagan and Natalia Gutman’s Festival Kreuth, Marlboro Festival, András Schiff’s Mondsee, Vicenza and Ittingen Festivals as well as Kuhmo Festival, International Musician’s Seminar Prussia Cove and Casals Festival in Prades.
Radovan Vlatkovic has participated in first performances of works by Elliott Carter, Sofia Gubaidulina, Heinz Holliger and Krzysztof Penderecki and several Croation composers who have written concertos for him.
Radovan Vlatkovic has received the German Critics Award for several of his discs. His numerous recordings include Mozart and Strauss Concertos with the English Chamber Orchestra and Jeffrey Tate, works by Saint-Saens with the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris and Jean-Jacques Kantorow, the Britten Serenade for tenor, horn and strings with Neil Jenkins and the Oriol Ensemble in Berlin, Concertos for two horns by Leopold Mozart and Fasch with Herrmann Baumann and Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields and Iona Brown. More recordings including chamber music have been issued by EMI, DECCA, Philips, Deutsche Grammophon, Teldec, Dabringhaus & Grimm and Denon labels. As part of Les Vents Français, Radovan Vlatković recorded the CD "Best of Quintet Music" (EMI Japan), which won the Record Academy Award for Chamber Music 2012 and the Record Geijutsu magazine, Japan.
In 2012 Radovan Vlatković received the Croatian Porin Award for his Life's Work in an award ceremony in May 2012, honoring his musical life at the peak of his career.
Radovan Vlatkovic plays a full double horn Model 20 M by Paxman of London.
