Jelena Lukić

Jelena Lukić was born on the 13th of December 1996 in Valjevo, Serbia. She made her first musical steps at the age of 9 in the class of professor Dragan Nikolic.

Since then she has accomplished great success by winning numerous prizes at national and international competitions: 28 first prizes, 6 second prizes and 2 third prizes. As the most remarkable she would set aside: Second prizes at the 14th and 16th Guitar Art Festival in Belgrade, first prize at the 11th International Guitar Competition Stanislav Binicki, the special prize at Naissus Guitar Festival , second prize at the Tremolo International Guitar Festival in Skopje and the special prize “Marko Erdevicki” at the thematic festival Classic Art.

In the year 2018, she was awarded with the Hadjiemmanouil – Karagiozis scholarship for Volterra Project Summer Guitar Institute where she worked with renowned performers and pedagogues – Antigoni Goni, Stephen Robinson and Laura Snowden.  She also had the opportunity to participate in a broad range of masterclasses with, among others, Rafael Aguirre, Thomas Offerman, Jure Cerkovnik,  Goran Krivokapic, Vera Ogrizovic, Darko Karajic and Martha Masters.

In 2012 Jelena received a honorary award from her hometown (Valjevo) for achieving great success in the field of art. 

Jelena was a double winner of the scholarships given by the Dositeja Fund for Young Talents for the outstanding results which she achieved at national and international competitions (2013, 2014).

From 2016 to 2017 she was the member of a 102 strings guitar orchestra comprised of students and professors from three Bosnian cities – Banja Luka, Prijedor and Bihac. Orchestra performed a great tour within a project of representing a guitar music to the small municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

In 2017 she began playing in a duo, String Ladies, which won a second prize at the International Youth Festival in Bratislava (2018) in the no – age limit category of free instrumentation.

Since the age of 17, Jelena performed many concerts and recitals across Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Jelena received her Bachelor’s degree at the Academy of Arts in Banja Luka in the class of professor Natasa Jokic, and graduated as one of the best students of her generation. Recently, she completed her Master’s studies at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade in the class of professor Vera Ogrizovic. 

Currently, Jelena works as a guitar professor at Music school in Brcko District (Bosnia and Herzegovina).

My teaching style depends on students age, personality and the level of their guitar technique. My opinion is that every student is an individual with certain physical characteristics (size of the hand, flexibility, proportion of fingers, if someone is right or left handed etc.) that I always consider when solving a problem that student has. Also, based on their repertoire preferences, I can assume their musical style and, according to that, help them to create their own vision and their own style of playing. 

I put a great focus on technique, because technique is essential when it comes to a great performance. Sitting position, position of student's shoulders, arms and legs is something that I will constantly supervise in order to prevent spine aches and curving, hand braking  and injuries.  I approach to a technical problems  with a lot of attention, making a specific exercises for each student according to an issue that he or she has.   When working on a musical expression, I tend to give only a suggestions which can provide to student a better understanding of a piece he is playing  - character of the piece, stylistic manner, structure and harmony. Also, when it comes to a musical creation, I will always put on a first place student's will and vision, because respecting artistic freedom of an individual itself is one of the most important things in a relationship between student and teacher.