Irena
Josifoska

Serbia

Irena Josifoska, born in 1996, comes from Novi Sad in Serbia. She started playing cello in the class of her mother, and later studied at HfM Detmold with Xenia Jankovic and at Berlin University of the Arts with Jens Peter Maintz. She has taken masterclasses with tutors such as Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, Frans Helmerson, Jérôme Pernoo, David Geringas, Miklos Perenyi, Marc Coppey, Mineo Hayashi, Istvan Varga, Stefan Popov, Alexander Kniazev, David Starkwether, Mark Kosower, Daniel Müller-Schott and Jan Vogler.

Irena has won prizes in numerous national and international competitions, including the 2022 GWK Förderpreis, the 2021 Prix Jean-Nicolas Firmenich at the Verbier Festival, the first prize at the Gabrielli Wettbewerb and a special prize at the 2020 Janigro Cello Competition in Zagreb. She was also a prize winner at the Dotzauer Competition for Young Cellists, the Bohuš Heran Competition, the International Cello Competition in Liezen and the International Jeunesses Musicales Competition in Belgrade. In 2017, she was the youngest semi-finalist at the Queen Elisabeth Competition.

Irena has performed with orchestras throughout Europe and the USA, including the Deutsche Sinfonietta Berlin, the Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen, the Philharmonisches Orchester Hagen, the Kaunas Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, the Camerata Salzburg, the Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie and the Detmolder Kammerorchester. Since 2021, she has been artist in residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel.