The Serbian cellist wins €5,000 in recognition for her musical versatility
Serbian-born cellist Irena Josifoska has been announced as the recipient of the 2025 Villa Musica Star Award.
The award is endowed with €5,000 and is given to an outstanding scholarship holder of the State Foundation Villa Musica, which operates in the German state of Rheinland-Pflalz.
Josifoska has been a participant of Villa Musica’s chamber music projects since 2022 and is a master’s student of Jens Peter Maintz in Berlin. Her previous awards include first prize at the Domenico Gabrielli Cello Competition in Berlin, an honorary mention at the Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann, and was the youngest semi-finalist of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2017.
She performs on a 1790 cello by William Forster Senior, on loan from the Villa Musica Foundation.
Artistic director of Villa Musica Ervis Gega commented on Josifoska’s award: ’Irena is an extremely agile and versatile musician. She can adapt to any stylistic context: from Baroque performance practice to the soft, romantic tones of Schubert or Schumann, as well as the powerful, resonant sound of the sonata repertoire.
’She radiates a great deal of positive energy and embodies team spirit in the best sense of the word – for me, she is an ideal laureate of the Villa Musica Star Award.’
Villa Musica was founded in 1986 by the Rheinland-Pfalz government with participation of Southwest German Radio (SWR), providing a top-level educational and concert programme for young professionals in the field of chamber music. Its scholarship programme at Schloss Engers Academy in Neuwied provides opportunities for around 80 young professionals to work with renowned instructors, performing in the local region as well as Berlin, Brussels, Prague, and other destinations.
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