Faculty

Profile

Milan Milisavljevic is Principal Viola with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Dubbed “the engine propelling the performance forward” by the New York Classical Review, his performances combine intense expression with an immediate and profound link to his listeners and have won much critical acclaim. The Strad magazine has described his playing as “very imaginative, with a fine, cultured tone.” Milan’s solo album Sonata-Song, released by Delos Music, has received glowing reviews, with the recording of Aram Khachaturian’s solo sonata on the album hailed as “definitive”.  

Milan has appeared as soloist throughout the world, with orchestras such as the Munich Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonic orchestras of Belgrade, Medellín, and Boca del Río, Aspen Sinfonia, New York Classical Players, Classical Tahoe, and others. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Augustin Hadelich, Cho-Liang Lin, Joseph Kalichstein, members of the Guarneri and Mendelssohn String Quartets, and many others. He has won prizes at competitions such as Lionel Tertis and Aspen Lower Strings and has performed at Marlboro, Mostly Mozart, Josef Gingold, Cascade Head, Classical Tahoe and Grand Teton music festivals.  

Milan has taught at universities and conservatories worldwide, such as at the Juilliard School and the Rubin Academy of Music, as well as the Verbier Music Festival, the Music Academy of the West, Aspen Music Festival, and the Interlochen Center for the Arts. He is on the viola faculty of the Mannes School of Music in New York City as well as New York University. He is also increasingly in demand as a conductor, serving on the conducting faculty of the Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division as head of one of its orchestras.  

Milan has been heard worldwide on countless recordings and broadcasts of the MET. He previously served as its Assistant Principal Viola for eleven seasons. Formerly of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Milan has served as guest Principal of many orchestras, such as the Toronto Symphony.   Deeply committed to music of today, Milan has given the world premiere of Latin Grammy award winning guitarist Leo Brouwer’s Solo Viola Sonata, and regularly performs new music by Ana Sokolovic, Jessie Montgomery and others. One of his recent projects has been Slow Beethoven, collaborating with Lara St. John, Miranda Cuckson and Jeffrey Zeigler, in a unique creation of a lush sonic landscape based on the world of Beethoven’s late string quartets. 

Milan’s teachers include Jutta Puchhammer, Atar Arad, James Dunham, Nobuko Imai and Samuel Rhodes. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Rice University. Milan is a Larsen Strings Artist.

Degrees Held

DMA, Rice University

M.Mus. Indiana University