Gordan Nikolić has been musical director of the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra since 2004. He is recognized as one of the leading violinists of today. He has served as leader of several prominent orchestras and is in great international demand as a soloist. Nikolić has established himself as the ‘face’ of the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, an ensemble which he leads in his own unique manner.
Nikolić was born in Serbia, the former Yugoslavia, in 1968. He took up the violin at the age of seven, and was admitted to a specialist music school two years later. He continued his studies with Jean-Jacques Kantorow at the Basel Academy of Music, where he took a special interest in the baroque violin but also worked with modern composers such as Lutosławski and Kurtág. In 1989, he was invited to become leader of the Orchestre d’Auvergne. He went on to hold the same position with the London Symphony Orchestra from 1997 until 2017, where he worked alongside renowned conductors such as Sir Colin Davis, Claudio Abbado, Valeri Gergiev and Bernard Haitink.
Nikolić does not conduct with a baton but leads the performances from the first violinist’s chair. He is keen not to ‘subject’ the other players to his authority. Rather, he considers it important that each member remains true to his or her own musical vision. “I’m not here to tell other musicians what to do,” he states. “I merely try to provide an emotional direction, the necessary drive, and then we all attempt to find a common musical language.” Nikolić and the NKO have accounted for many remarkable performances and a series of successful recordings.
Gordan Nikolić is regularly invited to work with international ensembles such as the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestre de Chambre de Genève and the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra. Since 2007, he has been artistic director of BandArt, an independent Spanish orchestra made up of musicians from more than a dozen different countries, committed to social integration through the arts. Alongside his performing work, Gordan Nikolić teaches violin at the Codarts University of the Performing Arts in Rotterdam. He plays a Lorenzo Storioni instrument made in 1794.