President of the Republic Receives Members of FER’s Academic Male Choir on the Occasion of 10 Years of Activity
The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović received today the members of the Academic Male Choir of the University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER) on the occasion of the choir’s ten years of activity. The choir will celebrate its tenth anniversary with a number of activities, and the main celebration will be held in May in Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall under the patronage of the President of the Republic.
The Academic Male Choir of FER was founded in January 2016 on the initiative of choir conductor Josip degl’ Ivellio and the then dean of FER Prof. Mislav Grgić. The choir is comprised mainly of present and past FER students but of other faculties as well. Today it has 35 members, and up to now 150 members participated in its work of whom the majority will perform at the main celebration in Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall, choir conductor Josip degl’ Ivellio noted after introducing the choir to President Milanović.
The choir members introduced themselves by performing the composition “Jadranu“ by Jakov Gotovac and “U našeg Marina“ by Dinko Fio, thus confirming that they surpass the standards of amateurism and classify themselves in a nearly professional male choir with their performances. According to the choir conductor, in Croatia today there are actually only three male choirs, of which one is the Academic Male Choir of FER. Besides nurturing male choir singing, the peculiarity of the choir is its repertoire which is based on classical choir literature, primarily featuring Croatian authors.
The choir has so far held more than 200 concerts and appearances throughout Croatia and abroad, and it performed at the first general audience of Pope Leo XIV in May 2025. It is the winner of numerous music awards, including the gold plaque in 2024 as the absolute winner of the Zagreb choir competition.
Present in the Office of the President of the Republic were the following choir members: Vladimir Fistrić, Quinn Lee Fletcher, Noa Milin, Jan Štajfer, Hrvoje Ladašić, Niko Matković, Aryan Ghiassi, Kristian Jambrošić, Davor Pavlović, Ivan Radak, Domagoj Žokalj, Karlo Kević, Sergej Zajcev, Herman Zvonimir Došilović, Nikola Sebastian Jambrošić, Dominik Milde, Dario Vrbaslija, Josip Bogdanović, Luka Grubišin, Duje Ćubelić, Ivan Timko, Gabrijel Rajić, Srećko Matković, Anatoly Milashin, Lovro Bučar and Frane Kuzmanić.
Alongside the choir members were the co-founder of the choir, the first prefect of the choir currently the chancellor of the choir and dean of FER from 2014 to 2018 Prof. Mislav Grgić, dean of FER from 2018 to 2022 Prof. Gordan Gledec as well as the conductor and co-founder of the choir, maestro Josip degl’ Ivellio.
Alongside President Milanović was the Adviser to the President for Education Jadranka Žarković.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Dario Andrišek