Cellist Monika Leskovar from Croatia will perform as a soloist at the concert entitled "My Immortal Love", which will be held on December 5, at 20 p.m., in the Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra, and the conductor will be Lubnan Balbaki from Lebanon.

The program of the concert includes the symphonic poem "Apotheosis" by Macedonian composer Mihajlo Nikolovski, Concerto for cello and orchestra in A minor by Antonin Dvořák and Symphony no. 3 by Ludwig van Beethoven.

Maestro Lubnan Balbaki was born in 1981 in Beirut and is the youngest regular conductor in the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra. Throughout his life, Balbaki was surrounded by artists from his immediate family: painters and musicians, who created the inspiring atmosphere that helped build his musical path.

Balbaki's musical journey began when he enrolled in violin lessons at the National Conservatory of Music of Lebanon, in Beirut, at the age of 12. A few years later he began his academic journey in undergraduate musicology studies at the University of the Holy Spirit in Kaslik (USEK). In 2009, he graduated from the Department of Orchestral Conducting at the Academy of Music "Gheorghe Dima", under the mentorship of maestro Petre Šbarcea in the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca, with an emphasis on studying the Department of Composition with Shego Peter.

Balbaki received his master's degree in 2011 at the Orchestral Conducting Department of the National University of Music in Bucharest, under the mentorship of Dr. Horia Andreescu. In 2017, he started his doctoral studies, where the topic of his research was "The psychological relationship between the conductor and the orchestra" under the mentorship of Dr. Dan Dieu.

Between 2018 and 2019, Lubnan Balbaki obtained another degree in orchestral conducting at the University of Music and Arts in Vienna (Austria), with Professor Johannes Wildner as his mentor. In parallel with his studies, he participated in several master classes in orchestral conducting with famous European conductors, such as Kurt Mazur, Colin Mathers, Konrad von Abel and Christian Badea.

In 2013, he was appointed the regular conductor of the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra and founded the National Youth Orchestra. Since starting his musical career, Balbaki has worked as a musical advisor and chief conductor with Majida el Rumi and Marcel Khalife. In 2016, he was awarded by the Lebanese Ministry of Culture, for his exceptional contribution to the artistic and cultural scene in Lebanon.

Croatian cellist Monika Leskovar (Kreuztal, Germany, 1981) started playing the cello at the age of six in the class of Dobrila Berković Magdalenic, in Zagreb. At age 13, she came to public attention when she won first prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Sendai, Japan, in 1995. In Zagreb, she was also a student of Walter Despalj, before continuing her studies in Germany, where she received a diploma and completed postgraduate studies in the class of David Geringas at the "Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler" in Berlin. In 2006, she became his assistant at the same school.

Monika Leskovar attended master classes with Mstislav Rostropovich and Bernard Greenhouse. She was the winner of many international competitions, such as ARD in Munich (2001), "Mstislav Rostropovich" in Paris, "Roberto Caruana" in Milan (1999) and "Adam" in New Zealand (2003).

As a soloist, she performed with important orchestras, under the baton of Valery Gergiev, Thomas Hengelbrock, Krzysztof Penderecki..., and is a frequent guest at prestigious festivals around the world. Leskovar regularly performs in chamber projects, collaborating with international artists, including Ivana Schwartz Genda, Boris Berezovsky, Sofia Gubaydulina, Yuri Bashmet, Julian Rachlin, Stefan Milenkovic, Misha Majski, Itamar Golan, Gidon Kremer, Mario Brunello, Patti Smith, Yanin Jansen and others.

In the 2010/2011 season, she was first cellist in the Munich Philharmonic. Since 2012 he has been teaching at the "Zvitsera Italiana" Conservatory in Lugano, and since 2017 he has been an assistant professor at the Music Academy at the University of Zagreb.

He plays a cello made by the Italian master Mantegasse from 1765, on loan from the Kronberg Academy. She also plays a cello by the Neapolitan master Vincenzo Postiglione from 1884, which was entrusted to her for use by the City of Zagreb and the Zagreb Philharmonic.