Conductor Premil Petrovic has been awarded the City of Belgrade Prize for the best music performance in 2012, i.e. for his concert with the No Borders Orchestra at the Opening of the 44th Belgrade Music Festival BEMUS. The concert was produced by Jugokoncert. The prize shall be presented to Premil on 16 October at the Belgrade City Hall. Premil Petrovic first gained prominence in his home country in 1996, when he founded a music theater group at the Cinema Rex in Belgrade. His participation in radical productions of high artistic quality such as Don Giovanni (produced by Jugokoncert for BITEF, 2008), Le nozze di Figaro (National Theatre Belgrade, 2010) as well his interpretation of new works by the composer Isidora Žebeljan at the BEMUS Festival, Music Biennale Zagreb, Bregenz Festival and most recently at the Settimana Muscale Senese in Siena brought him critical acclaim at home and abroad. In 2011 a production of Pierrot Lunaire at Hebbel-am-Ufer, a collaboration with the controversial film and theater-maker Bruce La Bruce, played to sold-out houses. Petrovic has conducted the Berlin Symphoniker, Belgrade Philharomic Orchestra, RTS Symphony Orchestra, St. George Strings and Žebeljan Orchestra. Petrovic has participated in numerous recordings with various ensembles. His most recent CD features the Brodsky Quartet and Stefan Dohr. Petrovic also has a strong interest in early music and historic interpretation and works regularly with the Portugese ensemble Divino Sospiro. “The work of the young Serbian conductor Premil Petrovic extends beyond the pursuit of clear and persuasive artistic interpretations and musical excellence. His choice of artistic path reflects a very particular social and political frame of mind, strongly influenced by his own personal background,” states curator Laura Berman on her website. The No Borders Orchestra (NBO) is a collaborative project launched by a group of well established festivals and music institutions operating within the borders of the former Yugoslavian countries. Following the idea of Premil Petrovic, conductor and artistic director of NBO, to establish a cross-border Symphonic Orchestra, in 2010 the BEMUS Festival and Jugokoncert took over the responsibility for further development, promotion and production of the project. Besides having an artistic importance, the project has a strong educational and social significance. The Orchestra unites some 50 brilliant musicians from almost all music centres in the region: Belgrade, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Sarajevo, Skopje, Priština and Novi Sad.