Slavko Popovic joined the Calgary Philharmonic as their Principal Clarinetist in June 2018 at the age of 22.
Popovic is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music. While at Curtis, he had participated on two tours – a woodwind quintet tour of the United States and South America, and an orchestra tour of Europe. At Curtis he studied with Donald Montanaro, Ricardo Morales, Michael Rusinek, and Anthony McGill. He has performed with Michael Rusinek, Daniel Matuskawa (Bassoon), Jennifer Montone (Horn), Peter Serkin, Jennifer Koh, and Roberto Diaz, to name a few. Prior to entering Curtis, Popovic studied with Joseph Orlowski, Stephen Pierre, and Ross Edwards – with additional study with Kimball Sykes and Joaquin Valdepeñas.
He has performed as an extra clarinetist with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Princeton Symphony, Harrisburg Symphony, and Orchestra 2001. He has toured with both the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, and the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra – the latter of which he was featured as soloist in Weber’s Clarinet Concerto No 1. Popovic has also performed as soloist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra playing Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, Oakville Symphony, Symphony Hamilton, and the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra.
Popovic has attended music festivals such as the AIMS festival in Graz, Austria, National Orchestra Institute, International Music Academy in Mezzano, Italy, Manchester Music Festival, and for last four years has been part of the Lake George Festival in Lake George, NY. His Lake George performance of the Brahms Clarinet Trio was broadcast on “Performance Today” with Fred Child as the host. His various other chamber music performances have been broadcast on “WHYY” in Philadelphia.
When he isn’t practicing or performing, Popovic enjoys spending time with friends and family, and keeping fit by going on long bike rides, and swimming.