Montenegro Festival Orchestra

The Montenegro Festival Orchestra (Montenegro Festival Orchestra Foundation) is an initiative that brings together young, professionally trained musicians united by a shared vision of contributing to the cultural life and sense of community in Montenegro through their knowledge, talent, and dedication. They pursue and develop their education and professional experience both in Montenegro and abroad, including in Germany, Austria, England, the Netherlands, Serbia, Italy, and other countries. The orchestra provides a space for meeting, collaboration, and artistic creation, where individual potential is transformed into collective strength. Through music, the nurturing of cultural values, and the connection of young artists, the orchestra seeks to contribute to the creation of an open and contemporary cultural space in Montenegro.

Since its establishment in 2024, the orchestra has attracted significant attention from both audiences and the professional community through performances at the KotorArt, Tivat Music Festival, Wild Beauty Art, and Operosa Opera Festival. Throughout its work to date, the orchestra has collaborated with numerous distinguished international and regional artists, including Gilles Apap, Nir Kabaretti, Benjamin Bliss, Nina van Essen, musicians from the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Santa Barbara Symphony Orchestra, Mladen Tarbuk, and others.

An important part of the orchestra’s artistic work is its collaboration with Perper, Montenegro’s most renowned and longest-standing pop-rock band. Through this collaboration, the orchestra demonstrated its ability to reinterpret iconic Montenegrin popular music within a symphonic soundscape. The project highlighted the MFO’s openness to different musical genres and its ability to present contemporary and popular repertoire through an orchestral expression. In addition, the orchestra has successfully collaborated with Croatian singer Vanna, further confirming its openness to the regional music scene and to diverse musical styles.

The orchestra’s collaboration with Miloš Karadaglić, the world-renowned Montenegrin classical guitarist who lives and works in London, is particularly noteworthy. In September 2025, the MFO String Quintet performed with Karadaglić, establishing a significant artistic collaboration with one of Montenegro’s most prominent global cultural ambassadors.

The orchestra was granted a special honour by the President of Montenegro, Jakov Milatović, who selected the Montenegro Festival Orchestra to represent the country at the EU–Western Balkans Summit, held on 4 June 2026 on Mount Lovćen. In an evening that will remain etched in the history of Montenegro, the orchestra performed before the highest-ranking officials of the European Union and the Western Balkans, including Ursula von der Leyen, António Costa, Emmanuel Macron, Jakov Milatović, Milojko Spajić, Kristen Michal, Micheál Martin, Luís Montenegro, Andrej Babiš, and numerous other high-ranking officials.

The young artists, brought together by friendships that date back to childhood, are driven by a shared desire to persistently introduce new ideas, remain innovative, and develop their own musical identity founded on trust and a shared artistic enthusiasm.

Through this artistic vision, they seek to contribute to the development and promotion of Montenegro’s cultural identity, creating a space for new ideas and artistic creation.