About us - Ubuntu Guitarfest

The Association of Guitarists 102 strings

The Association of guitarists “102 strings” gathers guitarists, teachers and professors of guitar. It was founded in 2015 in Banja Luka.
The Association promotes artistic music through concert, pedagogical and scientific activities, contributes to the diversity of the cultural and artistic offer, and provides professional training for all guitar students, as well as professional guitarists.
It arose from the activities of the Orchestra “102 Guitar Strings”, which gathered guitarists from Bihać, Prijedor and Banja Luka. The Orchestra’s first concert was held in Bihać, June 2014, and then in Prijedor and Banja Luka. During the next three years, several concert projects were realized throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. The last concert was held at the Sarajevo International Guitar Festival, in April 2017. After that, the Association also implemented a culture decentralization project called Musical Journey, which was conducted by the guitar trio Volante. The project was supported by the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Srpska, and consisted of six concerts and master workshops with young guitarists. Also, organized by the association, an exhibition of the young artist Milena Jandrić was held at the Kozara Museum in Prijedor.

The main project of the Association is the Ubuntu Guitarfest, which has been held in Banja Luka since 2019.
The festival is supported by the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Srpska and the City of Banja Luka.

Ubuntu Guitarfest

Classical guitar festival, concerts, masterclasses, lectures, presentation of instruments and competitions of young guitarists

Ubuntu Guitarfest is a unique event that promotes the guitar sound. As such, it is intended for a wide audience and top guitarists, and pedagogues and their pupils and students, as well as guitar builders.

Ubuntu is a word of African origin that represents a philosophy of life in which togetherness is the basis for the life progress of each individual and society as a whole. No man can be fulfilled living alone, separated from the community. It is realized and thrives only in society. When one makes the life of the community better with his work, his life also becomes better.

The festival shares the same vision. Here, during three days, people from the guitar world meet and, by cooperating, influence each other and the audience, thus making our community a better place to be.

Members of the Association and the Organizing Board of Ubuntu Guitarfest

Nataša Jokić

Nataša Jokić attended guitar studies at the Academy of Arts in Banja Luka, where she graduated in 2006 in the class of Zoran Krajišnik. She perfected at master classes with Rafael Andia, Jacob Lynberg, Pavel Steidl, Lars Trier, Ann Wallstrom, David Pavlovits and others. She enrolled in her master's studies in 2008. at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Stockholm, where she completed the studies in 2010 in the class of Professor Peter Berlind Carlson.
During her education, she won numerous first prizes at republic and federal student competitions. Her artistic activity includes a large number of solo recitals and concerts in Bosnia and abroad (Sweden, Norway, Germany, France, Italy, etc.). She was also active as a chamber musician in ensembles guitar-flute, guitar-cello, guitar-voice.
She is one of the founders and a member of the orchestra "102 guitar strings" with which she realized a number of projects throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. With the trio "Volante" she held a series of concerts as part of the cultural decentralization project, and she actively performs with Sunčica Trkulja Šušnjar in duo "La Luz". She is a member of the Musicological Society of the Republic of Srpska, president of the Association of Guitarists "102 Strings" and one of organizer of "Ubuntu" Guitarfest.
From 2006 to 2010, she worked as an assistant at the Guitar Department Academy of Arts in Banja Luka, and she was hired as an assistant at the Guitar Department of the Faculty of Music academy in East Sarajevo.
She is a guitar professor at the Academy of Arts of the University of Banja Luka.

Violeta Lučić

Violeta Lučić completed basic and specialist academic studies in guitar at the Faculty of Music of arts in Belgrade in the class of prof. Vera Ogrizović. During her education, she improved at the master's level courses with renowned professors: Dušan Bogdanović, Vojislav Ivanović, Aniello Desiderio. In 2002 and 2003 she participated in the 1st and 2nd Balkan Art festival held in Italy (Rome, Milan, Turin), where she performed solo concerts, and the following year she performed in a chamber duo (guitar-flute).
In the period from 2003-2022. she achieves notable concerts in various chamber ensembles (flute, violin, piano, guitar trio, guitar quintet) in Banja Luka, Prijedor, Gradiška, Doboj, Teslić, Smederevo, Belgrade, Bihać - cultural manifestation "Bišća Street", in Sarajevo - 2009 and 2014 "Sarajevo Winter" festival. During 2019, she performed a series of concerts with the guitar trio "Volante" as part of the "Musical journey" project. Since 2014, she has been an active member of the "102 Guitar Strings" orchestra.
Her students won many prizes at national and international competitions. She is also an active jury member of national and international competitions, lecturer at guitar seminars and festivals. She participated in the development of a new plan and program for the Secondary School. She is a guitar professor at the "Vlado Milošević" Music School in Banja Luka, secretary of the Association of Guitarists "102 strings" and one of the organizers of the "Ubuntu" Guitarfest.

Sunčica Trkulja Šušnjar

Sunčica Trkulja Šušnjar completed her bachelor guitar studies at the Academy of Arts of the University of Banja Luka in the classes of Prof. Zoran Krajišnik and Srđan Tošić.
She is a participant of many guitar festivals in the region where she perfected at the masterclasses of the world's leading guitarists such as: Aniello Desiderio, Paolo Pegoraro, Sante Tursi, Pavel Steidl, Hubert Käppel, Ricardo Gallen, Marcin Dylla, Roberto Aussel, Alvaro Pierri, Gaëlle Solal, Zoran Dukić, Xuefei Yang, Petrit Çeku and others. During her musical education, she performed throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina as a soloist and chamber musician in guitar ensembles (duo, trio, quartet, sextet and octet), and in guitar-flute, guitar-violin, guitar-voice ensembles, guitar-jazz piano trio.
Her most significant performance was in 2013 at Banski dvor Cultural center when she performed "Concierto del Sur" for guitar and orchestra by Mexican composer M. M. Ponce, conducted by Branka Radošević-Mitrović.
She was a member of the "102 Guitar Strings" orchestra, with which she realized a number of projects around the country. She actively performs in the duo "La Luz" and trio "Volante" with Nataša Jokić and Violeta Lučić. She has been employed as a guitar teacher at the "Savo Balaban" Music School in Prijedor since 2009. Her students achieved notable results at numerous competitions in Bosnia and Serbia. She is the vice president of the Association of Guitarists "102 Strings" and one of the organizers of the "Ubuntu" Guitarfest.