"Must Hear: Maksim Mrvica" Top 5 Page for this destination Croatia Local Custom Tip by diocletianvs

It was only after he won four Porins (Croatian Grammies) that he became internationally famous - Sibenik born pianist Maksim Mrvica tries to attract young audiences to classical music by performing some of the classical pieces in a fresh way.

He was born in 1975, began piano lessons at 9 (giving his first public performance at the same age) and performed Haydn's C major piano concerto with an orchestra just 3 years later. War broke out in 1990, but both Maksim and his professor Marija Sekso were determined that he should continue his musical studies. "There were a thousand grenades a day in my town," he says, "but you can't just stop living - you must go on. And the only thing I could find to help me was my piano."

After five years at the Music Academy in Zagreb, Maksim spent a year at the Ferenc Liszt Conservatoire in Budapest. During this period (1999) he won first prize in the Nicolai Rubinstein International Piano Competition. In 2000 he moved to Paris to study with Igor Lazko, and in 2001 he gained first prize in the Pontoise Piano Competition held in the French capital.

Soon after he was spotted by producer Mel Bush and last year his album "The Piano Player" was released by EMI Classics.

Website: http://www.maksim.co.uk