Biography
Olivera Gočanin is a young aspiring soprano from Serbia.
She graduated from the Mokranjac Music High School in Belgrade in the class of Prof. Valentina Taškova in 2021 and is currently studying with Prof. Aneta Ilić at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. She also studies Italian at the Faculty of Philology, including Latin and Greek as elective courses.
Before enrolling at the university, she began her professional training in the Opera Studio of Opera and Theater Madlenianum. After completing her studies at the Studio, in 2019 she made an engagement with the Opera and Theater Madlenianum during which she sang one of the leading female roles, Elisetta in “Il matrimonio segreto” by D. Cimarosa and the Second Lady in W. A. Mozart's opera „Die Zauberflöte“.
In 2021 she was selected as a member of a two-year international comprehensive project "Opera: past, present, perfect!" supported by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. During the project Olivera sang the role of a Child in an award-winning opera "Nursery" by M. Živković, in the lead female role of Stanka from S. Binički's opera "At Dawn" and as Juliet Brook in "Let's Make an Opera!/The Little Sweep" by Benjamin Britten.
During the International music festival “Rossi fest” in 2021 and 2023, Olivera had the honor to participate in the masterclass of the Metropolitan Opera soprano Olga Makarina, Adi Bar Soria, Vlad Iftinca, and Ugo Mahieux. In 2024 she once again attended their masterclass, Cantofest, in Iasi, Romania, and won the first prize at the competition held during the masterclass.
She attended the masterclass of Prof. Michèle Crider at The Mozarteum University in Salzburg within the International Summer Academy, where she also had the opportunity to attend additional classes in language and Alexander Technique.
In 2022 during the Pehlivanian Opera Academy in Bled, Slovenia, she had the opportunity to debut in the roles of Micaëla and Frasquita from "Carmen" by G. Bizet in staged concert performances throughout Slovenia, performing the entire opera in more than ten performances.
In 2023 she attended the masterclass of maestro Srboljub Dinić, the General Music Director of the Staatstheater Braunschweig.
She won many awards participating in the international singing competitions, including first prizes at "CORSICA LIRICA", "CANTOFEST" “Rossi fest Mozart competition”, “Nikola Cvejić”, “Lazar Jovanović” as well as first prizes at the national competitions such as “Serbian Solo Song”, “Mita Topalović”, National Singing Competition UMBPS etc.
Olivera is also an experienced concert performer, having sung in all the eminent halls of Serbia, including the National Theater in Belgrade and the Kolarac Endowment. In 2022 she held her first solo concert opening the „Lazar Jovanović“ International Competition.
In 2024, Olivera was accepted in an Opera Studio in Novi Sad, where she is currently working on her first National Theatre debut in "Le Nozze di Figaro" as Susanna.