The Croatian-born Baroque violinist
Bojan Čičić has performed and recorded as a soloist, collaborated with several important early music ensembles in Britain and elsewhere, and led his own specialist group, the
Illyria Consort.
Čičić also plays the viola d'amore and a modern violin on occasion.
Čičić was born in Zagreb, then part of Yugoslavia, in 1979. He attended the Zagreb Academy of Music, studying modern violin, and went on to the Paris Conservatory and earned a postgraduate degree in 2005. He then moved to England for studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, earning a master's degree there in 2006. It was at this time that
Čičić switched primarily to Baroque violin; his teacher at Guildhall was the noted British historical-instrument player
Rachel Podger. Soon after graduating,
Čičić began to find places in various Baroque ensembles in Britain and beyond. He performed with
Les Talens Lyriques, the
Academy of Ancient Music, and the
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
Čičić also conducted a performance of
Purcell's Dido and Aeneas at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in France. Increasingly, he has been featured as a leader and as a soloist in music with solo parts, performing with the
European Union Baroque Orchestra,
Florilegium, and the Arcangelo Consort, among others. With his own
Illyria Consort,
Čičić has specialized in lesser-known music of the Baroque era from the Habsburg Empire and the Venetian Republic, recording concertos by Giovanni Stefano Carbonelli and Giovanni Giornovich. As a soloist, he became known to recording buyers through
a duo recording, with
Podger, of music by
Bach for two violins and orchestra.
Čičić led the
Academy of Ancient Music, backing and duetting with Dutch recorder prodigy
Lucie Horsch, on the 2019 recording
Baroque Journey, and that year he was named leader of the
Academy of Ancient Music.
Čičić is professor of Baroque violin at the Royal College of Music in London.