Cellist Irena Josifoska Named as Recipient of 2025 Villa Musica Star Award

Selected from a pool of around 80 candidates, Josifoska will receive €5,000

The Villa Musica Star Award, which carries a cash prize of €5,000, is awarded each year to a scholarship holder of the State Foundation Villa Musica, in the German state of Rheinland-Pflalz. Around 80 young professional musicians hold scholarships with the organization across Berlin, Brussels, Prague, and other destinations.

In 2025, the prize was given to the Serbian cellist Irena Josifoska. She is presently studying for the prestigious Konzertexamen certificate with Jens-Peter Maintz in Berlin, and has been a participant in Villa Musica’s chamber music projects since 2022.

Josifoska has been the recipient of numerous honors, including the Prix Jean-Nicolas Firmenich for the best young cellist at the Verbier Festival. She was the winner of Berlin's Gabrielli Cello Competition, and in 2017, she was named as the youngest semifinalist of the Queen Elisabeth Competition.

Her other successes include being a laureate of the Dotzauer, Herann, Liezen, Jeunesses Musicales, Vienna, Manhattan, and Janigro competitions.

"Irena is an extremely agile and versatile musician," said Ervis Gega, the Artistic Director of Villa Musica. "She can adapt to any stylistic context: from Baroque performance practice to the soft, romantic tones of Schubert or Schumann, as well as the powerful, resonant sound of the sonata repertoire."

"She radiates a great deal of positive energy and embodies team spirit in the best sense of the word – for me, she is an ideal laureate of the Villa Musica Star Award."