Biography
Radovan Cavallin was born in Zagreb in 1969 and received his elementary and secondary musical education at the Pavle Markovac Music School. At thirteen he entered the Academy of Music of Zagreb University — the youngest student admitted up to that point — and took his diploma with distinction four years later, in 1986, in Josip Nochta’s class. That same year he won a place at the Paris National Superior Conservatory of Music among 76 candidates, where he earned a unanimous first prize (Premier prix) for chamber music in the class of Christian Lardé (1988) and a unanimous Premier prix for clarinet in the class of Guy Deplus (1989). His studies were supported by the Ivo Pogorelich grant (1986), the Nadia and Lily Boulanger grant (1987) and scholarships of the French government (1988, 1989). His teachers include Petar Fabijanić, Josip Nochta, Guy Deplus and Guy Dangain.
He took first prize at the national clarinet competitions of former Yugoslavia in 1981, 1983, 1985 and 1986, first prize at the Ancona international clarinet competition (1984) and second prize at the “Ciudad de Dos Hermanas” international competition in Seville (1995). His Croatian distinctions include the “Darko Lukić” award, the prize of the Vjesnik music critics (1985), the Zagreb Academy’s “Dragan Gürtl” award for its most outstanding clarinet student and performer (1986), the award of the Union of Universities of Zagreb for its youngest and most outstanding clarinet student (1986), the “Seven Secretaries of SKOJ” award and the award of the Croatian Music Institute.
He has given more than 400 solo concerts across Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Italy, France, Japan, Belgium, Portugal, Germany, Spain, Colombia and the former Czechoslovakia. As soloist he has appeared with the Warsaw Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Gottwaldov, the symphony orchestra of the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, the Zagreb Soloists, the Zagreb Radio-Television Symphony Orchestra, the Zagreb Philharmonic, the Zagreb Chamber Orchestra, the Belgrade Symphony Orchestra, the Niš Philharmonic, the Gran Canaria Philharmonic and Symphony orchestras, the French-Belgian Orchestra of Brussels and the Extremadura Philharmonic, under conductors including Rostropovich, Jurowski, Rozhdestvensky, López-Cobos, Herbig, Frühbeck de Burgos, Gianandrea Noseda and Norman del Mar. Festival appearances include Ferrara, Dubrovnik, Bad Hersfeld, Granada, Lisbon and Clarinetissimo in Brussels; his recordings appear on Croatia Records, Jugoton, Agrup Arte Producciones, Maguelone (sponsored by Selmer Paris), Cristal Records, ASV, Summit Records and Arte Nova BMG, alongside Croatian, French and Spanish radio productions.
Since 1989 he has been solo clarinettist of the Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra and professor at its orchestral academy, and from 2002 to 2010 he taught clarinet at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Canarias in Las Palmas. A founding member of Cuarteto Atlántida, Trío Spohr, Cuarteto Reinecke, Ensemble Isola and Alisios Camerata, he has led master classes in Zagreb, Milna on Brač, Grožnjan and Opatija, at the Royal Conservatoire in Brussels, the national clarinet congress in Lisbon, the Royal Superior Conservatory in Madrid, the conservatory in Murcia, the municipal band of Albacete, in Ávila, Quintanar de la Orden (Toledo), Arrecife, Arucas, Firgas and Las Palmas, and in Ibagué, Colombia. He served on the jury of the 1st through 4th “Julian Menendez” international clarinet competitions in Ávila. A Backun, Selmer and Rico artist, he performs on a Backun Moba Arabesque mouthpiece with Backun barrels and bells, a Selmer Privilège clarinet and Rico Reserve Classic reeds.