Author: Hana Tiro
Fuad Šetić is a conductor and accompanist from Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina). Šetić completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at the Sarajevo Music Academy, where he won two Golden Badges, and completed his Master's degree in Music Management in 2020 at the University of Westminster (London), as a part of Chevening Scholarship.
As a choir singer, orchestral player, accordion soloist, accompanist and conductor, he has performed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Turkey, Belgium and Austria. He made significant performances at the festivals Sonemus FEST, Sarajevo Winter, May Music Festival, Camp of Slovenian Choirs in Šentvid, International Festival of the Ivan Cankar Association in Vrhnika, Zenica Spring, etc.
As a conductor, he led the choirs of the Mixed Choir "Camerata Slovenica", Mixed Choir "Davorin Jenko", Female Choir "Slovenčice", "Kovači Sound Smiths" International Children's Choir, Chamber Mixed Choir "Lola", Youth Choir "Cantabile", and collaborated with orchestras such as the "Belg'harmonika" Accordion Orchestra, the Orchestra of Sarajevo Music Academy, the Mostar Sinfonietta Orchestra, Zenica Chamber Symphony Orchestra, and the Sarajevo Philharmonic. In July 2020, he was appointed a member of the jury at the International Orchestra Auditions Awards.
(Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra)
Fuad Šetić's interests are also focused on public interdisciplinary art projects that focus on the new role of art in contemporary society, as well as in creating space for young professional musicians. He is a member of the INSAM Institute for Contemporary Art Music.
Since April 2018, he has been the Art Director of the Festival of Classical Music "Orfej", and Vice President of Organizing Committee of the Festival, which cooperates with colleagues from East Sarajevo and Banja Luka in cooperation with the Association of Citizens for Maintaining Classical Music "Koral". The idea behind the Festival is to promote classical music, with the aim of spreading it to all strata of society.
Commenting on current youth activities, Šetić shares his thoughts on his blog, that hypothetical youth orchestra would be a multi-sided platform, which is defined as an organisation that creates value by enabling direct contact and interactions between two or more customer groups (Hagiu and Wright, 2015). This model would primarily be a version of a ‘talent incubator’ for young professionals at the beginning of their careers, but also an employment hub, dealing with the employment of musicians exclusively. Secondarily, it would work as a classical music provider service. Therefore, on one hand as ‘customers’ or ‘consumers’ we have the audience, and on the other hand we have other professional orchestras.
Šetić moved from theory to implantation, and made a first step by founding a youth orchestra in Sarajevo, with the help of few young enthusiasts. The orchestra already had its debut performance in 2019, but due to pandemic they had to pause their work. Future collaborations have already been booked, work is underway to solve the funding, and now they are just waiting for some happier and safer times to be able to create art together.
Debut performance of youth orchestra (2019)
Fuad Šetić currently lives and creates in Sarajevo, where he works as an art associate at the Department of Conducting at the Music Academy at the University of Sarajevo.