Lovro Lisičić, General Manager, Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall
Five Stars Croatia Issue 2 — April 01, 2007.

How to present the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall, the favorite venue of Zagreb’s audience and the most significant Croatian multimedia and cultural center, to a less-informed reader? We could mention the names of the leading world orchestras and artists that have performed at the Hall in the past 34 years.

We often say that it is easier to name the great artists who have not performed at the Lisinski Hall than those who have. However, there is always room for new "trophies". The Milan La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra are only some of the great orchestras that have performed at the Hall in the past several years.

We could start by mentioning over 400 public performances annually (about one 100 of which are produced by the Hall or in cooperation with other organizations) that include in the first place the most famous Zagreb orchestras (the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra and the Croatian Radio Television Symphony Orchestra) and organizers (the Zagreb Concert Direction, the Croatian Musical Youth, and private agencies).

Music is the main yet not the only segment of our activity. The Lisinski Hall is a venue for presenting stage performances, film projections and art exhibitions, as well as organizing literary evenings, festivals and other events, international art competitions, congresses, other large-scale gatherings, industrial presentations etc. The excellence criterion is the common denominator of all of the afore-mentioned productions, as diverse as they may seem.

The third possible way is to mention the statistical record of over 400,000 visitors a year, which means that the total number of visitors has by far exceeded ten million. No sociological visitor surveys have been carried out recently, but we can safely say that the visitors include citizens of all ages, with different life experiences and from various classes, i.e. from the President of the Republic of Croatia, Mayor of Zagreb, diplomats and economists, to students from entire Croatia coming to see a concert performance by the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra organized by the Croatian Musical Youth.

The most important thing is that they all feel great not only inside the Hall (one of the 5 best acoustically equipped halls in Europe), but also in the lobbies and other spaces simply but impressively designed by architect Marijan Haberle. I remember the words of the first Turkish ambassador to Croatia, Mr. Soylemez, expressed on the occasion of his farewell reception: "The Lisinski Hall was our second home in Zagreb".

As the fourth, however no less important criterion, we should mention that the Lisinski Hall refers in the first place to the palace and its people. While other, no less important entities change, the employees remain. Through their diligence, expertise, professional behavior and love for the Hall, they create its image and help the Lisinski Hall find its place on the cultural map of the major cities of Europe.

It is not a mere coincidence that 28 employees have stayed with the Hall for the past 20 years (three of whom have worked at the Hall since the date of its establishment), or that the institution has changed only two general managers so far (the first was the legendary Ivo Vuljević, and since 1986 the Hall has been managed by Lovro Lisičić). It was exactly this that has made it possible for the Hall to unquestionably prove itself a place of harmonious bonding, cooperation and creative accomplishments of various entities at various levels.

Again, maybe we could mention some of the attributes ascribed by the people of Zagreb to the Hall instead of using the above-mentioned and other possible criteria to describe the Palace's identity: a center of excellence, a measure of good taste, a place of co-existence between fur-coat and jeans wearers, a symbol of contemporary Zagreb, and similar.

What to single out as the core experiences after more than three decades of intensive and acknowledged activity? Firstly, the investment of the City of Zagreb (and due to frequent doubts, it is necessary to emphasize once again that the Palace was built exclusively using the funds of the citizens of Zagreb) has been justified in all respects. The Lisinski Hall has completely integrated with its cultural and social environment. The Hall has a two-fold nature: it both satisfies and generates human needs. Not only the needs closely related to culture, but a wide range of needs relating to the so-called industrial culture, tourism and other economic aspects.

Secondly, the program concept for the Lisinski Hall as a multi-functional cultural center at the European level and an important entity of the cultural policy in Zagreb has been fully realized. Therefore, at the beginning of the 21st century we could say that a successful formula is a combination of the affirmed values and the new ideas and incentives aimed at attracting a new, primarily younger audience. It is exactly in this regard that we expect cooperation and interference from the leading Croatian economic entities.