Unison World was started in co-operation with an international team of experts who use their knowledge and experience in order to help develop music access, its integration into society and the full application and use of its potential for the benefit of the community.

Unison World is headquartered in Dubrovnik, where it was started by tenor Stijepo Gleđ Markos and his wife Jelena who have started working with vulnerable groups of societies during his vocational training in London where they recognized the benefits of music therapy. It was then that they started collaboration with world experts in the area of ​​music rehabilitation and with mentoring of prof. Nigel Osborne, one of the world's leading music therapists; they have decided to make this approach available in their home country.

They started international cultural education-rehabilitation festival Sentimento with the aim to use music for the rehabilitation of vulnerable groups of society, thus enabling their integration into the community where they contribute and interact as artists with the help of music therapists, while composing music pieces performed by world renowned musicians.

As a result of the Festival Sentimento we have started a yearlong music rehabilitation programme- Sentimento still remains the festival where we allow our users to demonstrate their creativity.

Our team of experts comes from various sectors, important to maintain a successful organization and provide quality service to our customers. We have experts in the field of music industry, health, law, finance, communications, management, and spiritual counselling.

 

MENTOR

 

prof. Nigel Osborne, mentor of the Unison World project is a composer, musician, humanitarian and the world’s leading music pedagogue who has received numerous awards for his scientific and educational achievements in music therapy.

His compositions have been performed by orchestras and ensembles around the world, ranging from the Vienna Philharmonic to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and from the Moscow Symphony to the BBC Symphony and City of London Symphony. He has worked in particular in opera, music theatre and theatre, including productions for example for The Royal Opera House, English National Opera, Scottish Opera, the Hebbel Theatre Berlin, Wuppertal and the National Theatre Sarajevo.

Nigel has also worked throughout the world of education, ranging from nursery and special education to postdoctoral studies. He was Reid Professor and Dean of Music at the University of Edinburgh, and holds many visiting positions, including at the University of Rijeka, Peking University, and the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function in the Bronx, NY.

He has pioneered approaches to using music to help children who are victims of war, and is active in the Balkan region, Chechnya, Israel/Palestine, East Africa, India, Afghanistan, and Lebanon/Syria. He has been awarded the Opera Prize of Radio Suisse Romande, the Netherlands Gaudeamus prize and the Koussevitzky Award of the Library of Congress Washington for his work as a composer, the Queen’s Prize and Music Industry Award for his work in education, and an MBE and the Freedom Prize of the Peace Institute Sarajevo for his humanitarian work.

 

DIRECTORS

 

Stijepo Gled Markos, the founder and initiator of the UNISON World project and the Festival Sentimento is an internationally acclaimed Croatian tenor from Dubrovnik, who launched this unique international project for the benefit of vulnerable groups of society, together with his wife Jelena, musician and communication specialist.

 

As a musician he has a successful musical career which started in theatre where he gained considerable experience and achieved great success, through major roles in musicals. After over a hundred performances as a member of the Marin Drzic Theatre in Dubrovnik, he continues to co-operate with the Theatre Komedija from Zagreb. His music education begins under the guidance of the great opera tenor and vocal pedagogue, Stojan Stojanov Gancev.

He has also made significant achievements in entertainment industry with numerous solo performances and first awards at major music festivals, such as the Grand Prix "Zagreb Fest", "Songs of the Mediterranean", "Sibenska kancone" and many others. A major breakthrough in his international career was in 2012, when he was elected for the main role of Mario Cavaradossi in the opera "Tosca" in London. His powerful stage appearance and ringing voice was recognized by the Royal Opera House, with whose recommendation he won a British music scholarship and continued further education with one of the most famous British tenors, prof. Ryland Davies, world-famous vocal pedagogue and professor at the Royal Academy of Music.

In 2014 he started international cultural “Festival Sentimento” with the aim to use music for rehabilitation of vulnerable groups while each year he hosts world renowned musicians. Unison World is the name of his music education and rehabilitation project in which the benefits of music are brought to the most vulnerable groups of society.

 

Jelena Duras Gled works as a music therapist and project manager at Unison World. As a musician, composer and master of communications science, her professional knowledge in the field of music and communication skilfully combines with those who communicate the best through music. As an advisor for the Minister of Social Policy and Youth she has focused on vulnerable groups of society participating in the implementation of numerous social inclusion projects. She has over fifteen years of experience in the organization and production of numerous music and cultural events in Croatia and abroad, in which she successfully includes people who are placed on the margins of society. In her creative music expression she deals with social themes focusing on the message that will remain visible for the benefit of the society.