Vladimir Šimunov

Vladimir Šimunov (Zagreb, 1986) is a Croatian guitarist and classical guitar teacher.
He began his musical education at the Ferdo Livadić Music School in Samobor, where he studied guitar under the guidance of Michael Imbert and Vesna Faullend Heferer, and graduated in the class of Ivana Trogrlić Mandić. He continued his studies of classical guitar at the Academy of Music, University of Zagreb, in the class of Prof. István Römer, where he received his master’s degree in 2012.

During his education, he improved his skills at seminars and master classes of renowned guitarists and pedagogues such as Xhevdet Sahatxhija, Zoran Dukić, Carlo Marchione, Mario Nardelli, Carlo Marchione and Aniello Desiderio. He participated in numerous domestic and international guitar competitions, among which stand out the “Ivan Padovec” in Zagreb and the international competition “Enrico Mercatali” in Gorizia, Italy.

As a soloist and chamber musician, he has performed in Croatia and abroad, and his participation in the international classical music festival in Corsica, where he represented the Zagreb Academy of Music, is particularly noteworthy. He has collaborated with numerous chamber ensembles, string ensembles and vocal ensembles, including the Samobor Strings and the Cesarica a cappella group, winner of the Porin award.

In 2015, he founded the Samobor City Guitar Ensemble (GAGS), through which he actively promoted chamber music and guitar collaboration among young musicians. As a conductor and leader of the Youngmasters guitar orchestra, he participated in the Youngmasters festival in 2016 and 2017.

Today, he works as a guitar professor at the Pavle Belas Music School in Brdovac and the Bonar Private Music School in Zagreb. His students regularly achieve notable results at regional, national and international competitions. As a member of professional juries, he participates in guitar competitions and festivals, including the Pula Guitar Festival and the Zagreb Guitar Festival.