He took his first organ lessons at Vatroslav Lisinski School of Music in Zagreb where he studied with Jasna Šumak-Picek. Following high school, he studied organ at Zagreb Music Academy with Mario Penzar and at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz with Ulrich Walther. Ivan won First Prize in the Croatian Organ Student Competition in 2009, and Second Prize and Audience Prize in the University of Michigan Organ Improvisation Competition in 2016, and First Prize and Audience Prize in the American Guild of Organists’ National Competition in Organ Improvisation in 2021. He has appeared in several organ festivals, both in Croatia and abroad (Požega Cathedral, Zagreb Cathedral, Loretto, Graz, Pecs, Berlin). He has collaborated with the Croatian Military Symphony Orchestra and the Croatian Radiotelevision Symphony Orchestra. As a church musician, he served in Croatia as organist at St. Peter’s Church in Zagreb and at St. Mary’s Church in Zaprešić, and in Rochester, New York at St. Boniface Church, and at St. John the Evangelist Church in Spencerport, New York.

Education

• D.M.A./M.M., Eastman School of Music
• M.M., University of Zagreb, Croatia