One of the leading instrumentalists of his generation, Radovan Vlatković has travelled the globe performing extensively as a soloist and popularizing the horn as recording artist and teacher.
Born in Zagreb in 1962 he completed his studies in his home town and in Detmold with Michael Höltzel. He won first prizes in national and international competitions, including the Premio Ancona in 1979 and the ARD Competition in Munich in 1983.
From 1982 until 1990 he served as Principal Horn with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin (now Deutsches Symphonie Orchester) under Maestros Riccardo Chailly and Vladimir Ashkenazy. In order to dedicate himself to a solo career he left the orchestra in 1990 and has since appeared as soloist with countless symphony and chamber orchestras wordwide as well as a guest at chamber music festivals.
At the present time he teaches at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, at the “Queen Sofia” School in Madrid and is also Professor at the Zurich University of Arts as well as being an International Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London and visiting faculty at the Juilliard School in New York.
From 2000 – 2003 he has been Artistic Director of the September Chamber Music Festival in Maribor, Slovenia.
During more than twenty years he has been a member of “Les Vents Français” whom he performed with on numerous tours as well as recorded exclusively for EMI/Warner Classics.
Radovan Vlatković has participated in first performances of works by Elliott Carter, Sofia Gubaidulina, Heinz Holliger and several Croatian composers who dedicated works to him. In May 2008 he premiered the Horn Concerto written for him by Krzysztof Penderecki together with the Bremen Philharmonic and the composer conducting.
Radovan Vlatković has received the German Critics Award for several of his discs as well as the Echo Klassik and Ongaku no Tomo Record Academy Grand Prize.
His numerous recordings including chamber music have been issued by EMI, DECCA, Warner, Philips, Deutsche Grammophon, Teldec, Dabringhaus & Grimm and Denon labels.
In 2014 Vlatković was awarded an Honorary Membership of the Royal Academy of Music (Hon RAM), an honour bestowed upon only 300 distinguished musicians worldwide.
In recent years he has taken up conducting appearing as soloist/leader.
During the 2022/23 season he was Artist-in-Residence with the Munich Radio Orchestra, a position he previously occupied with the Bremen Philharmonic in Germany and the Verdi Orchestra in Milano, Italy.
Radovan Vlatković plays a full double horn Model 20 M by Paxman of London and BRIZ French Horns made in Tianjin, China.