The only accordionist to have launched a solo career with an official debut, Mr. Petric’s recital at London’s St. John’s Smith Square “produced the kind of playing that would make audiences of all kinds sit up and listen” (The Independent). The recital was followed by invitations for solo appearances across the Classical concert hall at London’s Southbank, Bunka Kaikan Tokyo, IRCAM, and Wigmore Hall. His performance of Berio’s Accordion Sequenza in the Complete Sequenzas presentation on the occasion of Berio’s 75th birthday celebration at Seiji Ozawa Hall merited citations as a highlight performance in both the Boston Globe and New York Times, his performance of Schubert’s Winterreise at Wigmore Hall with tenor Christoph Prégardien cited by London critic Paul Reed for “…an extraordinary grasp of the accordion’s ability to sound like “breath from another planet” (Classical Source).
The dedicatee of 20 concertos, Mr. Petric’s premiere of the Koprowski Accordion Concerto with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra under Jukka Peka Saraste launched his concerto led career. Highlights include Brian Current’s Koussevitsky Foundation Accordion Concerto commission, a work of “…amazing climaxes, lyricism and Petric’s superb sense of rhythmic design” (Halifax Chronicle Herald), which he premiered with Symphony Nova Scotia. Mr. Petric’s extensive tours with Sweden’s Camerata Roman included performances of his 1996 Swedish Reikzkonzerter concerto commission by Gunnar Valkare at Kalmar Castle and his performance of the work at London's St. John’s Smith Square was cited for its “astonishing bravura...” (Musical Opinion). He has appeared as soloist with the l’Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, the London Symphony, the BBC Orchestra, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra, Vancouver CBC Orchestra, the Vancouver Symphony, and Montréal’s Novel Ensemble Moderne. He gave the American premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina’s Seven Words with conductor Hilel Kagan and strings of the Concertante di Chicago and Chicago Lyric Opera.
Mr. Petric's pedagogy advocates for curiosity, exploration and imagination as a portal to an embodied interpretative art. He has been a masterclass leader, lecturer and recitalist at London's Royal Academy of Music, the Amsterdam Conservatory, and Scandanavian, French, Polish, Scottish, Slovenian and German hochschules including Trossingen. Professor of graduate accordion performance at the Faculte de Musique, Universite de Montreal (Quebec), Mr. Petric has lectured, performed and juried at UBC, WLU, Dalhousie U., McGill-Schulich Music, UQUAM, Rimouski Conservatory and the University of Toronto.
The creation of electronic instruments with voltage control systems by Canadian Hugh LeCaine (1914-77) at Canada’s National Research Council in 1945 was driven by his vision that such instruments would be capable of the “beautiful sound and nuance” typical of the orchestral tradition. It was an ideal that Mr. Petric merged with the liminal stereophonic breath of the accordion for contemporary audiences. Mr. Petric's collaborations with the Canadian Electronic Ensemble (CEE) and Québec’s Association pour la Création et la Recherche Electroacoustiques du Québec (ACREQ) continue to deliver a unique genre for solo accordion with CD or WAVEfile playback, live processing, digital delay, CX5M computers, MAC software processing, AI, video and live software applications.
Mr Petric introduced his first electroacoustic commissions by composers Jaeger, Hatch, and Hatzis to Europe in his 1986 solo tour of Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, and Helsinki. His more than 80 international performances and a recording on the ConAccord label of Christos Hatzis’s Orbiting Garden were noted by writer Tiina Kiik: “Petric has an international following…his performance of Hatzis’s Orbiting Garden is a powerhouse explosion of florid musical rock star lines… impeccable control of sound shaping the performance between accordion and sound machines … the composers and soloist have created an accessible, culturally important aural experience…to be heard time and again.” (WholeNote)
Audience development through strategic creative outreach has been integral to Mr. Petric’s artistic vision. His concept of the 1991 Big Squeeze Accodion Festival in collaboration with Toronto Harbourfont's and the CBC's Two New Hours presented an inclusive array of 32 international artists with Pauline Oliveros, Flacko Jimminez and Queen Ida. The festival defied expectations in unique explorations with Mogens Ellegaard, Matti Rantanen and Pauline Oliveros improvising with the Canadian Electronic Ensemble as well as gender balance with artists Heidi Velamo, Mini Dekkers, Laurie Rosewarne, Daisy DeBolt and Tiina Kiik.
Other events directed by Mr. Petric included CBC’s Virtuosi Series at Glenn Gould Studio, his SRC Carte Blanche live to air concert from Salle Pierre Mercure, Montréal; and a SRC Carte Blanche from Québec City.
In a signal contribution to the Canadian scene, Petric conceived the Complete Berio Sequenzas evening for the University of Toronto New Music Festival co-directed with cellist David Hetherington. Five hours in length, the concert featured narrations of Sanguinetti’s poetry before each Sequenza as directed by Berio, staging by Grahame Cozzubo, digitized lighting sequences for every Sequenza, and performances by Canada’s leading symphonic and solo artists.