User talk:Sasha.toperich

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Editing, Saša Toperić
Hello. I see you recently put in a request to edit this page, which was not accepted. This partially due to the fact that the history of Saša Toperić had someone with a particular axe to grind against the subject (i.e., you), so we're a little bit cautious with the article.

For now, if you want to make any changes, feel free to post at Talk:Saša Toperić along with the EditProtected template. If that's too complicated (which is completely understandable), just place helpme on this page and ask and someone should be able to fix it for you.

I hope this isn't too much process and we're not scaring you off. We're very open to concerns about people editing their own articles, whether for reasons they shouldn't be (e.g.., giving themselves press) or for reasons they should be (e.g., removing defamation).

Cheers. Magog the Ogre (talk) 10:53, 1 November 2011 (UTC)

Here is my updated biography

Saša Toperić
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Saša Toperić, also written as Sasha Toperich (born 1972) is a Bosnian Israeli concert pianist, diplomat, and human rights advocate.[1]

Concert Pianist
Toperich, born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, began playing piano at the age of four. During his years of study, he won first prize at the piano students competition in Dubrovnik, and scholarships from the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the American-Israel Cultural Foundation, and the Open Society Institute.[2] He moved to Jerusalem at the age of 21 in the early 1990s, and served in the Israeli Army.[3][4] He did his formal training at the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance in Jerusalem, where he received his M.A. in piano, studying under Meira Smailovic, Arbo Valdma, and Irina Berkovich.[2][5] He earned his doctoral degree at the Music Academy in Lovran, Croatia, where he studied with Marina Ambokadze.[5] His performances have been broadcast on radio and television programs in France, Austria, Israel, Brazil, the United States, Japan, China, South Korea, Belgium, The Netherlands, (and the countries of former Yugoslavia) and the countries of former Yugoslavia. Toperich has performed with conductors such as Zubin Mehta and Kuzushi Ono.[5] His concert at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., in 1997 was broadcast nationwide on National Public Radio and earned him a nomination for Best Debut Artist. Known for a combination of sensitivity and technical skill, Toperich is one of the world's premier up-and-coming pianists.[2] He has represented Israel in concerts throughout the world,[3] as a cultural ambassador from Israel through the Israeli consulate.[2]

Philanthropy and diplomacy
In 1997, he became President of the Children Foundation of UNESCO. In 1998, he was awarded the title of UNESCO Artist for Peace.[3] In 2001, he resigned his honorary title in protest of UNESCO's decision not to display the work of Tibetan artists on United Nations premises.[5] Toperich was appointed the Presidential Envoy of Bosnia to the United States.[6]

He was the first high-ranking diplomat from Bosnia and Herzegovina to officially visit Baghdad after fall of Saddam. From 2009 -2010, Toperich served as a Consellor at the Permanent Mission of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the United Nations.

He founded the America-Bosnia Foundation, which was established to foster stronger political, cultural and educational ties between the American and Bosnian people. The foundation organizes concerts, exhibitions, lectures, panels, and educational seminars in both Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the US. ABF's mission is also to strengthen democratic values in Bosnia and preserve its multiethnic and multicultural character.[7]

Toperich co-chaired a major international conference The Western Balkans: “Progress, Stagnation, or Regression” held in Sarajevo in June 2011 where political, academic, media and civil society elite discussed ways to move the region forward towards the EU and NATO integrations. Phil Gordon, Assistant Secretary of State was a keynote speaker and Joseph Biden, U.S. Vice President applauded the initiative.

He is a Senior Fellow at The Center for Transatlantic Relations, SAIS, at The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington D.C.

In association with Laughing Buddha Music Inc., Toperich launched “Visas for Life” project, an educational/historic/diplomatic story of a Japanese diplomat, Chiune Sugihara, who saved over 6000 Jews in the WWII by issuing transit visas through Japan, when serving as a Japanese Consul in Kaunas, Lithuania.

Toperich also founded the World Youth Leadership Network, a not-for-profit organisation that aims to unite the international youth community through good works and cultural exchange,[8] launching it at the UN Headquarters in New York in April 2004. The WYLN has contributed and donated computers to schools and universities in Liberia, organised a fundraising concert in Monrovia for the Louis Arther Grimes School of Law, and set up an IT centre in Benin in collaboration with the Benin Education Fund and the World Bank to allow students to learn and gain new skills.[6]

Also in 2004, Toperich served as a project manager for the European Youth Peace Summit held in Sarajevo, bringing together over 500 youth leaders from all over Europe. Budimir Loncar, former Foreign Minister of Yugoslavia under the Marshall Tito, and later, top advisor to Stjepan Mesic, President of Croatia, was European Youth Peace Summit Senior Advisor.

Toperich speaks English, French, Portuguese, Hebrew and Russian. OK; well that didn't keep any of the important markup characters but nothing strikes me as violating the biography of living persons policy, so I will make your account confirmed. If anyone has a problem with your edits, just please be willing to have a discussion with us. Thanks. Magog the Ogre (talk) 00:23, 6 November 2011 (UTC)

Hi, any idea when you can update my wiki page ? Regards, Sasha
 * Actually, I already changed your user rights so you can do it yourself now. Magog the Ogre (talk) 17:22, 21 November 2011 (UTC)