Željko Pavlović’s earliest memory is of playing the violin at three. He grew up in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, then part of Yugoslavia, in a family with a musical tradition spanning 200 years. His father, a tambura player, was one of his earliest musical influences.

He was fourteen when war reached Sarajevo. He and his father left the city carrying their instruments, and the violin became his refuge. He studied in Novi Sad, Serbia, and later in Belgium, where he earned a master’s degree in violin performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Liège. In 1998, he came to the United States as a refugee.

During his first years in America, Željko stocked grocery shelves alongside his father and worked overnight shifts. Those experiences shaped his understanding of customer service and his approach to building a business. His book, Failure Is Not an Option, published in 2018, tells the story of leaving Sarajevo, finding his footing in a new country, and learning to build a business.

Željko served as associate concertmaster of the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra and performed with the Louisiana Philharmonic. For more than fourteen years, he performed with the Houston Symphony, including at Carnegie Hall.

In 2013, he founded Vivaldi Music Academy in Houston. The academy was named to the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies.

Today, Željko is part of Arvo’s founding team and serves as its Chief Strategy Officer. His experience running a music school gave him a firsthand understanding of where daily operations break down and how much work school teams must do to keep separate systems connected.

Arvo is an AI operating platform for music and performing arts schools, designed to run enrollment, scheduling, billing, and family communication as one connected operation. Its mission is to give school teams more time for their students and teachers.