Ivan Otašević was born in Belgrade, and successfully completed his first cycle of studies and master’s studies in the classes of Prof. Uroš Pešić and Prof. Marija Jokanović.
During his education and studies, he participated in numerous festivals, republican, federal, and international competitions, where he won awards and recognitions.

He performs his significant solo concert performances and other concert performances in important concert halls in the country and abroad: the Republic of Serbia, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, France, Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Greece, Austria.

He is professionally improving his skills at seminars of renowned foreign and domestic violin pedagogues: Prof. Galina Turčaninova-Russia, Prof. Vili Mokacjan-Armenia, Prof. Ana Meljnik-Ukraine, Prof. Uroš Pešić-Serbia, Prof. Dejan Mihajlović-Serbia.
He is one of the founders of the Banja Luka Philharmonic Orchestra.

Since the founding of the Banja Luka Philharmonic in 2010, he has been engaged as the director and artistic director of the Banja Luka Philharmonic, with which he has realized and performed in over 150 concert performances in the country and abroad. In addition to the Banja Luka Philharmonic, he also performs with the Zrenjanin Chamber Orchestra, the Montenegrin String Orchestra “Camerata Akademika”, the Symphony Orchestra of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Serbia-“Stanislav Binički”, the String Orchestra “Sveti Đorđe-Belgrade”, the Mostar Symphony Orchestra…

During the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 academic years, he holds master classes at the “Conservatorio Giuseppe Tartini”, Faculty of Music in Belgrade as a visiting professor.

For Radio-Television Belgrade 1st Program, Radio Television of the Republic of Srpska (RTRS) and the Archives of Bosnia and Herzegovina, he makes permanent recordings of compositions by C. Franck, C. Saint-Saëns, J. S. Bach, A. Piazzolla and V. Milošević.
He is a member of the Musicological Society of the Republic of Srpska, the Association of Musical Artists of the Republic of Srpska, the Association of Musical and Ballet Artists of Serbia, and the Association of String Players of Serbia.

Since 2005, he has been employed at the Academy of Arts of the University of Banja Luka on a permanent basis and is currently a lecturer in the title of full professor in the Violin department. Since 2012, he has been the head of the Department of String Instruments.