Concert Atelier of the Society of Slovene Composers

Ever since its founding in 1945, the Society of Slovene Composers (DSS) has been one of the key forces in shaping Slovenia’s musical landscape and in promoting and developing home-grown musical creativity. Alongside its publishing activities and systematic support for composers, its chamber series Concert Atelier of the Society of Slovene Composers, which has run continuously since 1966, has established itself as a central hub of contemporary music. Over the course of almost six decades it has become an indispensable point of contact for Slovene and international musical currents, a space for premiere performances of works by Slovene composers of all generations, and a venue where domestic creativity and the music of today’s world can meet. Its collaboration with the national broadcaster, which regularly records the concerts, enables contemporary Slovene music to reach a wide audience.

This year’s Concert Atelier programme brings together composers of different generations and aesthetic orientations. David Beovič is a prolific and highly versatile composer who is active in classical, stage, film and multimedia projects, in which he blends different musical idioms. Matija Krečič, who devotes himself equally to classical, jazz and popular music, is establishing himself as a composer of considerable breadth and as an arranger and musician capable of moving effortlessly between stylistic worlds. Andrej Makor is known above all for his choral music. For this edition of the chamber music series, he has contributed the suite Histria et Amor, based on folk melodies from Slovenian Istria. Composer and jazz pianist Jaka Pucihar has developed a distinctive, communicative form of musical expression through his numerous orchestral and chamber works. He also appears as a performer and moderator at this year’s Concert Atelier. Črt Sojar Voglar, a central figure in contemporary Slovene music, is a composer who, through his extensive oeuvre and many years of educational, organisational and artistic activity, has played an important part in shaping the country’s musical landscape.

The performers are musicians whose diverse creative profiles broaden the expressive range of this year’s series. Violinist Anja Bukovec is a stylistically open performer dedicated to exploring the new expressive possibilities of her instrument across a range of genres. Pianist Lian Pucihar and clarinettist Nina Pavšek represent a promising younger generation of Slovene musicians who have already proved themselves in numerous competitions and concert performances. The vocal and theatrical elements of the concert are provided by Vita Mavrič, an actress and chanson singer who has honed her skills as a performer over more than four decades, and Vinko Möderndorfer, one of Slovenia’s most prolific directors, writers and playwrights, who appears as a reciter.