SVETOVNO

Choral music

Format: Digitalno

Code: 118647

EAN: 3838898118647

Svetovno

Some years ago, Estonian composer Arvo Pärt declared that “the human voice is the most perfect instrument of all”. From the earliest periods of music, composers have nonetheless sought perfection in the interweaving of the human voice with instruments. The duality of this combination has had a prominent role in sacred music, in which composers have attempted to reconcile the heavenly, embodied in singing, and the earthly, represented by instruments. Although originally intended to enrich the liturgy, sacred works gradually passed beyond church walls and found a place on concert stages, where they often represented composers’ most substantial compositional thinking. The increasing interest in innovative works for the human voice that came to the fore with the new musical currents of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries has led composers to explore the voice as pure sound, without being based on a text, thus bringing it closer to instrumental music.

Choral activities at the Academy of music of the University of Ljubljana

Singing in a choir has numerous positive effects for the individual, the community and the cultural heritage, from developing the skills of musical performance and listening, overcoming the fear of performing in public, and learning the social skills required to cooperate with a group, to maintaining the musical tradition and encouraging its development. Due to these benefits, choral singing is not just a leisure activity, but takes its place on the highest level of institutionalised music education in Slovenia, thus enabling future professional musicians even deeper musical and personal development.

With its choral ensembles, the Academy of Music of the University of Ljubljana has for many years contributed to musical life in Slovenia and abroad through concerts and competitions. As well as performing a diverse range of choral repertoire, the ensembles also encourage the creation of new works for choir. The concerts of the mixed choir, the women’s choir and the chamber choir are a regular part of the programme of the Academy of Music concert cycles, while the choirs are also active at festivals, international symposia, coral competitions and major musical productions both in Slovenia and abroad. The vocal repertoire regularly includes new works by established and emerging young composers, and the competition Glasba zaprtih ust (Music of Closed Mouths), which took place in 2021, represented a special initiative for composers during the months of forced hiatus from concert activities due to the pandemic. As well as presenting young composers at their concerts, the choirs also provide a stage for students of choral conducting and emerging vocal soloists.

In recent decades, the rich concert activities of all three choirs of the Academy of Music have been documented on numerous sound recordings, and the present anthology offers listeners and insight into this extensive treasure trove. The selection is divided into four sections: new works by Slovenian composers, Slovenian choral folk music, Slovenian choral art music, and selected works from the international choral repertoire.

About the performers

The mixed choir with conductor Sebastjan Vrhovnik is made up of students from various fields of study – future music teachers, pianists, organists, composers, conductors, guitarists, church musicians, solo singers – and operates within the framework of the regular study programme. In addition to independent concerts, they have also appeared in collaboration with other Slovenian and foreign ensembles (Tone Tomšič Choir of the University of Ljubljana, Viva Brežice Mixed Choir, Slovenian Army Orchestra, Slovenian Police Orchestra, Opera and Ballet of the Slovene National Theatre Maribor, Zagreb Academy of Music Choir, Trieste Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory Choir, and so on).

The woman’s choir has been led by Prof. Marko Vatovec since its establishment in the 2009/2010 academic year. Bringing together female students from the departments of music pedagogy, conducting and sacred music, it performs regularly at subscription concerts and masterclasses. In addition to its concert activities, the choir is also devoted to the practical work of the students in their respective specialisations. It recently achieved a notable success by gaining a golden plaque at the national choral competition Our Song 2022 in Maribor.

The chamber choir was founded at the Academy of Music due to a desire and need for a high-quality choral ensemble that could perform more demanding repertoire and achieve a higher level of performance. Under the leadership of conductors Sebastjan Vrhovnik and Marko Vatovec, the choir has regularly appeared at various occasions such as international symposia and subscription concerts organised by the Academy of Music. It has also performed at various festivals (Celje Festival of Youth and Children’s Choirs, Musica Danubiana, Bled Festival, Fränkische Musiktage, and so on) and given premiere performances of numerous works by Slovenian composers (Marko Mihevc, Maks Strmčnik, Ivan Florjanc, Črt Sojar Voglar, Tomaž Svete, Ambrož Čopi, Matej Kastelic, Tilen Slakan, Federica Lo Pinto). In 2018, it received a golden plaque and gained the absolute second place at the 25th edition of the nation choral competition Our Song. In recent years, it has presented resounding concerts in Bruneck, Briançon and Vienna.

Translated by Neville Hall