Gea Pantner Volfand, viola

Winner of the 2012 TEMSIG (Slovenian National Music Competition)

Barbara Sladič, piano

Accadémia String Quartet
Mojca Fortin, 1st violin
Beti Bratina, 2nd violin
Gea Pantner Volfand, viola
Zoran Bičanin, cello

Programme

Matija Tomc:
Max Reger:
Robert Schumann:
Franz Schubert:

Gea Pantner Volfand is a third-year student at the Ljubljana Academy of Music in the class of Assist. Prof. Mile Kosi. While studying, she has undertaken additional studies at international summer schools. She has participated a number of times in the TEMSIG Slovenian National Music Competition and has received two golden shields in regional competitions and two bronze shields in national competitions, while in 2009 and 2012 she was the recipient of a golden shield and first prize. She collaborates with numerous ensembles and orchestras. For three years, she has been the leader of the violas in the orchestra Die Preisträger, with whom she has appeared at final concerts in the Tonhalle in Zürich. She has also been a member of the orchestra Young Euro Classic, which has its seat in Berlin, as well as being a member of the orchestra EUYO. During the 2010/11 academic year, she received the Student Prešeren
Prize for concert achievements with the Accadémia Quartet, and she was also a recipient of the Škerjanc Prize of the Ljubljana Music and Ballet Conservatory in 2010.

The Accadémia String Quartet was formed in the class of Prof. Tomaž Lorenz in the autumn of 2009, and as early as February 2010 presented its first evening-long concert, since which it has performed regularly both in Slovenia and abroad. Within the framework of the Slovenian Month in Hungary in February 2010, the quartet appeared in Budapest and Békéscsaba. One year later, the musicians prepared a concert tour throughout Slovenia within the framework of the cycle Jeunesses Musicales Stage, and in September of the same year they appeared in five Slovenian centres within the cycle Autumn Serenade. The ensemble has collaborated with harpist Erika Gričar and clarinettist Lovro Turin (Lent 2011), as well as performing with Polish saxophonist Grzech Piotrowski during the Polish presidency of the European Union. In cooperation with Jeunesses Musicales Slovenia, the musicians have also performed concerts in Belgrade and Zagreb. They were finalists in the Amici della Musica Competition in Udine, Italy, and this year received third prize in the Primož Ramovš Competition for Slovenian Chamber Ensembles. Together, they have perfected their performance skills at the seminar Trio di Parma, and they are recipients of the Prešeren Prize of the Ljubljana Academy of Music.