Oboist Monika Babič began playing the oboe at Koper Music School. In 2012 she graduated with distinction from the Arts Gymnasium in Koper, where she studied with Breda Hartman, and entered the Ljubljana Academy of Music in the class of Matej Šarc, where this year she is a second-year master’s student. She is currently on a study exchange in Mannheim, where she is studying with Emanuel Abbühl at the University of Music and Performing Arts Mannheim. In 2004, 2006, 2010 and 2013 she won gold plaques at both the regional and national TEMSIG competitions for young musicians; at this year’s (2016) TEMSIG competition, where she won, in addition to a gold plaque and a first prize, a special prize: the opportunity to perform a concert as a soloist with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra. In April this year she won a first prize at the International Woodwind & Brass Competition in Varaždin. In the 2006/07 academic year Koper Music School presented her with the Golden Treble Clef, an award for the school’s most successful students. She has attended masterclasses in Slovenia, Germany, Switzerland, France, Montenegro and Italy, studying with internationally renowned oboists such as Albrecht Mayer, Emanuel Abbühl, Simon Fuchs, Christian Wetzel, Christian Schmitt, Max Artved and Clara Dent. She is a member of the contemporary music ensemble Microsonus, with which she performed last year at the World Music Days in Ljubljana. She has successfully passed an audition with the German-Nordic Youth Philharmonic and played with the orchestra in early 2015 in the great hall of the Berliner Philharmonie. She has frequently performed as a substitute with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra and the Police Orchestra and also works regularly with other orchestras, including as a soloist.

Aljaž Kalin Kante began playing the clarinet at the age of seven, studying with Branislav Trifkovič at the Vinko Vodopivec Music School in Ajdovščina.  After completing lower music school he continued his training at the Conservatory of Music and Ballet in Ljubljana in the class of Jože Kotar and in the gimnazija section of the Veno Pilon Secondary School in Ajdovščina. He is currently continuing his studies at the Ljubljana Academy of Music, in the class of Jože Kotar. He has won numerous prizes and diplomas at competitions at home and abroad, including first places at the national TEMSIG young musicians’ competition and at important international competitions in Ljubljana, Belgrade, Novi Sad, Povoletto, Carlino, Rijeka, Krško, Breno, Pradalunga, Nichelino and elsewhere. While still a student he performed as a soloist with the Sinfonietta Baden in Baden, Austria, and with the Symphony Orchestra of the Union of Primorska Music Schools and the wind orchestra of the Conservatory in Ljubljana. He has also given several solo concerts and recitals and recorded professionally for Austrian national broadcaster ORF, RTV Slovenia, the Armenian national broadcaster, Radio Koper and others. He regularly performs at concerts in Slovenia, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and Serbia. He is a keen participant in seminars and exchanges, where he has studied with noted clarinettists such as: S. Hue, P. Beltramini, M. Bekavac, M. Rericha, R. Spring, S. Osborn, R. Cavallin, S. Kam, A. Carbonare, M. Lethiec, F. di Casola, and others.

Pianist and organist Tilen Bajec trained with Janez Lovše (piano) and Angela Tomanič (organ) and at several masterclasses before graduating from the Ljubljana Academy of Music in 2006. He is employed at Litija Music School and Ljubljana Vič-Rudnik Music School as a teacher and répétiteur, and also works frequently with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, the musical society Glasbena Matica Ljubljana, the musical youth organisation Glasbena Mladina Ljubljanska, the National Education Institute, with various individual singers and instrumentalists and with practically all the most successful choirs in Slovenia.

Luca Ferrini studied piano, harpsichord, organ and organ composition at the conservatories of Trieste and Udine, graduating cum laude. For the last 30 years he has been performing with equal success on all three instruments – as soloist, as a member of chamber ensembles or with orchestras – throughout Europe and elsewhere (at venues including the St Petersburg Philharmonia, Beijing Concert Hall, the Gran Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Cankarjev Dom and the Slovenska Filharmonija in Ljubljana, the Musikverein in Vienna, the National Concert Hall in Dublin, the National Theatre of Malta, Seoul National University, the philharmonic halls of Ulan Bator and Odessa, the Théâtre Saint-Michel in Brussels and other). He works with renowned musicians and conductors and is a member of various chamber ensembles, with a repertoire ranging from early music to contemporary composers. He has recorded for numerous European radio stations and recorded 20 albums (as pianist, harpsichordist and organist). He has been official accompanist at many summer schools and masterclasses and at international academies and competitions for various instruments in Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Belgium, Mexico, Armenia, China. He has taught at the conservatories in Brescia, Salerno, Trieste and Udine, at the Carinthian State Conservatorium in Klagenfurt (Austria), and at the Ljubljana Conservatory of Music and Ballet. He has also worked as a répétiteur at the Ljubljana Academy of Music. He currently teaches piano, harpsichord and chamber music at the Arts Gymnasium in Koper, where he is also a répétiteur.

Programme

G. F. Telemann: Fantasia no. 2 in a minor

B. Britten: Six Metamorphoses after Ovid, op. 49

R. Schumann: Adagio in Allegro, op. 70

***

R. Schumann: Fantasiestücke, op.73

Č. S. Voglar: Jeux No 2

J. Françaix: Tema con Variazioni