Important information
Bartosz Skłodowski, piano
Programme:
L. van Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57, “Appasionata”
F. Chopin: Fantaisie in F minor, Op. 49
***
Blaž Starc, saxophone
Azzeh Fada, piano
Programme:
H. Tomasi: Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra
R. Muczynski: Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano, Op. 29
T. Escaich: Lutte for Alto Saxophone solo
A. Piazzolla: Tango Etude No 3
Polish pianist Bartosz Skłodowski (1993) began playing the piano at the age of seven in Jelenja Gora under the tutelage of Ewa Wieczorek and, later, Irina Oleszkiewicz. In 2012 he began studying at the Stanislaw Moniuszko Music Academy in Gdansk in the class of Waldemar Wojtal. He is also studying chamber music with Bogna Czerwinska-Szymula. He has further developed his musical potential at masterclasses with renowned teachers such as Andrzej Jasinski, Zbigniew Raubo, Wojciech Switala, Andrzej Tatarski and Piotr Paleczny. He has won prizes at national and international competitions. Most recently, in May 2017, he won a first prize at the Mauro Paolo Monopoli Competition in Barletta (Italy). He performs regularly both as a soloist and in chamber groups and has given concerts in Germany, Italy, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and his native Poland. He performed Chopin’s second piano concerto in Brussels to mark the two hundredth anniversary of the composer’s birth. He is shortly due to perform in Taiwan with the Taiwan National Symphony Orchestra.
Saxophonist Blaž Starc, born in Ljubljana 1998, completed lower music school in Radlje ob Dravi in the class of Dejan Kus. In 2013 he enrolled at the Maribor Conservatory of Music and Ballet, where he studies with Peter Kruder. He plays with numerous ensembles and is a member of the Radlje Big Band and Wind Orchestra. He has taken part in numerous competitions, with notable results including: two first prizes at the Davorin Jenko International Music Competition in Belgrade (once with a quartet), a first prize and a first place in Povoletto, one first prize and one second prize at the wind and brass competition in Varaždin, four gold diplomas at the Svirél International Music Competition (including a perfect score of 100 points in 2017). He has attended masterclasses with well-known musicians such as Tomislav Žužak, Dragan Sremec, Jean-Yves Fourmeau, Saša Nestorović, Arno Bornkamp, Jean-Marie Londeix, Jean-Denis Michat, Matjaž Drevenšek, Claude Delangle, Jure Pukl, Philippe Giess and Rico Gubler. He has performed as a soloist with the wind orchestra and revue orchestra of the Maribor Conservatory of Music and Ballet.
Fada Azzeh attended the Slavko Osterc Music School in Ljutomer before enrolling at the Secondary School of Music and Ballet in Maribor, where she studied with Marjana Mlakar and Planinka Jurišić-Atić. She graduated from the Ljubljana Academy of Music in the class of Dubravka Tomšič Srebotnjak, with whom she went on to complete postgraduate studies in 2009. As an Erasmus exchange student in Cologne, she attended piano classes with Arbo Valdma. She has also attended summer schools and seminars with Arbo Valdma, Siavush Gadjiev, Igor Lazko, Konstantin Bogino, Rita Kinka, Peter Toperczer, among others. She has won numerous prizes in competitions, as well as the Dr Roman Klasinc Diploma from the Secondary School of Music and Ballet in Maribor and the 2005 Student Prešeren Prize of the Academy of Music for her performance of Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor with the Symphony Orchestra of the Slovene National Theatre Maribor. She has also performed as a soloist with the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony Orchestra of the Ljubljana Academy of Music. She is currently employed as a piano teacher and répétiteur at the Maribor Conservatory of Music and Ballet.
