Bassoonist Luka Mitev, born in Postojna in 1997, began studying the bassoon with his father Zoran Mitev. Even with his earliest performances and competitions, he was attracting attention with his convincing style of playing and outstanding results. At the age of just 12 he appeared as a soloist with the Logatec Wind Orchestra, he later appeared as a soloist with the Koper-based Chamber Orchestra of the Coast and the String Orchestra of Postojna Music School, with which he performed Vivaldi’s Bassoon Concerto in D minor. He has taken part in several national competitions, with excellent results. He reached the finals of auditions for the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO) in the 2012/13 season and was admitted to the EUYO summer school in the 2013/14 concert season, which means that he has played with one of the finest European youth orchestras. In the summer of 2015 he played with the European Music Campus Orchestra, based in Austria, which worked with the EUYO. On 11 November 2015 he gave a notable recital in the Knights’ Hall at Križanke, Ljubljana as part of the Young Virtuosi cycle organised by the Ljubljana Festival. The concert was well received by critics and the public. For the 2016 season he auditioned, as a musician on the reserve list, for the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester. He is one of the five finalists of the “We stand behind them” and performed as soloists with the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra. In 2014 Luka Mitev received the Škerjanc Prize, awarded by the Ljubljana Conservatory of Music and Ballet for outstanding achievements in music. He gave the premiere performance of Cobra, a piece written for him by the young composer Leon Firšt. He is currently a fourth-year student at the Ljubljana Conservatory of Music and Ballet. He has attended numerous seminars with renowned teachers (Michael Tavernaro, Bence Boganyi, Robert Gillinger, Gustavo Núñez, Giorgio Mandolesi, Emmanuel Pahud, Stefano Canuti, Andrea Zucco, Marco Postinghel) at summer schools and festivals (OFF Izola, Črnuče Summer Music Workshop, Ljubljana Festival, Narni Summer School, masterclasses at the Ljubljana Academy of Music, the Bassoon Festival in Ghent, Belgium).

Pandelina Atanasova was born in Kavadarci in Macedonia, where she also began her musical career. After five years she continued her musical training at DMBUC Ilija Nikolovski-Luj in Skopje with Snežana Anastasova Čadikovska. She is currently completing her studies at the Ljubljana Academy of Music with Dubravka Tomšič Srebotnjak. Last year she studied with Daniel Blumenthal at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels as an Erasmus exchange student. She has also attended international summer schools and seminars with B. Romanov, L. Romanova, A. Diev, Y. Mikhailovich, V. Mlinarić, S. K. Aleksandrovna, A. Dukov, N. Tomić, O. Kern and R. Dalibaltayan. She has won five first prizes and two second prizes at national and regional competitions in Macedonia and a total of 19 prizes (including eight first prizes) at international young pianists’ competitions in Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Croatia, France and the USA. As a soloist and chamber musician she has played in numerous concerts in Macedonia, the USA, Russia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Serbia and Croatia and has given solo recitals in Kavadarci and Skopje. Last year she performed with bassoonist Luka Mitev at the concerts of the “Jeunesses Musicales Stage” cycle in Murska Sobota, Celje, Nova Gorica and Ljubljana. She has performed as a soloist with the Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra on three occasions (2004, 2009, 2013) and in 2012 performed with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2015 she performed Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major with the SNG Maribor Orchestra in Maribor and Ljubljana and also appeared with the orchestra of the Ljubljana Academy of Music. She won the Student Prešeren Prize of the Academy of Music for her performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 2.

Eva Erjavec, born in Ljubljana in 1996, first encountered the recorder at the age of seven when she enrolled in the first year at Trbovlje Music School, where she was taught by Vilma Lučič and, later on, Barbara Černe and Anton Šemrov. After completing the lower music school programme she enrolled at the Ljubljana Conservatory of Music and Ballet, where she studied recorder as her main instrument with Mateja Bajt for the next four years. In June 2015, having passed the music matura examination with distinction, she was admitted to the Ljubljana Academy of Music, where she continues to study with the same teacher. She regularly attends recorder seminars and masterclasses (Musica Locopolitana Festival of Early Music, Radovljica Festival, masterclass with Katharina Lugmayr at the Emona Festival, etc.) and has won several prizes at the national TEMSIG competition for young musicians: a silver plaque in 2010, a gold diploma and first prize in 2013 as a soloist, a gold plaque in 2015 as a member of the chamber ensemble La dolce fiamma, and a first prize and gold plaque in 2016.

Since he was a child, Alberto Busettini grows a deep interest in the Harpsichord and in Early Music. This passion became easily his profession and life: after graduating with highest marks and mention in Italy, he specialized in Harpsichord, Basso Continuo and Baroque Orchestra in The Netherlands and after at Chigiana Accademy with Christophe Rousset. With thousands concerts in all Europe, Alberto is an appreciated soloist and conductor, playing also with many early music groups like Contrarco Baroque Ensemble, Venice Baroque Orchestra and Opera Stravagante in Early Music Festivals like Grandezze e Meraviglie, Alte Musik Live Berlin, Festival Monteverdi, Musikfest Kreuth, Wunderkammer, Festival delle Ville Venete, with many important artists like Alfredo Bernardini, Sara Mingardo, Stefano Montanari, Silvia Frigato, Anna Fusek, Sergey Malov, Angelo Manzotti, Michael Radulescu, Filippo Maria Bressan, Gabriele Cassone. Alberto Busettini is appreciated as solist, performing often on original instruments like Walter harpsichord (1696) in Tolmezzo or in Paris on Collesse 1748 harpsichord. He is Visiting Professor for Harpsichord, Basso Continuo and Historically Informed Interpretation Praxis at the Early Music Department In the Faculty of Music in Ljubljana (Slovenia), and also the harpsichordist and “Maestro di Sala” for the Early and Baroque Music Projects in the Teatro La Fenice, Venice.

Programme

R. Schumann: Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70

A. Vivaldi: Sonata for cello and basso continuo in g-minor, RV 42

A. Tansman: Sonatine for bassoon and piano

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Anonymous: Estampie Tre fontane

G. A. Pandolfi Mealli: Sonata sesta “La Vinciolina”, op. 4

G. A. Pandolfi Mealli: Sonata prima “La Bernabea”, op. 4

Anonymous: Paul’s Steeple from The Division Flute

G. Ph. Telemann: Methodical Sonata No 11 in g minor, TWV 41:d2

Mak Ishii: Black Intention