Programme:
G. Mahler: Symphony No. 5

It is ten years this year since the foundation of the Ljubljana International Orchestra, the cultural ambassador of the City of Ljubljana, whose artistic director is Živa Ploj Peršuh. The symphony orchestra unites outstanding young musicians from more than 35 different countries, who acquire invaluable experience by playing together and cooperating with renowned professors, conductors and soloists to put on top performances. The orchestra is also a part of the European Sounds of Change  project, which strives to realise the EU motto United in diversity  by uniting people in artistic creativity. The young musicians will perform Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, which was written in a happy period of the composer’s life, when he was already valued as conductor, artistic director and director of Vienna Court Opera by critics. In the same year, far from the public eye, he married the Viennese femme fatale  Alma Schindler, and as a wedding gift he dedicated the lyrically subtle Adagietto  of the symphony to her. The performance will be conducted by Osvaldo Ferreira, the founder and chief conductor of the Portuguese Philharmonic Orchestra, who studied conducting in Chicago and then at the Conservatory of St. Petersburg, and who was assistant to Claudio Abbado in Salzburg and Berlin.