Ars Electronica

Musical and visual performance

Conductor: Ivan Repušić
Orchestra Purpur
Orchestra of The Slovenian Armed Forces
Choir of The Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb
Academic Choir Ivan Goran Kovačić

Soloists:
Martina Zadro, soprano
Jelena Kordić, alt
Aljaž Farasin, tenor
Lucijano Batinić, bass

Programme
A. Bruckner: Te Deum
R. Wagner: Lohengrin – Prelude for Act III.
Gipsy Choir from the Opera Il Trovatore
P. I. Čajkovski: Ouverture 1812

The opening of this year’s 61st Ljubljana Festival will by all means provide a special experience. In its musical part we will be able to listen to the three glorious compositions by Anton Bruckner, Richard Wagner and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. In its heart, Bruckner’s Te Deum presents a great musical glorification of the composer’s undeniable faith in God and praise of the Creator, supported by lyrics.
The overtures and preludes to Wagner’s particular opera masterpieces can also be independent works, gladly performed at the concert stages and always gratefully accepted by the audience. Tchaikovsky wrote his Solemn Overture 1812 in 1880, on the occasion of the consecration of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow and dedicated it to the memory of the famous Napoleon’s defeat in Russia, in 1812.

Ivan Repušić, a native of Split, is an old acquaintance of the Slovenian public. After his great success with home orchestras, he has been increasingly asserting himself abroad, and in Germany in particular, where he is conducting the performances at the important opera theatres and paving his way among the sought after and appreciated conductors.
The Academic Choir Ivan Goran Kovačić, founded in 1948, is a constituent part of the eponymous Student Cultural and Artistic Society. From season to season, more than a hundred active members – trained and untrained musicians and enthusiasts – perform in various formations and on various occasions. This choral ensemble is undoubtedly the largest mixed choir in the neighbouring Croatia or – as they often call themselves – »the enthusiastic group of amateur professionals … or professional amateurs…«.

This exceptional musical event will be enriched with unusual and amazing visual effects that we are (still) not used to see here in Slovenia, whereas this kind of events have been frequently offered at the big festivals and outdoor events elsewhere.
The company in charge of this spectacular event will be Ars Electronica, oriented in its laboratories towards a targeted development of new methods of artistic expression. They range from the areas of culture and education to that of industry and economy. Today we become increasingly aware of the fact that the modern information technology is a crucial factor of social innovations for the role of art. Equally important thereby is as sound recording in concert halls as well as various visual and sound co-creations on the outdoor stages.
All this is carried out by a wide range of artists, co-creating the concepts, design and realisation of international orders. Among them are experts in the field of informatics, physicists, architects, sociologists, and art historians, scientists in the field of culture, media and communication. Such close cooperation, as well as constant interdependent intertwinement and fertilisation has been going on for 16 years and thus extends far beyond the artistic contents, of which we were aware up to now.