The programme brochure of 35th Music Days is available here.

Voting for the best slovene spevSLAM will start on 14th April at 12.00 pm and will be open until 21st April till 12.00 pm on the website spevslam.si

The winner will be announced on 21st April at 6.15 pm over live stream on websites spevslam.si and ljubljanafestival.si.

The winners of this year’s spevSLAM are:

1st place: Vsaka zvezda, vsak planet
                 Aleksandra Naumovski Potisk
                 Nataša Zupan
                 Matija Potisk

2nd place: Makov cvet
                  Tom Varl
                   Lovro Korošec
                   Lovorka Nemeš Dular

3rd place: Pa da bi znal
                  Andrej Makor
                  Irena Yebuah Tiran
                  Damjan Brcar

The prize money was provided by Festival Ljubljana.

The Society of Slovene Composers awards the prize in the form of CDs and musicnotes editions to the first three places.

spevSLAM prize (comission of a new slovenian lieder cycle): Iztok Kocen, team 10 – Umetnost

Additional spevSLAM prize to a promising young composer (comission of slovenian lieder): Jernej Bedekovič, team 3 – Zvečer

Glasbena matica prize for most promising duo (performance in season 2021/22):  Sabina Gruden and Angelika Lajh, team 6 – Pomladni zvoki

Institution PerArtem prize (concert of  original music in year 2022): Aleksandra Naumovski Potisk, team 2 in Iztok Kocen, team 10

In the period of the awakening of national consciousness in the mid-nineteenth century, settings of Slovene texts for solo voice with piano accompaniment served as an excellent affirmation of the national cultural awareness of Slovenes which, thanks in part to the conveniently small number of performers required (voice and piano), spread widely among the population. The lieder genre also gained popularity with the help of songbooks, music publications and sheet music. In the wake of the remarkable success of the first beseda events (social entertaiments), the Slovensko društvo (“Slovene Society”) decided to print the works performed there. Accordingly, the first issue of the songbook Slovenska gerlica (“Slovene Turtle Dove”), published in 1848, also included Slovene lieder and the following motto: “The Slovene turtle dove sings sweetly in her native grove and invites her dear brothers, her dear sisters to sing with her.” Today art song or lieder is a relatively modestly represented genre in Slovenia, both on concert stages and among composers. For this reason, the innovative spevSLAM event is an outstanding opportunity for the creation and performance of new Slovene lieder. The first event of this kind, called songSLAM, took place in New York in 2015. The first spevSLAM in Slovenia was organised in March 2019 by the soprano Theresa Plut, who firmly believes in the boundless riches of the Slovene language and the creativity of composers, singers and pianists. The event was a resounding success. spevSLAM brings together classical composers and performers and forms them into groups. These groups then give the premiere performances of new lieder and compete for prizes (despite the competitive element, the atmosphere is a relaxed one). Each group (consisting of a singer, a pianist and a composer) presents a new song in Slovene, with the composer also present at the premiere performance. The winners are determined not by a jury but by the audience. The essence of spevSLAM does not, in fact, lie in choosing the best songs on the basis of expert evaluation; rather, it aims to encourage the creation of new Slovene lieder, to offer younger and less well known composers and performers the chance to present themselves and, at the same time, by activating listeners, to build ties between all the elements that make up the musical circuit: composers, performers and audience. Just like a century and a half ago, the event invites performers to sing settings of Slovene texts in the company of “brothers and sisters” who will also decide the prize winners.

Producer: Theresa Plut

Helena Filipčič Gardina

Teams (composer, singer, pianist):

Barbara Kobal
Kaya Tokuhisa
Darja Mlakar Maležič

Aleksandra Naumovski Potisk
Nataša Zupan
Matija Potisk

Jernej Bedekovič
Urša Lojen
Anže Rupnik

Andrej Makor
Irena Yebuah Tiran
Damjan Brcar

Tom Varl
Lovro Korošec
Lovorka Nemeš Dular

Tom Kobe
Sabina Gruden
Angelika Lajh

Peter Kopač
Saška Kolarič
Tomaž Hostnik

Vladimir Hrovat
Tina Debevec
Katarina Tominec

Matic Dokler
Matic Dokler
Teja Komar

Iztok Kocen
Gaja Sorč
Urban Stanič