URŠKA ZUPAN, clarinet 
ALEXEI GROTS, piano

BRASS QUARTET GŠ VELENJE 
LUKA OVČJAK, euphonium
JURE HROVAT, trombone  
GAŠPER POPRIJAN, tuba  
OSKAR REDNAK, trombone

Programme:

C. Debussy: Première Rhapsodie, L. 116

I. Stravinsky: Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet

A. Berg: 4 Pieces, Op. 5

F. Poulenc: Clarinet Sonata

***
D. Speer: Sonata
J. G. Mortimer: Suite Parisienne
H. Carmichael, arr. R. G. Hughes: Stardust
J. Lennon & P. McCartney, arr. G. A. Robertson: Hey Jude
P. Desmond, arr. I. Luis: Take Five
A. Barroso, arr. H. Weichselbaumer: Brazil
I. Berlin, arr. J. Gale: Alexander’s Ragtime Band
J. Agrell: Gospel Time
P. Ballard, arr. U. Dittmar: Mr. Sandman
Slovenian folk song, arr. M. Hočevar: Po Jezeru
Slovenian folk song: Potrkan Ples
M. Sepe, arr. M. Šumečnik: Zemlja Pleše

Urška Zupan began her musical career at the age of nine with Jože Kregar at the Music School of the Ljubljana Conservatory of Music and Ballet, before continuing her training at the Ljubljana Conservatory of Music and Ballet in the class of Dušan Sodja. In 2016 she was admitted to the undergraduate course taught by Wenzel Fuchs, the principal clarinet of the Berlin Philharmonic, at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, she is currently a final-year student. While a student, she has participated successfully in numerous national and international competitions. She has won gold plaques at three editions of the national TEMSIG (Young Musicians of Slovenia) competition (in 2010, 2016 and 2019), as well as two third prizes and, in 2019, a first prize. She has attended masterclasses with clarinettists from Slovenia and abroad and in 2016 was admitted to the prestigious seminar given by Charles Neidich in Apeldoorn, Netherlands. In Salzburg she became a member of the Mozarteum’s wind orchestra the Bläserphilharmonie, performing with it at the famous New Year’s Concert (6 January) conducted by Hansjörg Angerer and participating in numerous other projects in 2018 and 2019. She was also selected to perform Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet at the Salzburg Residenz. She works regularly with several symphony orchestras and chamber orchestras and in 2018 served as a mentor at the successful OrkesterkamP project in Bovec.

Alexsei Grotz was born in Moscow in 1988. He began his musical training with Vera Khoroschina at the Moscow State Conservatory, where from 2007 he continued his education at the Institute for Historical Performance Practice and Contemporary Interpretation with Alexei Lubimov (piano), Yury Martynov (historical instruments) and Konstantin Batashov (composition). Since 2012 he has been studying with Jacques Rouvier at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Alexsei Grotz regularly takes part in international festivals such as the Ruhr Piano Festival and the International Contemporary Music Festival in Baku, Azerbaijan. He has attended a wide variety of masterclasses, including at the Arnold Schoenberg Centre in Vienna. In 2010 he won first prize at the Nikolai Rubinstein International Piano Competition. His repertoire includes works by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Brahms, Liszt, Ravel, Prokofiev, Bartok, Schoenberg, music of the 17th and 18th centuries, and modern music. He has collaborated with Alexei Lubimov on several projects dedicated to the works of Schoenberg, Schubert, Berg and Ustvolskaya. He has also collaborated on the recording of an anthology of piano music by Russian and Soviet composers, performing works by Denisov, Volkonsky and Batashov. In 2011 he performed his own transcription for piano, string quartet and double bass of fragments of Berg’s opera Wozzeck at the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival. Also in 2011 he recorded an album of Schubert piano duets with Alexei Lubimov.

Lara Klun completed her elementary and secondary musical education at Koper Music School and Koper Arts Gymnasium, where she studied piano with Nadja Žerjal, Sijavuš Gadžijev and Selma Chicco. She graduated from the University of Music in Cologne in the class of Arbo Valdma and attended classes with Nataša Veljković at the University of Music in Vienna as an exchange student. In 2010 she won a scholarship to teach and study with Kevin Orr at the University of Florida College of the Arts (USA). She has attended numerous workshops and seminars with teachers such as Ralf Nattkemper, Joaquín Soriano, Uta Weyend, Edna Golandsky, Ruben Dalibaltayan and Igor Laszko. While a student she won numerous prizes at regional, national and international competitions in Slovenia, Italy and Spain and made several recordings for Radio Koper. She has performed as a soloist with the City of Pärnu Orchestra (Estonia), the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Primorska and the Cantabile Symphony Orchestra. She has also appeared in concert halls in various European countries (Slovenia, Germany, Czech Republic, Croatia, Estonia, Spain) and in the United States of America. She played for several years in the Ensemble clAsica, of which she was a founding member. She is also the co-founder of Izola-based culture and arts society Ars Haliaeti and Logatec-based Arsonavt, which organises culture and arts events. She currently teaches at Logatec Music School and at the Waldorf school in Ljubljana.

The Velenje Music School Brass Quartet has been active for five years under the mentorship of Miran Šumečnik. Its current members are Luka Ovčjak, Jure Hrovat and Gašper Poprijan – students from Velenje Gymnasium’s arts department – and Oskar Rednak, a student at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria. They work well together as a team and have achieved impressive results at national and international competitions. In the 2015/16 academic year, they won a gold plaque and first place at the Svirél International Music Competition and received a well-deserved commendation for outstanding achievements from Velenje Music School at the end of the year. In October 2018 they appeared at the Euro Music festival in Esslingen, Germany, where their performance was very enthusiastically received, as a consequence of which they were invited by the organisers to take part in the tenth anniversary edition of this festival in Vienne, France. Competing at the national TEMSIG (Young Musicians of Slovenia) competition last year, they won a gold plaque and an invitation to perform as part of the Young Virtuosi cycle in 2019/20. Since the ensemble was founded, they have played an active part in various cultural activities and projects organised by Velenje Music School, the City Municipality of Velenje and other associations. In the last few years the number of performances has exceeded 30 a year, a sign of the quartet’s great popularity with audiences in Slovenia.