Veronika Vanja, soprano and violin
Ana Rodić, piano (Serbia)

Mark Lev Krajnc, violin
Danijel Brecelj, klavir

Programme:
Christoph Willibald Gluck: “Che farò senza Euridice”, arija Orfeja iz opere Orfej in Evridika
Giacomo Puccini: “Si mi chiamano Mimì”, arija Mimì iz opere La bohème
Leonard Bernstein: I have a love in Tonight iz muzikala Zgodba z zahodne strani
Ludwig van Beethoven: Violin Sonata No. 5 in F major, Op. 24, “Spring”
***
Edvard Grieg: Allegro molto ed appassionato from Violin Sonata No. 3 in C minor, Op. 45
Henryk Wieniawski: Polonaise brillante No. 2 in A major, Op. 21
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Allegro moderato form Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35
Antonio Bazzini: La Ronde des Lutins, Op. 25

Veronika Vanja completed her secondary musical education at the Ljubljana Conservatory of Music and Ballet, where she studied with Jernej Brence, the founder and artistic director of the Bled Festival. She was involved in several musical theatre projects during these years, having been introduced to the possibilities of combining musical performance and theatre by the singer Marta Zore and the well-known actor Gojmir Lešnjak – Gojc. She has attended several Bled Festival masterclasses with world-famous violinists including Robert Szreder, Piotr Jasiurkowski and Sándor Jávorkai. She has won numerous national and international prizes in Slovenia, Italy and Serbia and has taken part in various festivals, winning first prizes in both violin and singing (String Fest, Solo Song Festival “Liebeslied”, Euritmia, Ars Nova). She represented Slovenia at the Vitebsk Festival in 2013, while in 2022 she represented Serbia at the 25th Balkan Youth Festival in Bulgaria, in a competition to find the best pop/rock singer in Bulgaria. While still a student she gave regular solo concerts supported by her friends, both within the music faculty and outside it. For the last ten years she has played a violin made by the renowned luthier Milan Oreški.

Ana Rodić is currently a second-year master’s student in the class of Ruben Dalibaltayan at the Ljubljana Academy of Music. She completed her early training with Dubravka Tomšič- Srebotnjak and spent her first two years at the Academy in the class of Jasminka Stančul. Her exceptional talent was apparent from an early age and is confirmed by the many prizes she has won at national and international competitions including International Competition Young Virtuoso in Zagreb, the International Competition for Young Pianists in Šabac, the Davorin Jenko International Competition, the Petar Konjović International Competition, the Republic Competition of Music and Ballet Schools of Serbia (laureate), the Peter Toperczer International Piano Competition in Košice (2013 – fourth prize of the five awarded), the Moritz Moszkowski International Piano Competition “Per aspera ad astra” (2017 – second place), the International Competition Sirmium Music Fest in Sremska Mitrovica (first prize) and the Janez Matičič International Piano Competition (2018 – second prize). At the end of 2015 she was named the best student of her generation at the Vladimir Djordjević Primary Music School.

Mark Lev Krajnc started his violin studies with Barbara Kolbl, and continued with Danica Koren at the Fran Korun Koželjski Music School in Velenje. He participates in both national and international competitions, and has been awarded first prize at the following: 1st International Young Violinist Competition in Ljubljana (2024), Online International BTHVN Wien Music Competition (2023), Distant Chords Split (2023), London Young Musician (2023), 6th Leon Pfeifer Violin Competition (2022), 4th Laszlo Spezzaferri International Music Prize (2022), 3rd International Tartini Competition in Piran (2022), Young Musicians International Competition Sonus in Križevci (2022), 12th World Open Music Competition in Belgrade (2021), 50th TEMSIG competition (2021), 1st Matija Bravničar International Competition (2021), the Opus Artis Paris Online Music Competition (2021), and North International Music Competition in Stockholm (2020). He has also taken part in other competitions and achieved impressive results. Among other things, he received the gold prize at the Canadian International Music Competition (2021).

Danijel Brecelj studied piano with Siavush Gadjiev at the Conservatory for Music and Ballet Ljubljana, completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the National Superior Conservatory for Music and Dance in Paris with Roger Muraro and completed a second master’s degree at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg in the class of Rolf Plagge. He has attended masterclasses with Jacques Rouvier and Karl-Heinz Kämmerling. He also holds a diploma in harmony from the Paris Conservatory. He has performed with the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, the FVG Mitteleuropa Orchestra, and the University of Groningen orchestra, with conductors including Marko Munih and Anton Nanut, among others. He has won first prizes at two editions of the TEMSIG competition and a second prize at the Mayenne International Piano Competition in France. He was a finalist of the International Guido Alberto Fano Piano Competition in Italy and is a laureate of the Yamaha Music Foundation in France. At the age of 16 he performed his own Piano Concerto  at the Slovenian Philharmonic. In 2021 he organised the Dijon Piano Festival in France.