Andrej Žust (1984) completed elementary music school in his native Logatec under Janez Polanc, continued at the Secondary School of Music and Ballet in Ljubljana under Metod Tomac, and then studied at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana under Jožet Falout and Boštjan Lipovšek. He perfected his knowledge under renowned professors such as Hermann Baumann, Radovan Vlatković, and Froydis Ree Wekre, among others. For two years he held a scholarship from the prestigious Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic (2009-2011).
As a soloist he won the national competition for young musicians three times (in 1996, 1999, 2001 he scored the full 100 points) and at an international competition in Udine (Italy) he won two special prizes in addition to the first prize, and was thereby declared absolute competition winner. As a chamber musician he won first prize in the national competition for chamber groups in 2004 as a member of a horn quartet, and in 2006 with a brass quintet, while in the same year he was also a quarter-finalist at the prestigious ARD competition with the Savitra brass quintet, and most recently he was a semi-finalist in the Young Talent competition in Bratislava.
Andrej Žust is a very active chamber musician who regularly performs in international festivals all over the world. As member of the world famous Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester (GMJO) and the Pacific Music Festival (PMF) he has collaborated with the most respected conductors and soloists. Žust has played as a soloist with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berliner Barock Solisten, the Russian State Orchestra, the Mito Chamber Orchestra, the Slovenian Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, the Zadar Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Slovene National Theatre Maribor, the 1B1 Orchestra, and others. He has performed works from the standard repertoire as well as novelties by Slovenian and foreign composers.
For his achievements he has received the Škerjanc Prize awarded by the Secondary School of Music and Ballet in Ljubljana, the University of Ljubljana’s Prešeren Award and the Betetto Prize. Andrej Žust was for a long time solo horn-player of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, and he also collaborated with the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Ljubljana Opera, and has been a member of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra since 2011.
