Choirs

CHILDREN'S (YOUTH) CHOIR OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL FRANCE BEVK, TOLMIN

Conductor Barbara Kovačič

The singing ensembles of the Francet Bevko Tolmin Primary School are an unmistakable factor in Slovenian choral music as well as in the wider cultural scene. One third of all pupils sing with enthusiasm in them, and their driving force, choirmaster Barbara Kovačič, has for many years enabled the choirs to perform at a high level in Slovenia and internationally. The Children's8 Youth9 Choir, one of the seven choirs of the Tolmin Elementary School, has been active since 2011. The choir director pays special attention to the in-depth work with the singers, dedicating numerous singing workshops with invited teachers to the development of the choir. For many years the choir has been working with outstanding Slovenian conductors such as Stojan Kuret and Petra Grassi, as well as vocal pedagogue Martina Burger. Their activities are closely linked to local, national and international projects, which they carry out in cooperation with experts, professional institutions and Slovenian and foreign schools. The choir has been collaborating with Slovenian composers (Tadeja Vulc, Ambrož Čopi, Andrej Makor, Patrick Quagiatto, Matej Kastelic, etc.) for many years, whose innovations regularly appear in their programmes. In addition to the large number of children involved, its long tradition and its involvement in the cultural environment, the choir has also achieved outstanding results in regional, national and international competitions, where both the audience and the jury are repeatedly impressed by their sonic fusion, the conviction of their interpretations and the choice of their programme. They are invited to perform throughout Slovenia and abroad, as demonstration choirs for choir training and for archive recordings at the national radio station. Choirmaster Kovačič is also the mastermind behind the Young Singers' Camp, which brings together many young singers from Primorska and beyond every summer.

ST. STANISLAV GIRLS' CHOIR, LJUBLJANA

Conductor Helena Fojkar Zupančič

St. Stanislav Girls’ Choir is one of the five high school choirs at The Diocesan Classical Gymnasium in St. Stanislav’s Institution. All forty girls of the choir, aged between 16 to 19, attend The Diocesan Classical Gymnasium. As this is a school choir, there is much turnover among singers; each year a third of the girls leave after finishing school, while new singers join. The St. Stanislav Girls’ Choir was founded based on the desire to provide musically and vocally ambitious girls the opportunity to further develop their singing ability through more demanding repertoire. Helena Fojkar Zupančič has been the choir’s conductor since its establishment in 1996. Their achievements in national and international competitions, as well as their participation at the most prominent world choir events rank the choir among the very best. St. Stanislav Girls’ Choir performed at two of the most internationally recognizable events for choral experts, namely at the IFCM World Choral Symposium 2017 and the ACDA 2018 National Convention. In the past season the choir performed a cycle of scenic concerts with the music of Hildegard from Bingen and Damijan Močnik. In October 2022 they achieved two second places in the categories of polyphony and folklore at the International Choral Competition in Tolosa. Their repertoire is very versatile – from classical choral music of various periods to vocal pop. They pride themselves in several world premiere performances of compositions by contemporary Slovene composers as well as in their performance of some larger vocal-instrumental works. The choir has been enthusiastically praised for its subtle interpretation, outstanding repertoire and colourful sonorities. The girls have fascinated the audience with their creative and vivacious performances, youthful passion and with their incredible concentration and sound accuracy at the same time.

 

KGBL CHAMBER CHOIR, LJUBLJANA

Conductor Ambrož Čopi

Choral activities at Conservatory for Music and Ballet Ljubljana (Slovenia) started progressing when composer and conductor Ambrož Čopi assumed leadership of the choir in 2010.  After four years of growing quality and various achivements at competitions, the decision to split the choir into two groups was made - one choir that consists of all the students of the conservatory that are not included in the schools' orchestras, and the other - Chamber choir - that consists of about 40 singers who are willing to improve their vocal technique, to sing a more demanding range of choral music and to reach higher performing standards. During the past three years, the assistants of the conductor were Petra Jerič, Tine Bec, Evgen Bibianko, Tom Varl, Lara Willewaldt and Rebeka Dobravec. Chamber choir regulary colaborates with vocal educators Edita Garčević Koželj and Tatjana Vasle. The KGBL Chamber choir, embraces a wide range of music genres and styles, from the Renaissance to modern music.  In the past three years the choir had commissioned many prominent composers, such as Lojze Lebič, Tadeja Vulc, Damijan Močnik, Črt Sojar-Voglar, Peter Šavli, Andrej Makor, Tine Bec, Matej Kastelic, Klara Mlakar and Jan Triler to create new compositions, which the choir successfully promotes at concerts and competitions in Slovenia and abroad.  The last three years have been very prolific for the KGBL Chamer Choir, as it achieved second and third place at the International Choral competition Talinn (Estonia, 2015); won the Grand prix in Moscow (Russia, 2016); it achieved first place at the National Choral competition ''Naša pesem'' (Our song), Maribor (Slovenia, 2016); second place at the International Choral competition ''Gallus'' Maribor (Slovenia, 2017); first place in category Polifonia and second place in category Folklore at the International Choral competition in Tolosa (Spain, 2017); first place at the International competition Cork (Irland, 2019). The choir successfully performed various concert cycles in Slovenia and abroad: Stockholm (Sweden, 2016); Borja, Ordizia, Getxo, Doneztebe (Spain, 2017); International Festvals in Basel (Switzerland, 2018); Taipei (Taiwan, 2018), Beijing (China, 2018), EC, Ljubljana (Slovenija, 2021), Torino (Italy, 2021), Tours (France, 2022) and Budapest (Hungary, 2022).

CHILDREN'S (YOUTH) CHOIR OF THE KOPER MUSIC SCHOOL, KOPER

Conductor Maja Cilenšek

Foto: Arhiv Glasbene šole Koper

was founded by Maja Cilenšek in 2004. It has won several prizes and recognitions at national and international competitions. It has also worked with renowned Slovene and foreign musicians and has been invited to various festivals both in Slovenia and abroad (Koper, Ljubljana, Graz, Chiavenna, Padova, Trieste, Bergamo). The singers are especially proud of a number of premiers of musical compositions by Sovene composers, such as Uroš Rojko, Ambrož Čopi, Bojan Glavina, Matej Bonin and Andrej Makor. On the 10th anniversary of the choir, a CD with the title Pesmi na dlani was released by the RTV Slovenia Publishing and Record Label.