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During individual rounds and competitions for choral conductors and choirs (14-16 March 2019), you will be able to find out more about the way the competitors work with the choir, manual techniques, interpretation, program selection...

Petra Grassi (1988) was born in Trieste (Italy) as a member of the Slovenian minority. She graduated in piano and music pedagogy at the Academy of Music in Trieste. She obtained her master's degree summa cum laude in choral conducting and composition at the Academy of music of Trentounder Lorenzo Donati. She attended masterclasses led by Gary Graden (USA, Sweden), Nicol Corti (France), Bo Holten(Danmark), Bruno Boterf(France), Stojan Kuret, (Slo/It), Daniel Reuss (Netherlands) and Nils Schweckendiek (Finland). As a member of young conductors of Tenso, the european network of professional chambers choirs, she was invited to the masterclass in Meechelen and Zagreb, where she conducted the Estonian chamber choir under the supervision of Daniel Reuss and Nils Schweckendiek. In november 2016 Petra won the 1st prize at the National competition for choral conductors “Zvok moji rok “ in Ljubljana (Slo) – (president of the jury Karmina Šilec – Slo, members). Moreover, in February 2015, she won 1st  prize at the National Choral Conducting Competition “Le mani in suono” in Arezzo (IT) - (president of the jury Nicole Corti- France) andwas a recepient of a special prize being the youngest conductor in the final round. At the International competition for young choral conductors in Torino 2015 she won the 3th prize and earned the prize for the best conductor according to the audience choice. She was invited to be the conductor of the Friuli Venezia Giulia youth choir – a project by Usci, the regional choral federation. As the chief conductor of the Dekor chamber choir from Ljubljana she led the group to an absolute 1^st prize at the national choral competition Naša pesem in Maribor (Slo) and being acknowledged as the best conductor of the competition. As the artistic leader of the female choir Kraški slavček – Krasje (Trieste), she got several national and international awards, among them: 2012, gold medal and 1^st prize in the National Choral Competition “F. Gaffurio” in Quartiano (Milan); 2013, gold medal and 1^st prize (category “equal voices”) at the International Choral Competition “Musica religiosa”in Olomouc (CH); 2014 gold medal and 1st prize (category “equal voices”) International choral competition in Bad Ischl (Austria). In April 2015, in addition to 1st prize attributed to the choir, she received a special prize as the best conductor of the competition in the Int. choral competition “Venezia in musica” in Venezia (Italy). With her vocal group Vikra from Triest (It) she won 1^st prize of the national choral competition Arezzo (It) – (president of jury Javier Busto) and1^st prize National choral competition Vittorio Veneto (IT) and the Grand prix of regional choral competition Corovivo (prize for the best conductor). She is a jury member of several national competitions (It, Slo). In the concert season 2018/19 she is going to perform three concerts with the professional Slovenian Philharmonic choir (Zbor slovenske filharmonije) . She received the “Gold sign” from Jskd Republic of Slovenia (Public found for cultural activities).

After completing his secondary education at the Ljubljana Conservatory of Music and Ballet (music theory in 1997, singing in 2003), Sebastjan Vrhovnik graduated with honours in music pedagogy under Marko Vatovec at the Ljubljana Academy of Music in 2004. Subsequently, he also completed his master’s degree in choral conducting in the class of Johannes Prinz at the University of Music and Performing arts in Graz (Austria). Since 2014 he has been an associate professor of choral conducting at the Ljubljana Academy of Music, and he has held several choral workshops in choral conducting in Slovenia and abroad. Currently, he is the conductor of the Mixed Choir Glasbena matica Ljubljana, while he has also cooperated, as guest conductor, with the Chamber Choir of RTV Slovenia, the choir of the Maribor Opera House, the female vocal group ČarniCe, the Chamber choir Dekor, the Slovene Children's Choir and the Slovene Chamber Choir. He was the conductor of the Cantemus Mixed Choir from Kamnik, the Emil Adamič Slovene Teachers’ Choir, the Mixed Choir Obala from Koper and the Tone Tomšič Academic Choir of the University of Ljubljana, with which he has recorded several CDs and won a number of first places and special prizes at various competitions.

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