As part of the jubilee 70th Ljubljana Festival, Festival Ljubljana is organising Masterclasses for the fifth year running, which will be held between 25 July and 8 August 2022 at the Ljubljana Academy of Music. As in previous years, the Masterclasses will be given by top musicians and internationally renowned music professors invited to Ljubljana by artistic director Branimir Slokar. This year there will be fourteen professors. All music students and young artists interested in gaining new experience and associating with top-flight musicians in one of Europe’s most beautiful capital cities, Ljubljana, are invited to join the programme. The application deadline is 25 May 2022.  

In 2019 Festival Ljubljana organised the first Masterclasses and it turned out that they offer young people a breadth of knowledge and experience to help set them off on a successful career. The artistic direction will be taken over by Branimir Slokar who has nurtured many outstanding trombonists over the course of his long and fruitful career. At his invitation, his colleagues – excellent musicians, soloists, and professors at renowned European musical-educational institutions who are among the best in the world – come to Ljubljana every year. This means students not only have the opportunity to practice with the best, but also enjoy excellent working conditions: spacious lecture rooms for working with their professor, passive listening in on other seminars, and practice rooms in which they can consolidate their newly acquired knowledge and skills every day. 

This year the young musicians will be taught by fourteen excellent musicians and will also have acclaimed accompanists at their disposal:

• Latica Honda-Rosenberg, violin, & Zuzanna Basinska, accompanist (25 – 30 July)
• Lana Trotovšek, violin, & Beata Ilona Barcza, accompanist (25 – 30 July)
• Hariolf Schlichtig, viola, & Jumi Sekija, accompanist (25 – 30 July)
• László Fenyö, cello, & Julia Okruašvili, accompanist (25 – 30 July)
• Božo Paradžik, double bass, & Annalisa Orlando, accompanist (25 – 30 July)
• Emanuel Abbühl, oboe, & Kimiko Imani, accompanist (1 – 6 August)
• Felix Renggli, flute, & Thomas Haberlah, accompanist (1 – 6 August)
• François Benda, clarinet, & Elina Gotsouliak, accompanist (1 – 8 August)
• Ole Kristian Dahl, bassoon, & Jelena Boljubaš, accompanist (1 – 6 August)
• Reinhold Friedrich, trumpet, & Eriko Takezawa, accompanist (2 – 6 August)
• Andrej Žust, French horn, & Maja Klinar Bertoncelj, accompanist (25 – 30 July)
• Branimir Slokar, trombone, & Mateja Hladnik, accompanist (25 – 30 July)
• Roland Szentpali, tuba, & Dalma Cseh, accompanist (1 – 6 August)
• Epifanio Comis, piano (25 – 30 July)

The programme will also include concert evenings at which the students will be able to show off their newly acquired knowledge and skills, while it will be possible to hear the professors – all top musicians – playing in special chamber concerts.

Participants have a free ticket to one Ljubljana Festival event while attending the Masterclass, and free entry to all the concerts in which professors perform (both subject to prior reservation). 

Registration for the Masterclasses will be open until 25 May 2022. For more information visit the Festival Ljubljana website.

Information / Public relations 

• Maruša Šinkovič, +386 (0)1 241 60 18, marusa.sinkovic[@]ljubljanafestival.si 
• Živa Steiner, +386 (0)1 241 60 08, ziva.steiner[@]ljubljanafestival.si