SIBRASS CONCERT CYCLE 2022
Program
Živa Žohar, trumpet
Bojana Karuza, piano
Ana Knez, bass trombone
Mateja Hladnik, piano
Živa Žohar from the town of Celje is a third-year undergraduate student of trumpet at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana under professor Franc Kosem. Her musical path began under the music teacher Milan Majcen, who taught her in the periods 2006–2014 while at the Celje Music School and 2015–2019 while she was in secondary school at the Celje 1st Gymnasium. Žohar is a regular contestant at music competitions and has had several notable achievements: first prize in the B category at the “Davorin Jenko” International Competition in Belgrade, Serbia (February 2016); first prize and all 100 points in the D category at the Woodwind & Brass International Competition in Varaždin, Croatia (April 2016); first prize, a golden plaque, and special recognition for the best performance of the compulsory composition at the TEMSIG competition of young musicians of the Republic of Slovenia (2017, IIa category), and first prize and the “Laureate” title at the “Davorin Jenko” International Competition in Belgrade, Serbia (2018, C category). She has collaborated with reputable ensembles – mainly youth – such as the European Spirit of Youth Orchestra (ESYO), and has as well performed as a soloist with the Symphony Orchestra and Youth Wind Orchestra of the Celje Music School (2018, 2019). In May 2022, she performed a recital within the scope of the Glasbeni Samovar (Eng. “Musical Samovar”) cycle. She has been upgrading her education by studying under musicians such as Fruzsina Hara, Reinhold Friedrich, Thomas Gansch, Håkan Hardenberger, Nenad Marković, Kristian Steenstrup, Jeroen Berwaerts, etc.
Ana Knez began her musical path by learning the violin under professor Nina Grošelj. After finishing the music primary school programme, she began to learn the trombone under professor Martin Šmon at the Slovenj Gradec Music School. In 2014, she continued her education at the Maribor Conservatory of Music and Ballet, where she studied bass trombone under professor Mihael Švagan. During the course of her schooling, she partook in several competitions and won a golden plaque and first prize for garnering 100 points at the Woodwind & Brass International Competition in Varaždin, Croatia (2015 and 2016); 100 points, a golden plaque, first prize, and other special prizes at the TEMSIG competition (2017 and 2020); and first prize, a golden plaque, and the “Laureate” title at the Woodwind & Brass International Competition in Varaždin (2017). Furthermore, in 2018, Knez was awarded the “Dr Roman Klasinc” Diploma bestowed on the best musicians by the Maribor Conservatory of Music and Ballet. She is continuing her studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz under professors Wolfgang Strasser and David Luidold. In February 2019, she was the only brass musician to receive a golden plaque in the Virtuoso 20-26 category at the Vienna International Music Competition. She collaborates with ensembles such as the Symphony Orchestra of the Maribor Slovene National Theatre, the Graz Opera Philharmonic Orchestra, the Morphing Orchestra, Ensemble Kontrapunkte, the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, and the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra. In March 2018, she made it into the Slovene finals in the Eurovision Young Musicians competition. Knez has upgraded her knowledge in seminars with professors such as Dušan Kranjc, Györg Gyivicsan, Roger Bobo, Simone Candotto, Stefan Schulz, Dave Taylor, Jonas Bylund, Erik Hainzl, Henning Wiegräbe, and Charles Vernon.
Bojana Karuza comes from Split, Croatia, where she graduated from the secondary school for music. Afterwards, she went on to study at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana under professor Dubravka Tomšič Srebotnjak. During her university years, she won several awards and recognitions, and performed with orchestras. She works at the Academy of Music, where she collaborates with younger as well as established artists, whom she accompanies on the piano in master classes as well as at international competitions.
Mateja Hladnik graduated from the Ljubljana Academy of Music, where she is currently employed as an accompanist. She often plays musical accompaniment at competitions, auditions, summer schools, recordings, and concerts. She enjoys creative collaboration with students and professors, whose creativity is a source of inspiration for her.
George Enescu’s life and work was divided between Paris and Bucharest; he was also a conductor leading numerous, especially American, orchestras. He demonstrated exceptional musical talent already as a child. He first studied at the Vienna Conservatory; however, his studies at the Paris Conservatory, which he attended starting in 1895 at the age of fifteen, left a more powerful imprint on his work as a composer. There, he studied violin under Martin Pierre Marsick, composition under Jules Massenet and Gabriel Fauré, and harmony under André Gedalge. The latter described the young Enescu as “the only one among the students that truly possessed good ideas and spirit.” Enescu’s musical style exhibits influences from Romanian folk music, which he managed to subtly include in his artistic expression. His works are imbued with folk tunes and his masterly feel for instrumentation. Legend for Trumpet and Piano (1906) was composed as a trial composition for the annual music competition at the Paris Conservatory. This short tune, dedicated to the Conservatory’s trumpet professor Merri Franquin, is technically demanding and very diverse in character. The composer’s performance indications listed in the score, such as soft, hesitant, gracious, melodious, fierce, dreamy, etc., reveal the broad acoustic possibilities of the trumpet.
Nina Šenk, one of the most prominent Slovene creators of contemporary music, composed the original version of One’s Song in 2012 for solo horn. In subsequent years, the composition saw several adaptations: first for horn, violin, cello, and accordion, then for trumpet and accordion (and/or ensemble), and eventually for solo trumpet (One’s Song III). The latter is intended to be performed on a specially adapted, double-bell trumpet, one of which has a mute installed the entire time, while the other one does occasionally. Regarding the fundamental idea behind this piece, some years ago Šenk wrote the following: “This is the song of a person who, on one hand, is trying to accept solitude, while on the other struggling for a better life and gazing hopefully towards the future. The dualism of these two themes is resolved by means of a series of melodic lines in opposition with long pedal tones and by seeking balance between them.”
Théo Charlier was an extraordinary trumpeter and one of the central musical figures in Belgium at the end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries. He was one of the first to prefer playing the trumpet to the then prevalent cornet. Furthermore, in April 1889 he was one of first musicians of his time to perform Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2. Furthermore, his composing oeuvre, imbued with influences from French music, is not negligible either – although not sizeable – and is an important contribution to music for the trumpet. Especially valuable in this regard are his 36 Transcendental Etudes for Solo Trumpet and his Solo de Concours (Eng.: “Solo for a Competition”) is also interesting. This relatively short composition written in the manner of virtuoso Romantic works comprises the following three sections with two faster and technically more demanding parts characterised by notable virtuosity and rapidly changing moods on each end encapsulating the slower and more melodious central part.
Charlier’s contemporary, Joseph Guy Ropartz, began his musical path by playing the cornet, horn, and double bass in a local orchestra. Initially, he studied with the Jesuits and graduated in law and literature in Rennes. In his early twenties, he went to Paris to fulfil his desire to study music. He entered the Paris Conservatory, studying under Théodore Dubois and Jules Massenet. Subsequently, he studied under the Belgian-born César Franck, one of the pillars of French music Romanticism, whose ideas regarding the cyclical nature and treatment of chromatic harmony were the most influential as regards Ropartz’s compositional style. Following his graduation, in 1894 Ropartz was appointed director of the Nancy Conservatory, which he turned into one of the most reputable music institutions in France. A quarter of a century later, he managed to do something similar while he was director of the Strasbourg Conservatory. After retirement, he withdrew to his native Brittany. Andante et Allegro, a two-partite composition and yet another one presenting the broadest possible sound spectrum and characteristics of the trumpet, is dedicated to a professor of trumpet at the Nancy Conservatory, Prof. Richert. In 1903, this piece was included in the compulsory programme of the musical instrument contest at the Paris Conservatory.
Ernst Sachse, born in the city of Altenburg south of Leipzig, is a somewhat less renowned German musician and composer from the first part of the 19th century. His first assignment was as a trumpeter at the court ensemble in Weimar under the direction of Johann Nepomuk Hummel and Franz Liszt. Sachse was an extremely talented musician, performing also as soloist – he was principal trombone for the premiere of Wagner’s Lohengrin. His relatively extensive composing oeuvre encompasses more than one hundred etudes for trumpet, some chamber music pieces, music for various wind orchestras, and two solo pieces for trombone – Concertino in B Major for regular trombone and Concertino in F Major for bass trombone. The latter, authored by Martin Göss, is actually an adaptation of the former transposed by a perfect fourth interval. The composition is a three-partite concert piece, which features bass trombone as a versatile solo instrument.
Concert Allegro for tuba and piano is a composition by the exceptional Russian tubist and composer Alexey Lebedev (1924–1993), whose composing and teaching were often intertwined. From 1950 onwards, he worked at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, first as a teacher and subsequently as a professor. He composed numerous etudes and exercises for tuba and piano, and also adapted numerous pieces composed by his contemporaries. Two of his works for tuba were composed while still a student, before starting his work at the Conservatory. In 1947, he enriched the then relatively scanty tuba repertoire with Concerto No. 1, and two years later with Concert Allegro, a dynamic one-partite composition featuring a lithe tuba part and frequent transfers between registers; its melodic and harmony-related characteristics are quite analogous to brass quintets written by Lebedev’s contemporary Victor Ewald.
Eugène Bozza, a French composer whose unique musical expression reflects influences of the French Impressionists (Debussy), the music of older musical eras (J. S. Bach), jazz (Milhaud), as well as Neo-Classicism (Milhaud, Stravinsky), contributed three chamber pieces to the standard oeuvre for bass trombone. New Orleans was the last of three pieces Bozza, which composed between 1953 and 1962. At first, it was intended for bass saxhorn, but since this instrument soon fell into obscurity the piece was subsequently re-envisioned for bass trombone. The jazzy motifs of the composition develop from the introductory ballad-like atmosphere through to the livelier finale. As is evident from the title, the piece was primarily inspired by the principal musical culture of New Orleans, the Mecca of jazz.
Eric Ewazen, a contemporary American composer, as a general rule, does not apply modernist or other inventive means of expression but rather follows the example of classical structural forms. Therefore, it is not surprising that his oeuvre mostly consists of solo concertos for various groups of instruments, especially wind and brass. His Concerto for Tuba or Bass Trombone and Orchestra was composed in the mid 1990s, originally as Sonata for Tuba and Piano (1994-1995), written for the tubist Karl Kramer. A year later, Ewazen adapted the Sonata for orchestra and added a cadence, while in 1997 a version for bass trombone and orchestra appeared. Concerto comprises classic movements characteristic of tri-partite concert forms, which follow one another in a fast-slow-fast manner. On this occasion, the audience will hear the sonata-allegro form with an Andante con moto tempo, which poses abundant technical and musical challenges for the trombone player.
