Festival Slowind
Prešernov trg 1, SI-1000 Ljubljana
Phone386 (0) 41 371 370
Organised bySlowind
Matej Šarc, President
Frequencyannual
Festival dates5.11.2018 - 20.11.2018
Contact
The organisers decided that the 20th edition of the festival (2018) is also going to be its last.
Archival article
Background
The annual Slowind Festival was set up with the intention of commissioning new compositions from Slovene and international composers for the wind quintet as well as presenting well-known and seldom performed compositions from the 20th-century chamber music repertoire. It was initially run as a concert cycle and only in 2005 condensed into its present festival form.
Its founders and main organisers, the Slowind Quintet, are all soloists of the Slovene Philharmonic Orchestra, with the event headed by the oboist Matej Šarc. They partake in the festival in various ways, often also commissioning new works either for their ensemble or for the artists involved.
Conceptual focus
Each year the music curation is entrusted to another composer with whom the organisers set the main theme (and tone) of the festivals.
Some of the recently chosen curators were the French composer Brice Pauset (he built the programme around the idea of mingling early music with new works, a concept also explored by the chosen curator of 2013, the young German composer Matthias Pintscher), the famed Slovene composers Vinko Globokar and Vito Žuraj, the Canadian flautist and composer Robert Aitken (he focused the festival on Japanese avantgarde music, modernist as well as contemporary); and Neville Hall, who took care of the first condensed edition in 2005.
Repertoire
The festival's repertoire includes contemporary, often commissioned new works written for the Slowind ensemble, yet also works for a number of different chamber, electro-acoustic or bigger orchestral groups, which (can) feature wind instruments in a leading role. New works by young Slovene composers like Nina Šenk and Bojana Šaljić Podešva are often presented.
Works by composers such as E. Carter, V. Globokar, Lojze Lebič, W. Rihm, E. Varèse, K. Stockhausen, L. Berio, G. Ligeti, and P. Boulez get to be frequently featured in the programme.
International participation
The Slowind Festival features many international musicians, who perform contemporary pieces together with the Slowind Quintet.
Guest musicians featured at the festival include the oboist Heinz Hollinger, trombonist Ivo Nilsson, flautist Robert Aitken, harpist Coline-Marie Orliac, violinist and conductor Arvid Engegård, mezzo-soprano Barbara Jernejčič Fürst, hornist Andrej Žust, the Ensemble Aleph, Ensemble S, Accroche Note, Quartetto Prometeo, the ensemble SurPlus, Académie des Secrets, the Dissonance String Quartet, SToP Slovene Percussion Project, Drumartica, etc.
The festival programme is regularly recorded and broadcast by Radio Slovenia, and the concert recordings are also played by foreign radio stations, including BBC 3, Dutch Radio and others.
