OPERA FANTASIES

Pianist Andreja Kosmač graduated from the Academy of Music of the University of Ljubljana in the class of Dubravka Tomšič Srebotnjak. She broadened her horizons at the Vienna Music Conservatoire with professor Martyn van den Hoek and has attended master classes with well-known pianists such as J. Lateiner, L. Brumberg, S. Falvai, R. Varda in O. Maisenberg. As a student she took part in several competitions and gave concerts in Slovenia, Austria, Italy and the United Kingdom. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the Mozart Piano Competition Ljubljana (1991), the National Young Piano Players Competition in Celje and Ljubljana (1992, 1995) and the International Piano Competition Konzerteum in Greece (1995). In 1996 she received the Prešeren Prize of the Academy of Music for her recital in Zemono mansion. She has also performed as a soloist with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra and the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra. In 2004 she performed in Moscow with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra Kremlin. Currently she performs mostly as a chamber musician with renowned Slovenian and foreign artists, primarily singers and flutists. Often she accompanies at masterclasses lead by esteemed artists. She teaches at the Ljubljana Conservatory for Music and Ballet. She is also active as an accompanist at the Academy of Music of the University of Ljubljana.

Matej Zupan is professor of flute at the Academy of Music of the University of Ljubljana. From 1996 to 2008 he was the principal flutist of the Slovenian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra. He began his flute studies at the Zagorje ob Savi primary music school, where his first teacher was multi-instrumentalist Ivan Jerin. He went on to study at the Secondary School for Music and Ballet Ljubljana with prof. Jože Pogačnik. He completed his graduate and post graduate studies at the Academy of Music of the University of Ljubljana with prof. Fedja Rupel and went on to pursue advanced studies in Florence, Italy, with Mario Ancillotti. He has attended masterclasses led by Trevor Wye, Michel Debost, Peter-Lukas Graf and James Galway, and is a member of numerous chamber ensembles including the ARIART woodwind quintet, the Academia Ars Musicae Chamber Orchestra and the contemporary music ensemble MD7. From 2010 to 2015 he was president of Jeunesses Musicales Slovenia. As a soloist and member of various chamber ensembles he has performed in Europe, North and South America, and Asia. He has made numerous recordings for Slovenian Radio and TV, RAI and ÖRF, and has recorded five solo CDs and six CDs with Ariart and MD7. He has led flute seminars in Croatia, England, Austria, Italy, Serbia, Greece, Luxembourg, Brazil and the Unites States, and was a jury member at different international competitions in Slovenia, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and the United States.