SToP Slovene Percussion Project

Group portrait of the SToP Slovene Percussion Project, 2009

Founded in 1999, the SToP Slovene Percussion Project is a percussion ensemble whose members aim to combine chamber music and experimentation with new music and diverse sounds and instruments. The group's projects include a broad range of musical events, which sometimes include percussion workshops and theatre performances. Openness to music influences and new ideas leads the academic percussionists, gathered in group SToP, into interesting projects. Their ability and desire to make strictly classical concerts, concerts featuring their own compositions of modern and electro-acoustic percussion music, validate the uniqueness of the group in Slovenia and abroad.

All 7 members of the group are young Slovene musicians, who individually play in the Slovene Philharmonic Orchestra as well as a range of different brass bands and chamber ensembles (for example, MD7 Ensemble, Slavko Osterc Ensemble). They all also have solo careers.

Members and repertoire

The members of the group Davor Plamberger, Barbara Kresnik, Matevž Bajde, Franci Krevh, Dejan Tamše, Tomaž Lojen and Damir Korošec, come from Maribor, Slovenj Gradec, Ljubljana, Celje and Velenje. The SToP repertoire consists mostly of 20th- and 21st-century classical music, as well as contemporary, electrical-acoustic music and compositions by the group's members. The group also aims to bring well-known contemporary percussion works to the Slovene stage as well as to participate in a variety of projects that incorporate different artistic genres from choral music to contemporary dance performances. Some compositions have been specially commissioned by StoP from Slovene and foreign contemporary composers. The group presents around 30 concerts each year, many of which are aimed at young audiences and have an educational purpose. The group strives to introduce to their audience, through their musical events and workshops, a broad variety of classical and ethnological instruments as well as unconventional instruments like kitchen utensils, car brakes, screws, and hammers. The percussion group introduced such various instruments and different techniques of playing with the works of renowned composer Manfred Menke in a performance called Small Kitchen Music.

Projects and concerts

In October 2009, SToP played works by Edgard Varèse with the Slowind Quintet at the Slowind Festival in Ljubljana. The group also collaborated that same year with the choreographer Matjaž Farič and pianist Milko Lazar in the performance Shiver: Sound on Skin [Srh: Zvok na koži] which premiered at Cankarjev dom. The production, produced by Flota Institute, was selected for the 6th Balkan Dance Platform held in Ljubljana in April 2011 and later invited to the festival euro-scene Leipzig (Germany), for a performance in November 2011.

In 2010, the group collaborated with the Japanese percussionist Haruka Fujii, with whom they toured Slovenia with performances that combined both Asian and Slovene drumming traditions. SToP has also played with the Slovene Philharmonic String Chamber Orchestra in Sombor (Croatia) and with the percussion group Bing Bang in Zagreb (Croatia). Several internationally-renowned percussionists and composers, including Chou Weng Chung, Nebojša J. Živkovič, and Bernhard Wulff, have worked with SToP. The group has toured to Spain, Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Montenegro, Lithuania, and South Korea. Highlights of 2011 also include a collaboration with the recognised Brazilian composer and percussionist Ney Rosauro and a performance of his works in October at the House of Culture (Hiše kulture) in Celje.