RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra

The RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra is a professional symphonic orchestra. Its main task has always been both extensive studio recording (for the needs of RTV Ljubljana/Slovenia library) and live concert activities. The orchestra has made numerous recordings for the RTV house label and as well as for foreign labels and has performed with many renowned conductors and soloists.

History

RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra was established in 1955 as the Ljubljana Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra under the leadership of violin virtuoso and composer Uroš Prevoršek. Initially its musicians were mostly students from the secondary music schools and from the Academy of Music. In 1966 Samo Hubad took over leadership, which meant a huge step forward for the orchestra, not only in performing quality, but especially in extending the repertory to the works of the 20th century and lighter music genres. In 1980 its leadership was taken by Slovak conductor Stanislav Macura and in 1981 by Anton Nanut. Thereafter the orchestra embarked upon various concert tours in Europe and beyond, earning recognition in the USA in 1984 and 1985. In September 2000 Lior Shambadal became its Artistic Director, in 2003 David de Villers, and since 2006 the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra has been led by Chief Conductor En Shao.

Programme

The RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra has a broad repertoire which ranges from baroque to contemporary symphonic music, opera, oratorio and cantata, theatre and film music, with an emphasis on works written by Slovene composers. Under the baton of Anton Nanut the orchestra performed the entire cycle of Mahler symphonies to great acclaim. The orchestra's recordings have been broadcast on many RTV Slovenia Radio and TV programmes and its discography is now quite substantial, numbering more than 150 CDs to date.

While the orchestra's major activity is recording, it continues to give concerts on a regular basis, including a concert series, consisting of 8 concerts per year, in the Gallus Hall of Cankarjev dom Culture and Congress Centre. Each year it also prepares a series of matinee concerts devoted to the music of Mozart in the hall of the Slovene Philharmonics.

In the last years the orchestra has received a great amount of publicity by appearing at concerts with acclaimed Slovene rock and pop musicians. In 2004 they gave a concert with the rock group Siddharta and later followed with concerts accompanying Neisha, Jan Plestenjak, and the group Dan D.

International cooperation

The orchestra has performed under the baton of many distinguished conductors (C. Kleiber, N. Järvi, P. Steinberg, R. Weikert) and cooperated with acclaimed soloists (A. Gheorghiu, R. Alagna, M. Alvarez, M. Maisky, A. Ciccolini, R. Lupu, I. Pogorelich, M. Bekavac, I. Grafenauer, M. Lipovšek, B. Fink). In the 1990s the orchestra appeared at the Venice Biennale and the Trieste Contemporanea.

In the Autumn of 2002 the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra performed in Geneva with Vinko Globokar conducting, and toured Germany and Italy with Lior Shambadal. They appeared at the Wien Modern Festival, and the Lange Nacht der neuen Klänge events of April 2000 and March 2001 under conductor Johannes Kalitzke. In 2005 the orchestra played at the annual Mahler Festival at Toblach (Italy) and during a few recent seasons have regularly performed in the great concert hall Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. More recently the orchestra was involved in a successful collaboration with the Canadian dance company, Compagnie Marie Chouinard.

The RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra has made a lot of recordings for foreign labels (Stradivari, PMG). In the 2000/01 and 2001/02 seasons the Orchestra made a series of recordings for the Arte Nova label, giving concerts in Germany and Italy. The recording of Neville Hall's Silence Rained Down Quenching Time's Fire finished in the top 10 of UNESCO's prestigious Rostrum Competition.

External link

RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra website

RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra

Contents

History

Programme

International cooperation

See also

External link

Operated by

Financed by