Events

Lidija Horvat Dunjko, soprano
Marko Špehar, bas-bariton
Berislav Šipuš, conductor
Cantus Ensemble

 

Juraj Marko Žerovnik: Coalescence, for chamber ensemble
Krešimir Seletković: Lorem Ipsum, for bass and chamber ensemble
Milko Kelemen: Die sieben Plagen, for solo voice
Uroš Rojko: Neofonia, for chamber ensemble
Jawher Matmati: Katharsis, for alto saxophone, accordion and cello
Ivo Malec: Miniatures pour Lewis Carroll, for chamber ensemble
Maja Bosnić: A bit less DEATH and GORE, for chamber ensemble

*premiere – commissioned by the 33rd MBZ from the first recipient of the Milko Kelemen Award for young composers
**premiere – commissioned by Cantus Ensemble
***premiere

 

Writing about his work Miniatures for Lewis Carroll, Ivo Malec says: “Having been invited to compose the music for a short abstract film inspired by Lewis Carroll’s poem Jabberwocky, I was dazzled and humbled by what I was yet to discover about the work of the wonderful creator of Alice (his nonsensical poems). I quickly embraced his sense for the wonderous, the incidental, his hidden gentleness, and the joy in the effective use of meaningless words... The four Miniatures for Lewis Carroll, which are partly inspired by that film, borrow from the miniature technique their attention to detail (design and colouring of minute sonic surfaces), from Lewis Carroll’s poems they adopt an absence of ‘logical’ discourse in favour of surprise, take from the music tradition the condensed deformation of gentle, whimsical turns of phrase, and from musical taste the conscious intention to create music that develops only with clear sounds, avoiding entirely the low register.” French-Croatian composer and pedagogue Ivo Malec studied in Zagreb under the mentorship of Milo Cipra and in Paris with Olivier Messiaen, where he later collaborated with the Groupe de Recherches Musicales and taught composition at the Paris Conservatory.

 

Die sieben Plagen is a solo version of a segment of the opera Apocalyptica. The piece explores pollution and environmental destruction through apocalyptic imagery, while seven personifications of suffering deliver their messages in simple, visual language in German, French and English, in the style of Biblical poetry. Composer, pedagogue, conductor, and founder of the Music Biennale Zagreb, Milko Kelemen studied music in Zagreb and trained with Olivier Messiaen, Wolfgang Fortner, and at the Siemens Studio for Electronic Music in Munich. He taught at the Academy of Music in Zagreb, and at the conservatories in Düsseldorf and Stuttgart. He was a researcher, an adventurer, a visionary and an initiator, a true creative who captivated people’s attention with his personality and charisma.

The Cantus Ensemble has been researching and promoting contemporary music for more than twenty years, performing works by Croatian and international composers. Founded at the Zagreb Music Biennale in 2001, under the leadership of Berislav Šipuš, the ensemble has become a veritable institution on the domestic and international scene, with over 130 premieres and numerous festival appearances.

Soprano Lidija Horvat Dunjko, acclaimed for playing more than 30 opera roles on stages across the globe, today teaches at the Academy of Music in Zagreb.

Marko Špehar is an opera singer from Požega, Croatia, currently based in Stuttgart, where he is currently developing his bakery brand and the small bakery, Brotgesang.