clarinet

JOŽE
KOTAR

Professor at the Ljubljana Academy of Music and since 2007 solo clarinettist of the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra. Prior to that, he was solo clarinettist in the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra for twelve years. As a soloist, chamber musician and member of various chamber ensembles, he performs at home and abroad, conducts clarinet and chamber music seminars and participates in juries of international competitions.

flute

MATEJ
ZUPAN

Professor at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana. From 1996 to 2008 he was a solo flutist of the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra. He completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana under Prof. Fedja Rupel. He studied in Firenze with Mario Ancillotti and at masterclasses led by Trevor Wye, Michael Debost, Peter-Lukas Graf and James Galway.

violin

JANEZ
PODLESEK

Janez Podlesek is a renowned Slovenian violinist and pedagogue. He graduated from the Academy of Music in Ljubljana in the class of the renowned professor Primož Novšak, where he also graduated For 15 years he was a concertmaster at the of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chamber String Orchestra Chamber Orchestra of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra.

He is a regular member of Ensemble Dissonance and the trio Clavimerata, with whom he has recorded several CDs.He is happy and inspired mainly by his teaching work. He has taught successfully at the Ljubljana Conservatory of Music and Ballet and the Ljubljana Academy of Music, where he directs the Chamber String Orchestra and teaches violin and chamber music. In 2012 he was awarded the title of Assistant Professor of Violin and a year later he was awarded the University of Ljubljana's Festive Charter for outstanding teaching and research achievements. He participates in the ambitious EMARS project, which offers regular summer schools and violin masterclasses. Since 2018 he is a full-time assistant professor at the Ul Academy of Music.

cello

IGOR
MITROVIĆ

Igor Mitrović was born in 1968 in Beirut. He started teaching cello at the age of seven to Relja Ćetković. He studied in Ljubljana and Basel with Miloš Mlejnik and Antonio Meneses and chamber music with Walter Levin (LaSalle Quartet). During his studies, he took one year of lessons with Daniil Šafran, Janos Starker and Boris Pergamenshchikov, and in 1987 became a member of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra.

violin

WONJI
KIM-OZIM

Wonji Kim-Ozim has been teaching at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg since 2003. She has also taught at the Universities of Vienna and Bern (as an assistant at the renowned violin masterclasses of Professor Igor Ozim) and at the Universities of Graz and Klagenfurt. She has given numerous masterclasses in countries such as Switzerland, Germany, Korea, USA, Austria and Slovenia.

She has won several national competitions and has appeared as soloist with the Seoul Symphony Orchestra, the Bern Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra under Vladimir Fedoseyev, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra under Howard Griffiths and the list goes on. As a chamber musician she has appeared at the Salzburg Herbsttöne Festival, the Mattseer Diabellisommer Festival, the Ljubljana Festival and the Thomas Mann Festival in Lithuania. Her main teachers were Max Rostal and Igor Ozim.

flute

EYAL
EIN-HABAR

Flutist-conductor Eyal Ein-Habar, former first chair player of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (1997-2014), was born in Israel. Since he left the orchestra as a flute player, he has become the Head of the Orchestral training programm at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music as well as Music Director of the Classica Orchestra Rehovot and the Israel Flute Choir. Since 2016 serves as Flute Professor at the Musikhochschule Münster, Germany.

Eyal is a winner of the 1992 Scheveningen International Flute Competition, Holland, the 1996 Francois Shapira Competition, Israel, and a prize winner of the 1993 Kobe International Flute Competition, Japan. He is a recipient of America- Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarships (1983-1996). Eyal appears regularly both as a soloist and as a conductor with all the major Israeli orchestras, as well as with various orchestras around the world. He gives international recitals and master-classes and has appeared in chamber music festivals and concert tours in Israel, Europe, North and South America and Canada. He was recently a jury member of the Concours de Genève, celebrating its 75th anniversary. He was the featured soloist on the IPO’s USA tour in November 2008, performing Bernstein’s Halil in New York’s Carnegie Hall, as well as in New Jersey, Philadelphia, San Diego and Los Angeles. Flutist Eyal Ein-Habar and conductor Gustavo Dudamel received rave reviews on this tour. Eyal Ein-Habar is a founding member of the Israel Woodwind Quintet as well as the Israel Flute Choir. He has recorded chamber music with the Quintet, with the Israel Flute Ensemble and others. His recordings can be found on Centaur Records (USA), Meridian (England), IMI (Israel) and other labels. His CD, “It Takes Two to Trio” (Centaur Records) – with trios for flute, oboe and keyboard – was highly acclaimed by the American Record Guide and by Pan Magazine of the British Flute Association.