Karmen Pečar Koritnik
Karmen Pečar Koritnik was born in Ljubljana. She started studying cello at the age of five. In 2003, she obtained her certificate of secondary education at the Maribor Music and Ballet Secondary School; the same year she received her first degree at the Academy of Music at the University of Zagreb. In 2005, she also received a master’s degree in the class of Professor Valter Dešpalj. She pursued further studies under the mentorship of Professor Reinhard Latzko at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.
Karmen Pečar Koritnik came to the attention of the Slovene music community as a thirteen-year-old girl when she made a debut with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, performing Elgar’s Cello Concerto. In 2001, Karmen won the prestigious International cello competition “Dr. Luis Sigall” in Chile (Viña del Mar). In 2002, at the Eurovision Young Musicians competition, she placed third, and in 2004, at the International Cello Competition “Antonio Janigro” in Zagreb, she placed second.
As a soloist, Karmen Pečar Koritnik has already performed with numerous orchestras and ensembles. Among Slovene ones are The Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, The RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony Orchestra of Slovene National Theatre in Maribor. Outside Slovenia, she performed as a soloist with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Santiago Philharmonic Orchestra, the I Solisti di Zagreb ensemble, the Spirit of Europe orchestra, the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, The Varaždin Chamber Orchestra and the Cellomania ensemble. Karmen has worked with great conductors, such as Marek Janowski, Martin Sieghart, Marko Letonja, En Shao, Vjekoslav Šutej, Israel Yinon, Sian Edwards, Uroš Lajovic, Pavle Dešpalj, Alain Francis and David del Pino Klinge. She has played alongside many renowned artists, such as Boris Pergamenščikov, Misha Maisky, Giovanni Sollima, Gottlieb Wallisch, Melina Mandozzi, Dmitri Ferstman, Božo Paradžik, Monika Leskovar, Latica Honda-Rosenberg, Rudolf Leopold and others.
Since 2014, she has been a member of a trio consisting of Eva-Nina Kozmus (flute), Karmen Pečar Koritnik (cello), and Mojca Zlobko Vajgl (harp), and since 2021 she has been a member of a piano trio consisting of Janez Podlesek (violin), Karmen Pečar Koritnik (cello), and Aleksandar Serdar (piano).
Karmen Pečar has given concerts in Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, France, as well as Italy, the Czech Republic, Russia and Central America. As a soloist and as a member of chamber ensembles she has performed at numerous festivals, and numerous venues in Slovenia and abroad, for example at the Ljubljana Festival (Slovenia), Cankarjev dom (Slovenia), Narodni dom Maribor (Slovenia), the Dubrovnik Festival (Croatia), Cellobienale Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Varaždin Evenings (Croatia), Zadar Music Evenings in S. Donat (Croatia), Bruneck Music Evenings (Italy), and Piran/Pirano Music Evenings (Slovenia).
In 2006, the publishing house ZKP RTV Slovenija released Karmen Pečar’s first CD with her performances of Dvořák and Shostakovich Cello Concertos. Since then, she has participated in the recording of many CDs (Nejc Kuhar – composer, Marko Hatlak “The Musical Offering”, Duet Marko Hatlak & Karmen Pečar, authorial CD by the composer Črt Sojar Voglar, authorial CD by the composer Janez Matičič, “Esspressivo” together with Eva-Nina Kozmus – flute and Mojca Zlobko Vajgl – harp), and recorded numerous concerts for cello and orchestra for the Slovenian Radio and Television (Lojze Lebič, Janez Matičič, Črt Sojar Voglar, Aram Khachaturian, Edward Elgar). In 2015 her second solo CD with Beethoven and Poulenc Cello Sonatas was published for the label ZKP RTV Slovenija (her partner on piano was the outstanding austrian pianist Gottlieb Wallisch).
For many years, she was employed at the Academy of Music of the University of Zagreb as an assistant to Prof. Valter Dešpalj. Since 2007, she has been a professor of cello at the Conservatory of Music and Ballet Ljubljana. Between 2019 and 2023, she also taught at the Academy of Music of the University of Ljubljana. For many years, she has led masterclasses during the summer as part of the Bled Festival, the Podsreda Castle Musical Summer, and the Amadeo Festival. She is the artistic director of the Cellofest Ljubljana festival.
