The focus of this year’s festival programme is on the younger generation of established artists who have made their way to the concert stage with numerous awards at major competitions and performances at renowned festivals around the world.

Sandro Compagnon (France), Xavier Larsson Paez (Spain), Alessandro Malagnino (Italy) and Nikita Zimin (Russia) are coming to Slovenia for the first time and will present original works for saxophone from the 20th and 21st centuries, as well as arrangements of the “iron repertoire” of composers Claude Debussy, Cesar Franck, Paul Hindemith and Sergei Prokofiev.

ll four artists will be accompanied by the outstanding pianist Sae Lee, whose accomplished piano playing and exceptional sense of chamber musicianship will accompany them on two concert evenings.

On the third evening, we will hear a trio with the Slovenian ensemble of Oskar Laznik (saxophone), Matej Grahek (flute) and Tadej Horvat (piano). These superb artists are preparing a varied concert programme with original works by Slovenian and foreign composers, as well as an interesting arrangement of Ravel’s Sonatina for piano.

The ultimate concert of the festival will be dedicated to the Saxophone Summer School, which traditionally concludes with a closing concert by the participants of the classical and jazz saxophone workshops – All Together Now. The final concert offers young saxophonists the opportunity to perform on the concert stage. For many of the participants, this is also their first experience of performing at a festival venue, which is of great importance and invaluable in these days. Under the watchful eye and guidance of the workshop and master class teachers, participants will study for a joint performance during the Saxophone Summer School, very often forging unique personal bonds that continue and deepen from junior high school through the Conservatoire of Music and into the academic world.

JAN GRIČAR
artistic director SAXGO for classical saxophone

Jan Gričar (1992) belongs to the young prosperous Slovenian saxophone generation. He graduated with the highest grade ‘summa cum laude’ from the Academy of Music in Ljubljana in the classes of professors Matjaž Drevenšek and Miha Rogina. He continued his studies in France where he was a student of professor Vincent David at the Regional Conservatory in Versailles. He finished his master studies at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris in the class of professor Claude Delangle, where he also got a degree in chamber music in the class of professor Laszlo Hadady. He performs all over Slovenia and Europe as well as in Japan. As a soloist he has so far performed with the Vienna Symphonic orchestra, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, RTV Slovenia Symphonic Orchestra, Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra. He has worked with the Ensemble Intercontemporain and renowned conductors such as En Shao, Matthias Pintscher, Anton Nanut and Marko Letonja. Gričar placed first in many national and international competitions such as TEMSIG – Slovenian Music Competition for Youth, Fiorindo International Music Competition, SVIREL – International Music Competition, International saxophone competition in Nova Gorica, etc. He was presented with the Škerjanc Award for special achievements in music by the Ljubljana Conservatory of Music and Ballet and two other significant awards by the University of Ljubljana, the Prešeren Award and the Outstanding Academic Achievement Award. He was also a Zois Scholarship holder of the Ministry of Culture Slovenia for many years. He works as a professor of saxophone and chamber music at the Music and Ballet Conservatory in Ljubljana.

www.jangricar.com