Jan Gričar: SAXGO26 classical saxophone

On its 29th anniversary, the festival section for classical saxophone – SAXGO26 will bring two evenings of exceptional musical performances that will offer the audience an insight into the diversity and expressive power of the saxophone.

The first concert of the classical section of the SAXGO26 festival, which will be held on Tuesday, August 25, 2026, this year belongs to two participants of the jubilee 10th edition of the International Saxophone Competition SAXGO25, which took place in our house between November 24 and 28, 2025. Under the title SAXGO25 PRESENTS, the highest-rated Italian competitor Salvatore Miceli and the highest-rated Slovenian competitor Vid Verdinek will perform. They will be accompanied on the piano by the talented Slovenian pianist Lian Pucihar.

The second classical concert of the SAXGO26 festival, scheduled for Thursday, August 27, 2026, will, as is tradition, be designed by the mentors of the classical saxophone workshop of this year’s Summer Saxophone School. Accompanied by the indispensable and irreplaceable pianist Sae Lee, three pedagogues and concertants will present themselves, by building their careers, among other things, with high rankings at the SAXGO International Saxophone Competition in Nova Gorica. Slovenian saxophonist Domen Koren won 3rd place here in 2016 and 2022, while Finnish saxophonist Kalle Oittinenin 2016 and Japanese saxophonist Kenta Saito in 2018. They both gained the 2nd place.

The festival will close on Friday, August 28, 2026, with the closing Summer Saxophone School concert of the ALL TOGETHER NOW, at which the participants of the classical and jazz saxophone workshops will present themselves, accompanied by their mentors/teachers. For many participants, this is also their first experience performing at a festival venue, which is of extraordinary importance and invaluable value in today’s times.

Jan Gričar belongs to the younger generation of successful Slovenian musicians. He graduated with honors from the Academy of Music in Ljubljana in the classes of Professors Matjaž Drevenšek and Miha Rogina. He continued his musical career in France, where he studied at the Regional Conservatory in Versailles with Professor Vincent David and successfully completed his master’s degree at the prestigious Conservatory of Music in Paris in the class of Professor Claude Delangle. He also completed his undergraduate studies in chamber music with Professor Laszlo Hadady. He regularly performs on numerous music stages in Slovenia, Europe and Japan. As a soloist, he has performed with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra and the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra. In his career so far, he has collaborated with the Ensemble Intercontemporain and renowned conductors such as En Shao, Matthias Pintscher, Anton Nanut and Marko Letonja. Gričar is the first prize winner of numerous national and international competitions – TEMSIG, Marco Fiorindo, SVIREL, the International Saxophone Competition in Nova Gorica, etc. For his exceptional achievements in the field of music, he received the Škerjanč Award from the Ljubljana Conservatory of Music and Ballet, the Prešeren Award and the Ceremonial Certificate for the best academic achievements from the University of Ljubljana. He was a multi-year recipient of the Zois Scholarship and a scholarship holder from the Ministry of Culture. He works as a teacher at the Ljubljana Conservatory of Music and Ballet, where he teaches saxophone and chamber music.

www.jangricar.com