Sae Lee velja za eno najvidnejših pianistk svoje generacije. Časopis Mainichi jo opisuje kot glasbenico, katere »sposobnost subtilne interakcije s soigralci, izjemno obvladovanje instrumenta in vrhunski umetniški nivo začarata občinstvo«. Rodila se je na Japonskem. Klavir je študirala na prestižni univerzi Toho Gakuen School of Music v Tokiu, zatem pa na Pariškem konservatoriju pri Michelu Beroffu in Ericu Le Sageu, kjer je z odliko diplomirala iz klavirja in komorne igre.

Zmagala je na številnih mednarodnih tekmovanjih, med drugim Città di Padova, Albert Roussel, Fnapec, Carlo Soliva in Cidade de Alcobaça. Kot solistka je nastopila s Filharmoničnim orkestrom Kansai, Sofijsko in Plevensko filharmonijo, Orkestrom Slovenske filharmonije ter Göttingenskim simfoničnim orkestrom. S številnimi orkestri je izvedla dela Haydna, Mozarta, Beethovna, Schumanna, Saint-Saënsa, Rahmaninova in Messiaena, kar priča o njenem širokem repertoarju, ki zajema klasično, romantično in sodobno glasbo.

Nastopila je tudi na koncertih ob 90. jubileju Vinka Globokarja in Lojzeta Lebiča ter 70-letnici Uroša Rojka, pripravljenih v koprodukciji New Music Foruma, Društva slovenskih skladateljev (DSS) in Cankarjevega doma, kjer je interpretirala njihova dela v okviru projektov sodobne glasbe.

Redno nastopa na festivalih in koncertnih odrih po Evropi in Aziji, med drugim na pariškem festivalu Piano à Enghien, festivalu Trieste Prima, festivalih Villa Musica, na mednarodni konferenci Nevada–Semipalatinsk pod pokroviteljstvom kazahstanske vlade in UNESCO ter v programu NHK Classic Club na japonski državni televiziji. Pojavlja se tudi v programih nacionalnega radia in televizije v Bolgariji, Sloveniji in na Japonskem. Sodeluje z vrhunskimi baletnimi umetniki, kot sta Aurélie Dupont in Kevin O’Hare.

Tekom svoje kariere je sodelovala z uglednimi dirigenti, kot so Charles Dutoit, Franck Ollu in Alejo Pérez, ter s pomembnimi skladatelji sodobne glasbe, med njimi Helmut Lachenmann in Agata Zubel. Kot komorna glasbenica nastopa z mnogimi vrhunskimi izvajalci z mednarodne in slovenske glasbene scene. Posebno mesto ima njen klavirsko-saksofonski Duo Kalypso z Miho Rogino, cenjen zaradi slogovne občutljivosti in izvirnih programov.

Sae je profesorica klavirja na Akademiji za glasbo Univerze v Ljubljani, kjer je bila izvoljena v naziv docentke za področje klavirja (2022) in komorne igre (2021). Vodila je tudi mojstrske tečaje v Franciji, na Hrvaškem, na Japonskem, v Nemčiji, na Poljskem, v Sloveniji in v Španiji. Obsežno pedagoško delo dopolnjuje z aktivnim koncertiranjem, komornimi projekti in sodelovanji z umetniki različnih ustvarjalnih področij.

After studying at the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, Sae Lee graduated with honours in piano and chamber music from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris with Michel Beroff and Eric Le Sage.

She is the first prize winner of several competitions, including the Città di Padova and Albert Roussel International Festival and chamber music competitions like the Fnapec, Carlo Soliva and Cidade de Alcobaça. She has performed at the renowned Paris Piano à Enghien Festival, at the Nevada-Semipalatinsk International Conference, which is sponsored by the Government of Kazakhstan and UNESCO, and on the Japanese national television programme NHK Classic Club.

As a soloist, she performed with several orchestras worldwide, including the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra, and Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra – she performed with them the Turangalîla’s Symphony by Olivier Messiaen. She collaborates with world-renowned ballet dancers like Aurélie Dupont (the Director of Paris Opera Ballet) and Kevin O’Hare (the Director of The Royale Ballet).

Sae is currently employed at the Academy of Music of the University of Ljubljana. “Sae Lee is one of the most sought-after collaborative pianists of her generation. Her ability to interact with other musicians with exceptional instrumental and artistic level captivate audiences”. (source: Mainich newspaper)

Vladimir Mlinarić je bil rojen 23. decembra 1964 v Pulju. Študiral je v Ljubljani (prof. Zdenka Novak) in na Dunaju (prof. Leonid Brumberg). Je dobitnik številnih nagrad na nacionalnih in mednarodnih tekmovanjih. Kot koncertant je obiskal večino evropskih držav ter ZDA, Kanado, Čile, Kitajsko in Rusijo. Igral je v komornih zasedbah z znanimi domačimi in tujimi umetniki. Kot član Tria Luwigana je prejemnik Betettove in Župančičeve nagrade.

Od leta 2002 deluje kot profesor na ljubljanski Akademiji za glasbo, od leta 2021 je predstojnik oddelka za instrumente s tipkami.

Strokovni kritiki ga ocenjujejo kot prefinjenega interpreta, ki v sebi združuje akademizem in fantazijo ter ambicijo in ljubezen do glasbe. O njegovih izvedbah pišejo kot preciznih in preglednih, o njegovem stilu pa, da je diskreten in nevsiljiv. Je član strokovnih žirij na tekmovanjih na Hrvaškem, v Srbiji, Sloveniji, Bosni, Italiji, Črni gori in Rusiji.

Vladimir Mlinarić was born on December 23, 1964, in Pula. He studied in Ljubljana with Prof. Zdenka Novak and in Vienna with Prof. Leonid Brumberg. He has received numerous awards at national and international competitions.

As a concert pianist, he has performed in most European countries, as well as in the United States, Canada, Chile, China, and Russia. He has appeared in chamber ensembles with distinguished Slovenian and international artists. As a member of the Trio Luwigana, he is a recipient of the Betetto Award and the Župančič Award.

Since 2002, he has been a professor at the Academy of Music, University of Ljubljana, and since 2021, he has served as Head of the Keyboard Department.

Music critics describe him as a refined interpreter who combines academic rigor with imagination, as well as ambition with a deep love of music. His performances are praised for their precision and clarity, while his style is noted as subtle and unobtrusive. He has also served as a jury member at competitions in Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Montenegro, and Russia.

Pianistka Tatjana Ognjanovič se je rodila v Ljubljani. Klavir se je začela učiti s štirimi leti pri Darinki Bernetič. Študij je nadaljevala pri Dubravki Tomšič-Srebotnjak na Akademijo za glasbo, kjer je leta 1986 diplomirala, kasneje pa opravila tudi umetniško specializacijo.

V letih 1986–1993 je živela na Dunaju in se je izpopolnjevala pri Hansu Petermandlu na Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst, 1991-93 pa tudi pri Viktorju Meržanovu s Konservatorija P. I. Čajkovski.

Tatjana Ognjanovič je bila dobitnica univerzitetne Prešernove nagrade za leto 1985. Je nagrajenka klavirskih tekmovanj v Zagrebu, na Dunaju, v Portu, Atenah, Valenciji in Jaenu. Trikrat je dobila tudi posebno nagrado za najboljšo izvedbo Beethovnove sonate.

Bila je gostja številnih mednarodnih festivalov kot so Ljubljana (Poletni festival), Zagreb (Bienale), Osoje (Koroško poletje), Praga (Praški junij), Kuala Lumpur (Piano festival). Koncertna pot jo je do sedaj vodila skozi petnajst evropskih držav od Portugalske do Rusije ter do Malezije in Singapura, skozi dvorane kot so Velika dvorana Musikvereina na Dunaju, Brucknerhaus v Linzu, Beethovenhaus v Bonnu, Palau de la musica v Valenciji. Poleg samostojnih recitalov je z različnimi slovenskimi in tujimi orkestri in dirigenti izvajala klavirske koncerte Mozarta, Beethovna, Mendelssohna, Schumanna, Rahmaninova, Skrjabina, Prokofjeva in Štuheca. V zadnjih letih se posveča tudi komorni glasbi: je članica klavirskega tria Amael skupaj s Volodjo Balžalorskym in Damirom Hamidulinom. S triom je junija 2006 nastopila v Carnegie Hallu v New Yorku.

Repertoar pianistke Tatjane Ognjanovič sega od baroka do najsodobnejše glasbe, vse do krstnih izvedb slovenskih skladateljev. Njeni posnetki so izšli na 8 nosilcih zvoka in obsegajo dela Turela, Srebotnjaka, Crumba, Satieja, Skrjabina in Beethovna.

Tatjana Ognjanovič je začela na Akademiji za glasbo v Ljubljani poučevati leta 1992, od njene izvolitve v naziv doc. leta 1993 pa je tu redno zaposlena. Leta 1999 ji je bil podeljen naziv izr. prof., leta 2005 pa red. prof. za klavir. Vrsto let vodi tudi poletne klavirske šole na Braču in v Škofja Loki. Bila je članica strokovnih žirij na več mednarodnih klavirskih tekmovanjih v Avstriji, med drugimi na Beethovnovem tekmovanju leta 2005 na Dunaju.

Tatjana Ognjanovič is a Slovenian pianist born in Ljubljana. She began studying piano at the age of four with Darinka Bernetič. She continued her studies at the Academy of Music, University of Ljubljana under Dubravka Tomšič-Srebotnjak, graduating in 1986 and later completing a postgraduate specialization.

From 1986 to 1993, she lived in Vienna, where she studied with Hans Petermandl at the University of Music and Performing Arts, and from 1991 to 1993 also with Viktor Merzhanov at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory.

She received the University Prešeren Award in 1985 and has won prizes at international piano competitions in Zagreb, Vienna, Porto, Athens, Valencia, and Jaén. She has also received three special awards for the best performance of a Beethoven sonata.

She has performed at numerous international festivals, including the Ljubljana Festival, Music Biennale Zagreb, Carinthian Summer, Prague Spring International Music Festival, and the Kuala Lumpur Piano Festival. Her concert career has taken her to fifteen European countries, as well as to Malaysia and Singapore, performing in major venues such as the Musikverein in Vienna, the Brucknerhaus in Linz, the Beethoven House in Bonn, and the Palau de la Música in Valencia.

In addition to solo recitals, she has performed piano concertos by composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Alexander Scriabin, Sergei Prokofiev, and Štuhec with various Slovenian and international orchestras and conductors. In recent years, she has also focused on chamber music; she is a member of the Amael Piano Trio together with Volodja Balžalorsky and Damir Hamidulin. With the trio, she performed at Carnegie Hall in New York in June 2006.

Her repertoire ranges from Baroque to contemporary music, including premieres of works by Slovenian composers. Her recordings have been released on eight albums and include works by Turel, Srebotnjak, George Crumb, Erik Satie, Alexander Scriabin, and Ludwig van Beethoven.

She began teaching at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana in 1992 and has been a full-time faculty member since her appointment as assistant professor in 1993. She was promoted to associate professor in 1999 and to full professor of piano in 2005. For many years, she has also led summer piano schools in Brač and Škofja Loka. She has served as a jury member at several international piano competitions in Austria, including the Beethoven Competition in Vienna in 2005.

Tomaž Petrač je na ljubljanski Akademiji za glasbo z odliko diplomiral v razredu prof.Dubravke Tomšič Srebotnjak. Po diplomi se je štiri leta izpopolnjeval v Baslu(Švica), kjer je v razredu prof.Rudolfa Buchbinderja ob zaključku študija prejel koncertno diplomo. Med študijem se je izpopolnjeval pri pianistih L.Brumbergu in P.B.Skodi, za komorno igro pa pri A.Janigru. Za leto 1988 mu je Univerza v Ljubljani podelila Prešernovo nagrado.

Tomaž Petrač je redni profesor za klavir na ljubljanski Akademiji za glasbo. Več kot 30 njegovih diplomantov in podiplomantov uspešno nadaljuje glasbeno pot poustvarjalcev ali pedagoških delavcev na različnih ustanovah v Sloveniji in na Hrvaškem.

Tomaž Petrač, a distinguished Slovenian pianist, was born in 1969 into a musical family in Maribor. He took his first performing steps at the local music school. To date, he has given several hundred concerts both in Slovenia and abroad.

His concert career has taken him to Italy, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Hungary, Germany, Croatia, Serbia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Albania. As a soloist, he has performed in renowned cultural centers and concert halls, including the Stadtcasino Basel, the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall and the Croatian Music Institute in Zagreb, the Kolarac Hall in Belgrade, the Army Hall in Skopje, the Cankarjev dom and the Slovenian Philharmonic Hall in Ljubljana, and the Union Hall in Maribor.

He has appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the SNG Opera and Ballet Ljubljana, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Macedonian Philharmonic, the Maribor Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Society of Slovene Composers, the FMU Orchestra in Belgrade, the Varaždin Chamber Orchestra, and the Orchestra of the SNG Maribor, among others, under the direction of conductors such as Anton Nanut, Marko Munih, Marko Letonja, Simon Robinson, Howard Rodman, Nikolai Alekseyev, Igor Gjadrov, Nikša Bareza, Srboljub Šepić, Eduard Ambarcumjan, Luca Voltolini, Tiziano Fačini, Daniel de Villiers, Johannes Bruns, Pavle Dešpalj, Emmanuel Villaume, and Philip von Steinaecker.

His extensive repertoire includes more than twenty piano concertos by composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Sergei Prokofiev, Lucijan Marija Škerjanc, Primož Šivic, and Blaž Arnič. He is also known for demanding solo recital programs, including works such as the four Ballades and four Scherzi by Frédéric Chopin, Chopin’s Second and Third Sonatas, and both books of Brahms’s Paganini Variations.

He is deeply committed to the interpretation of works by Slovenian composers and has performed numerous pieces by Primož Ramovš, Alojz Srebotnjak, Vito Ukmar, Marijan Mihevc, Davorin Bavdek, Pavel Mihelčič, Žiga Stanič, and Nenad Firšt, among others.

Petrač has recorded for RTV Slovenia, HRT, and RAI, and his recordings have been released on ten albums. He is also a dedicated chamber musician, performing with renowned artists such as Andrej Petrač, Moshe Epstein, Jovan Maksimović, Rudolf Lakatoš, Vida Vujić, Aleksander Milošev, Miran Kolbl, Karolina Šantl Zupan, and Nadja Drakslar.

He graduated with distinction from the Academy of Music, University of Ljubljana in the class of Dubravka Tomšič-Srebotnjak. After graduation, he continued his studies in Basel with Rudolf Buchbinder, earning a concert diploma. During his studies, he also trained with Leonid Brumberg and Paul Badura-Skoda, and studied chamber music with Antonio Janigro. In 1988, he received the Prešeren Award from the University of Ljubljana.

Tomaž Petrač is a full professor of piano at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana. More than 30 of his graduates and postgraduate students have successfully pursued careers as performers or music educators in Slovenia and Croatia.

Aleksandar Serdar, rojen v Beogradu, je po študiju v Novem Sadu šolanje nadaljeval v ZDA in Italiji. Na njegovo pianistično oblikovanje sta vplivala v prvi vrsti Sergio Pericaroli in Leon Fleisher.

Kot mlad pianist je sodeloval na številnih mednarodnih tekmovanjih, kjer je prejemal visoke nagrade. Med najpomembnejšimi so: Arthur Rubinstein v Tel Aviv-u, Monza-Rina Salla Galo, Vercelli, Carlo Zechhi, ki so močno vplivale na začetek njegove mednarodne glasbene kariere.

Aleksandar Serdar je igral na recitalih in nastopal z orkestri skoraj po vseh evropskih državah, v ZDA, Braziliji, Peruju, Maroku, Izraelu, na Tajskem in Japonskem. Igral je s številnimi simfoničnimi orkestri (Beograd, Bremen, Sofija, Zagreb, Torino, München, San Hose, Dresden...) in znanimi dirigenti (Jean-Claude Casadesus, Jorg Peter Weigle, Emil Tabakov, Mendi Rodan, Marcello Viotti, Michael Plason. Nastopa v različnih koncertnih dvoranah kot so: Theatre Chatelet, Auditorium du Louvre, Tonhalle in Zürich, Alice Tully hall in New York Lincoln Center in na festivalih, med njimi: “La Roque d’Antheron, Folles Journeaus in Nantes, Sully sur Loire, St. Riquier, Schleasu Holstein in Hamburg, Montpellier Festival of Radio France.
Aleksandar Serdar je prvi CD posnel za diskografsko hišo EMI in dobil izvrstne ocene glasbenih kritikov.

Ukvarja se tudi s pedagoškim delom. Od leta 1999 poučuje na Fakulteti glasbene umetnosti v Beogradu, deloval je tudi v Nišu, predava tudi na Akademiji za glasbo v Ljubljani. Od šolskega leta 2017/18 deluje tudi na Glasbeni šoli Fran Korun Koželjski Velenje.

Pogosto sodeluje kot član žirije na različnih nacionalnih in mednarodnih tekmovanjih.

Born in 1967 in Belgrade, Serbia, Aleksandar Serdar has carved an impressive path in the world of classical piano. He graduated in 1988 from the distinguished Art Academy of Novi Sad and earned his Master of Music in 1992 from the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore. Under the tutelage of Leon Fleisher for five years, he later continued his studies with Sergio Perticaroli at the Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome.

Serdar's talent has been recognized with several prestigious international awards, including Monza, Carlo Zecchi, Vercelli-Italy, Palm Beach, Cincinnati in the USA, and the Arthur Rubinstein in Tel Aviv (4th prize). His performances have taken him to esteemed venues across Italy, the United States, France, Switzerland, Russia, Israel, and many more countries.

He has collaborated with renowned orchestras such as the Dresden Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Bremen Philharmonic, Slovenian Philharmonic, and conductors like Marcello Viotti, Erich Kunzel, Leonid Grin, and Emil Tabakov. His 1998 CD, released by EMI Classics, generated significant interest from promoters and the press. Serdar's second double disc was released in Luxembourg in December 2004.

With an extensive discography under his belt, he has recorded CDs for the Serbian record label PGP, featuring Baroque repertoire, Tchaikovsky's Seasons, and works by F. Chopin. Since 1999, Aleksandar Serdar has served as a senior professor at the Academy for Music in Belgrade, Serbia, and has been teaching at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana since 2016.

In addition to his performing and teaching career, Serdar has also made a mark as a jury member at national and international piano competitions. His thoughtful musicianship, imagination, and personality have earned him accolades, such as the quote from Gramophone magazine in February 1999: "Aleksandar Serdar is clearly a thoughtful musician with imagination and personality."