After an intense week at the studio 26 of RTV Slovenia in Ljubljana, I am pleased to announce that the recording process of the project “The Port of Life - Enso” has reached a conclusion! The album is planned to be released this summer, more details about exact date and album distribution coming soon!
Read MoreWhat is becoming an already annual gathering of some of the most prominent and established jazz musicians and mentors in the world, the Creative Jazz Clinic Velenje 2019 created and curated by Jure Pukl took place between February 18 and 23rd. For 2nd year in a row, I was teaching counterpoint, harmony and composition in realm of my larger project “Tension and Texture” and had a pleasure of working with devoted and extremely talented students for an entire week.
To be in company of names such as Jeff “Tain” Watts, Han Bennink, Howard Curtis, Jure Pukl, Joe Sanders, Joel Ross, Jani Moder, Jonathan Kreisberg, Ben Van Gelder, Peter Evans, Melissa Aldana, Danny Grissett, Mike Janisch and Emilia Martensson and Miha Koren is needless to say an honour and a privilege. I thank Jure Pukl for inviting me in such company for 2nd year in a row. I hope to see you soon again!
Read MoreOn February 18th and 19th I had an immense pleasure of hearing for the first time my string orchestra concerto coming to life. I completed the piece in early february and besides composing it, I also had a pleasure of conducting it. Thank you dear orchestra and everyone that was in any involved in making this one happen, especially Alja Kramar and Rudi Pančur from Radio 1 of RTV Slovenia.
Read MoreI am extremely thrilled to announce that my “The New Standards Trio” featuring the incredible pianist Emmet Cohen and bassist Russell Hall will be touring Slovenia and Croatia from October 6th to October 13th, promoting music from our “fresh out of the oven” album “A Love Lane Nocturne” which will be released days prior to the tour. We’ll be making stops all over the country, but you can find the full schedule under section “Live Shows”. We hope to see you on one or more the shows! P.S.: there will be albums for sale as well! :)
Read MoreIt is completely fair to say that a new instrument to a musician is like a new breath of fresh air, new inspiration and in most perfect cases even a new beginning. Master Kruno Levačić has once again caused the latter in my playing as he have created a beautiful new instrument, a beautiful 21” inch new ride cymbal that will definitely contribute in perfecting the sound I am envisioning for my new record with “The New Standards Trio”. With it’s definite stick sound on top and dark rich (in tune!) overtones, it’s a highly inspiring instrument for me to play on and more than ever I look forward to go in studio now! Thank you for your work and mastery, Kruno!
Read MoreOn August 8 & 9, the off days during the workshop I participated in Tainach, Austria, I decided to take the trip and pay the visit to beautiful and well preserved composing huts in Steinbach am Attersee and Maiernigg am Worthersee ,where on my favorite composers (for a while now), the genius Gustav Mahler has composed his monumental 2nd and 3rd (Steinbach) and 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th & 8th symphony (Maiernigg am Worthersee). I was mesmerized as I approached the place where the magic has happened little over 110 years ago and in the process also took some pictures and videos. Hope you enjoy:
Read MorePartially due to the successful workshop at the Creative Clinic Velenje in 2018, partially due the reputation, I have just received a call from a master saxophonist, a winner of prestigious Thelonious Monk Saxophone competition Melissa Aldana, who have just received a commission from the Jazz Gallery to an evening worth of new music. She decided to focus on the story of Frida Kahlo both as point of direction and inspiration and have asked me if I could be her copyist and composing assistant, an incredible offer to which I gladly replied: YES! In following three months, we will be working on her new music, and after that we will continue with lessons in counterpoint, composition and also digital notation.
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