The vocal ensemble was formed in 1951 with the aim of raising the standard of Slovene vocal culture. Over the years they have also taken the culture of the old country to Slovene communities living in the United States. Besides giving concerts in Slovenia they have toured many countries and continents. During the past 50 years the Slovene Octet has performed with over 30 guest singers, has given around 4000 concerts, appeared on the stages of 40 countries – and in 36 states of the United States – and has made numerous recordings, TV programmes and films. The choir has twice won the Prešeren Prize (1957, 1964), in 1996 it was awarded the Medal of Merit for the Nation, and the gold medal of Freedom of the Republic of Slovenia.
The “founding members” marked the end of their performing careers with a tour in Slovenia and the US and a gala concert in February 1996. But this did not mean the end of the Slovene Octet: at the initiative of young singers efforts were started to carry on the traditions of the ensemble. As a result, the present chorus is relatively young. With a great deal of work and unfailing taste the young singers found their own voice under the weight of the tradition of the legendary choir, preserving the values of the past but adding the freshness and dynamism of youth. The choir remains faithful to its basic programme, embracing primarily traditional Slovene folksongs and popular songs. The choir’s repertoire also includes masterpieces by many composers in different styles.

Jos van der Kooy
Began his instrument studies at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, with Piet Kee. He continued his studies with Hans Haselböckn (improvisation), Ewald Kooiman (baroque music), Daniel Roth (César Franck), and Charles Wolff (Liszt, Réger organ works). In 1981 at the age of 30 he became the director of music and organist at the Westerkerk in Amsterdam. In 1990 he was appointed city organist in Haarlem, he is a member of the jury for the international organ competitions held in Haarlem every second year. The city’s Great Church has one of the best organs in Europe, built in 1735-36 by five-ten organ-builders under the direction of the renowned master, Christian Müller. The instrument was consecrated in 1738. The instrument has been restored a number of times, first in 1866, then in 1904, major renovation was carried out between 1959 and 1961; on its completion a gala concert was given on July 3, 1962 by van der Kooy’s teacher, Piet Kee and Albert de Klerk. Kooy is now a teacher too, teaching church music improvisation and, naturally the organ, in The Hague and in the conservatory in Alkmaar.

The orchestra was formed in 1993of the most eminent students at the Ferenc Liszt University of Music. The founder and artistic director of the ensemble is Domonkos Héja, who in 1998 won the International Conducting Competition organised by Hungarian Television. In 2001 it won the title National Youth Orchestra. This year the ensemble will make its first CD featuring dance melodies by well known Hungarian composers. Their connection with dance is recent: they perform for the evening of choreographies to music of Dohnányi in the Opera House.

Leos Janáček
In 2004 the world of culture is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of the Czech composer. The composer’s oeuvre is closely related to the work of Dvořák and Smetana. The spiritual kinship is also reflected in the fact that the compositions of Janáček too are imbued with Czech musical folklore or, more precisely, that of his native region, Moravia. He composed the Glagolitic Mass in 1926, two years before his death. Although the work is liturgical in structure and is written in an old Slav liturgical language, it is not at all a religious work: “I wanted to express my faith in the security of the nation…” said the composer. It is interesting to note that after the Festival the National Choir and the Budapest Concert Orchestra (MÁV) will also perform the work.

Czech Philharmonic Choir
The mixed choir was established in 1990 in the Moravian city of Brno. The professional choir concentrates its attention mainly on the performance of church music, oratorios and masses. They have earned acclaim in the continent’s important music centres, from Rome, through Lucerne to Stuttgart, are guests at prestigious festivals such as the Vienna Easter Festival, the Klangbogen Wien, the Lucerne Festival and, of course, the Prague Spring. Last year they participated in the Czech cultural season in France. Their artistic director Petr Fiala, conductor and composer, is professor of the Brno Conservatory.

Henrietta Lednárová
The soprano, one of the soloists for the Glagolitic mass, studied at the Bratislava Conservatory and in the college of music. Already as a student she made her international début, singing in Germany, Denmark and Great Britain. She appeared in a rarely performed Mozart opera, Lucio Silla with the Bratislava Chamber Opera and she has been invited by a number of chamber ensembles to participate in their recordings. She has performed in Vienna and Milan. Ondrej Lenard, who is well known in Budapest from the International Conducting Competition, gave her the soprano solo of the Ode to Joy in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, and she has also worked with Aldo Ceccato and Claudio Abbado.

Eva Blahová
A mezzo-soprano, her first teacher was her father, Janko Blaho. She studied in Bratislava at the Academy of Performing Arts and in Vienna (with Robert Schollum), then attended the master courses of Erik Werba (Salzburg) and Daniel Ferro (Sienna). She now teaches at the Vienna summer academy, mainly dealing with the performance of the Viennese classics. She has appeared on concert stages with such excellent partners as Ludovit Rajter, Josef Suk, Marian Lapsansky, Edita Gruberová, and Peter Dvorsky. She can also boast of famous students, such as the phenomenally talented and beautiful mezzo, Magdalena Kozena, as well as Gustav Belacek and Alina Gurina.

Martin Gurbal
Bass singer, born in 1974, another pride of Slovak voice training. He studied at the Košice conservatory and joined the Ostrava Opera House in 2001. In the same year he made his début in Hungary singing the bass solo in Verdi’s Requiem together with an international line-up at the Bartók+Verdi Miskolc International Opera Festival. He has entered and won prizes in a number of Czech and Slovak singing competitions. He makes regular appearances with the Košice and Žilina symphony orchestras and is a guest artist of the opera company of the Slovak National Theatre (Košice).

Mendelssohn: Lobgesang
In 1840 Germany celebrated the 400th anniversary of book printing, the epoch-making invention of Johann Gutenberg. A whole series of studies, commemorations, works of literature and art were produced for the great occasion and the German composers of the time also made their contributions. Two compositions by Mendelssohn, the Festgesang and above all the Lobgesang, the composer’s vast symphony for orchestra, chorus and three solo voices, stand far above the works which included Lortzing’s opera about Hans Sachs.
The composer conducted the first performance on June 25 in the Thomas Church in Leipzig, with more than five hundred singers and musicians, and the work soon gained enormous popularity throughout Europe, especially in the cities of England famed for their flourishing oratorio culture.
The Lobgesang, or “Hymn of Praise” is a symphony with a vocal part in the final movement, similarly to Beethoven’s Ninth. This grandiose, oratorio-like conclusion in ten parts forms the backbone of the work, the first three movements in a way prepare the artists for performance of the last movement and the listeners for its reception.
Mendelssohn used Old Testament texts for the Lobgesang oratorio, setting them to music in Martin Luther’s German translation. He rightly thought that anyone who made these sacred texts previously available only to the privileged part of the common treasure was following the footsteps of the great reformer and of Gutenberg. No doubt he also had in mind the example of Johann Sebastian Bach as it was Mendelssohn who played a major role in the rediscovery and performance of the Saint Matthew Passion.

Established in 1948 by Gábor Baross, conductor and artistic director of the choir. An internationally renowned ensemble, it has given guest performances throughout Europe and the US, won international competitions and represented Hungarian choral culture at world festivals. It regularly gives concerts with the University Concert Orchestra and featuring leading instrumental and vocal soloists.