The beginnings of Roman Berger’s music activity are to be sought in the area of piano play, to which he dedicated himself intensively first as a performer and later also as a composer. His most dramatic development as a composer took place in the 1960s. During that time, from the specific world of piano literature and from seeking his personal approach to the peak expressions of the 20th-century music (Suite in Ancient Style for Strings, Percussion and Keyboard Instruments), Berger moved over to the position of avant-garde handling of the orchestral sound and electronic medium. The other focus of Berger’s music is chamber music, which, by quantity, outweighs his orchestral works. It clearly displays the characteristic features of the author’s thinking – his concentration on the shape of the motif, on the logic of its development, creation of large form sections in which the motivic work is afforded time for realisation. Such concept goes hand in hand with his orientation on contemplative comprehension of music and art in general, perhaps best represented by his composition De profundis. In the second half of the 1980s and in the 1990s Berger’s harmonic language began to encompass simpler elements in the spirit of acceptance of expressive qualities of the “traditional” consonant intervals and harmonies, with the integrity of his artistic attitude remaining untouched.
Braňo Dugovičclarinet
is a Slovak musician who focuses predominantly on the clarinet and bass clarinet play. He is currently working at the Department of Music Education of Comenius University’s Faculty of Education. He has cooperated with a number of Slovak and foreign artists, e.g. Nikolaj Nikitin, Jana Kirschner, and the orchestras Cappella Istropolitana, Slovak State Philharmonic Košice, and many others. As a solo and chamber player he has made recordings for plenty of labels, e.g. Music Fund Slovakia, Music Centre Slovakia, Diskant, Real Music House, Naxos, Orange Mountain Music/Hevhetia. He has given lectures within the VENI Academy project. He has premiered and recorded numerous works by Slovak composers (Berger, Zeljenka, Kupkovič, Adamčiak, Irshai, Krák, Lejava…), many of which were dedicated to him. He has recently attracted the attention of both specialist and non-specialist public by publishing two solo albums containing mostly his own compositions: Cross-Country Skiing (Real Music House, 2018) and 10 Simple Melodies (Real Music House, 2019). Among others, he worked with the London producer and musician Eddie Stevens on both of them. As part of the tour related to the Cross-Country Skiingalbum, the trio consisting of Branislav Dugovič, Eddie Stevens and Daniel Matej gave concerts in Bratislava, London, Prague and Olomouc, where they concluded the legendary PAF festival.
Xénia Jarová
piano
Born in Prešov, Xénia Jarová is a graduate of the Academy of Performing Arts, where she studied under Ida Černecká, Magdaléna Bajuszová and Mária Heinzová. She is active in solo and chamber repertoire on stages in Slovakia and abroad, cooperating with many Slovak performers and frequently performing original Slovak works. She is a member of the NGO Albrechtina and the Johann Matthias Sperger Chamber Soloists. Together with her husband, double bassist Filip Jaro, she forms the chamber Sperger Duo.
Quartetto Istropolitana
Július Horváth1.violin
While still a Conservatory student, the violinist Július Horváth was a member of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, conducted by Claudio Abbado. Based on an audition and his study results he received a scholarship of the Alban Berg Stiftung. In 1995–2006 he worked in Cappella Istropolitana, the chamber orchestra of the city of Bratislava. From 2006 he was a member of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Málaga and the quartet Alboran together with his brother Jozef. He returned from Spain in 2011 and currently works as a teacher at the Conservatory in Bratislava. He is a member of the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra.
Adam Novák2.violin
As a soloist, violinist Adam Novák has cooperated with the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra in Zlín, Morava Philharmonic Orchestra Olomouc and the Slovak Radio Symphonic Orchestra among others, led by renowned conductors: Jakub Hrůša, Tomáš Netopil, Petr Vronský, Jaroslav Kyzlink… He has held leading positions in the Opera Orchestra of the Slovak National Theatre, Slovak Radio Symphonic Orchestra and the Slovak State Philharmonic Košice. He is currently a member of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and the first violinist of the Proxima string quartet. As a guest he cooperates with many orchestras both in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
Robi Lakatosviola
Violist Róbert Lakatos was a member of the Slovak Philharmonic in 1997–2004, followed by the orchestra Solistes Européens in Luxembourg from 2004 to 2017. In 2010 he founded the Hugo Kauder Trio together with the oboist Ivan Danko and pianist Ladislav Fanzowitz. In 2018 he founded the Beliczay Chamber Orchestra. As a chamber player, Róbert Lakatos has cooperated, among others, with Moyzes Quartet, Herold Quartet, Vlach Quartet, Cappella Istropolitana and Julian Rachlin. From 2011 to 2019 he was the music leader of the Theatre Thália in Košice. He has been the director of the Municipal Cultural Centre in Komárno since 2019.
Eugen Prochácvioloncello
Eugen Prochác was the absolute winner of the international competition Premio Valentino Bucchi in Rome in 1990. He has performed in over 40 countries in four continents and recorded a high number of albums for Slovak and foreign music labels. He has given performances together with world-famous musicians such as Sofia Gubaidulina, Giovanni Sollima, Jon Anderson, Rick Wakeman, Steve Hackett, Ken Hensley… He has been teaching at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava since 1990 and has led masterclasses in Portugal, France, Austria, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. He is the artistic director of the Festival of Nice Music in Banská Štiavnica.