Wednesday, September 28
Cathedral, 8.00 p.m.
Concert on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Diocese of Varaždin
Chorus angelicus Capella Savaria Dječji zbor Glazbene škole u Varaždinu
Ivana Lazar, soprano Tia Pikija, soprano Sonja Runje, mezzo-soprano Hugo Hymas, countertenor Franko Klisović, countertenor Emanuel Tomljenović, tenor Grga Peroš, baritone Krešimir Stražanac, bass
Zsolt Kalló, concert master and artistic leader of Cappella Savaria Anđelko Igrec, conductor
Programme: Johann Sebastian Bach Muka po Mateju/St Matthew Passion, BWV 244 Part 1 1. Chorus wiht Chorale: Kommt, ihr Tochter, helft mir klagen!2. Recitative: Da Jesus diese Rede vollendet hatte
3. Chorale: Herzliebster Jesu, was hast du verbrochen
4. Recitative and Chorus: Da versammleten sich die Hohenpriester
5. Recitative (alt): Du lieber Heiland du
6. Aria (alt): Buss' und Reu'
7. Recitative: Da ging hin der Zwolfen einer
8. Aria (soprano): Blute nur, du liebes Herz!
9. Recitative and Chorus: Aber am ersten Tage der sussen Brot
10. Chorale: Ich bin's, ich sollte bussen
11. Recitative: Er antwortete und sprach
12. Recitative (soprano): Wiewohl mein Herz in Tranen schwimmt
13. Aria (soprano): Ich will dir mein Herze schenken
14. Recitative: Und da sie den Lobgesang gesprochen hatten
15. Chorale: Erkenne mich, mein Huter
16. Recitative: Petrus aber antwortete und sprach zu ihm
17. Chorale: Ich will hier bei dir stehen
18. Recitative: Da kam Jesus mit ihnen zu einem Hofe
19. Recitative (tenor) with Chorale: O Schmerz!
20. Aria (tenor) with Chorus: Ich will bei meinem Jesu wachen
21. Recitative: Und ging hin ein wenig
22. Recitative (bass): Der Heiland fallt vor seinem Vater nieder
23. Aria (bass): Gerne will ich mich bequemen
24. Recitative: Und er kam zu seinen Jungern
25. Chorale: Was mein Gott will
26. Recitative: Und er kam un fand sie aber schlafend
27. Aria with Chorus: So ist mein Jesus nun gefangen!
28. Recitative: Und siehe, einer aus denen
29. Chorale: O Mensch, bewein dein Sunde gross
Part 2 30. Aria (alt) with Chorus: Ach, nun ist mein Jesus hin!
31. Recitative: Die aber Jesum gegriffen hatten
32. Chorale: Mir hat die Welt truglich gericht'
33. Recitative: Und wiewohl viel falsche Zeugen
34. Recitative (tenor): Mein Jesus schweigt zu falschen Lugen stille
35. Aria (tenor): Geduld! Geduld!
36. Recitative and Chorus: Und der Hohepriester antwortete und sprach zu ihm
37. Chorale: Wer hat dich so geschlagen
38. Recitative and Chorus: Petrus aber sass draussen im Palast
39. Aria (alt): Erbarme dich, mein Gott
40. Chorale: Bin ich gleich von dir gewichen
41. Recitative and Chorus: Des Morgens aber hielten alle Hohepriester
42. Aria (bass): Gebt mir meinen Jesum wieder!
43. Recitative: Sie hielten aber einen Rat
44. Chorale: Befiehl du deine Wege
45. Recitative and Chorus: Auf das Fest aber hatte der Landpfleger Gewohnheit
46. Chorale: Wie wunderbarlich ist doch diese Strafe!
47. Recitative: Der Landpfleger sagte
48. Recitative (soprano): Er hat uns allen wohlgetan
49. Aria (soprano): Aus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben!
50. Recitative and Chorus: Sie schrieen aber noch mehr und sprachen
51. Recitative (alt): Erbarm es Gott!
52. Aria (alt): Konnen Tranen meiner Wangen Nichts erlangen
53. Recitative and Chorus: Da nahmen die Kriegsknechte des Landpflegers Jesum zu sich in das Richthau
54. Chorale: O Haupt voll Blud und Wunden
55. Recitative: Und da sie ihn verspottet hatten
56. Recitative (bbass): Ja! freilich will in uns das Fleisch und Blut
57. Aria (bass): Komm, susses Kreuz, so will ich sagen
58. Recitative and Chorus: Und da sie an die Statte kamen mit Namen Golgatha
59. Recitative (alt): Ach Golgatha, unsel'ges Golgatha!
60. Aria (alt) with Chorus: Sehet, Jesus hat die Hand
61. Recitative and Chorus: Und von der sechsten Stunde an war eine Finsternis uber das ganze Land
62. Chorale: Wenn ich einmal soll scheiden
63. Recitative and Chorus: Und siehe da, der Vorhang im Tempel
64. Recitative (bass): Am Abend, da es kuhle war
65. Aria (bass): Mache dich, mein Herze rein
66. Recitative and Chorus: Und Joseph nahm den Leib
67. Recitative (soloists and Chorus): Nun ist der Herr zur Ruh gebracht
68. Chorus: Wir setzen uns mit Tranen nieder
About the ensemble:
Chorus angelicus is a choir from Varaždin dedicated to performing pieces of Croatian and world musical heritage. Maestro Anđelko Igrec founded it in 1999 and now it consists of forty dedicated singers of all age. Its greatest strength, Chorus angelicus had shown on big and demanding projects – performance of complete masterpieces of world music heritage like G. F. Handel’s Messiah, J. S. Bach’s St John Passion, J. Haydn’s The Creation and C. Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Maria. As a result, the choir won Ivan Lukačić Award in 2016 for their performance of St John Passion by J. S. Bach, within Varaždin Baroque Evenings.
The choir has held many concerts, mostly in Varaždin and its surroundings, but also in other parts of Croatia and abroad (they held international tours in Austria, Hungary, Israel). Thanks to projects of Varaždin Baroque Evenings, the choir collaborated with a number of Croatian and international ensembles specialized for baroque music. Some of them are Le Parlement de Musique from Strasbourg, Hofkapelle from München, Musica Coeli from Graz, Pratum Integrum from Moscow, Accademia Bizantina from Ravenna, Sonatores Panoniae from Hungary, Varaždin Chamber Orchestra, Croatian Baroque Ensemble and Camerata Garestin from Croatia.
Although they have mostly baroque compositors on their repertoire, Chorus angelicus choir perform works from other periods as well – renaissance, classicism, romanticism and contemporary composers (Rutter, Ramirez, Orff, Igrec). Some of the performances are recorded on CDs (Mozart's Requiem, musical Christmas in Varaždin Cathedral, Bach’s St John Passion, Igrec’s Songs of Worship and Praise).
Founded in 1981, in Szombathely, Capella Savaria has earned its fame as the first period-instrument chamber orchestra of Hungary. Its innovative efforts created quite a sensation at the time in musical circles. The ensemble’s objectives were, from the onset, to play baroque and classical music in an authentic way by relying on genuine documents of the period. The founding artistic director was Pál Németh, followed by Zsolt Kalló who has been directing the ensemble since 1999. The members of the ensemble play authentic 18th-century instruments, or their copies. Capella Savaria performs chamber and orchestral pieces as well as operas or oratorios. They have made over 80 recordings, issued by Hungaroton, Centaur Records, Quintana, Harmonia Mundi, Dynamic, Naxos, and Dorian Records, five of which have been awarded with the Hungarian “Record of the Year” prize. The conductor of their opera and passion series, Nicholas McGegan (the orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor), has recorded 21 CDs with Capella Savaria. Their CDs also include some genuine rarities such as Hungarian music from the 18 th century and the works of Druschetzky, Roman, A. Scarlatti, B. Marcello, Telemann, Werner, Naudot, Rameau, Fasch and Muffat. They have given concerts in 22 European countries outside Hungary and have appeared in both the Northern and the Southern parts of the American continent and in Israel. They are regular participants of Hungarian early music festivals (in Sopron, Fertőd, Budapest, and Zemplén) but have featured such festivals in Brugge, Innsbruck, Regensburg, Göttingen, Halle, Utrecht, Zerbst, Warszawa, Wroclaw. They often perform on Hungarian TV and radio, and were awarded with the prestigious Liszt Prize in 1991. On the 25 th anniversary of the ensemble’s foundation in 2006 the chamber orchestra was honoured with the Prima Primissima Prize in Vas County. The Canadian Opus Magazine has described Capella Savaria as “one of Europe’s best ensembles”.
Ivana Lazar finished her singing studies at the Academy of Music in Zagreb. She graduated in the class of Mira Zidarić-Orešković, and received her master's degree in the class of Lidija Horvat Dunjko. At the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, she attended lectures on Lied and oratorio by professor Donnauer, and from 2006 to 2008 she was a scholarship recipient of the CEE-Musiktheater/Deutschebank in Vienna. She trained with Dunja Vejzović, Konrad Richter and Olivera Miljaković. She is the winner of the Marija Borčić Award for the best student graduation concert at the Academy of Music, the Darko Lukić Diploma, the Milka Trnin Award of the Croatian Society of Music Artists and is a two-time winner of the Jurica Murai Award for the best interpretation at the Varaždin Baroque Evenings.
She has been present on the Croatian music scene for many years as an excellent interpreter of baroque, pre-classic and classic music. She worked as a soloist of the Croatian Baroque Ensemble, and as a soloist she also collaborates with the HRT choir. She is the co-founder of the early music ensemble Camerata Grestin.
She has performed with many eminent orchestras in the country and abroad, such as the Zagreb Philharmonic, the HRT Symphony Orchestra, the HRT Choir, the Sarajevo Philharmonic and the Varaždin Chamber Orchestra. Since 2006, she has been a permanent guest-soloist of the ensemble Le Parlement de Musique from Strasbourg, with whom she toured France. She also toured in Austria, Slovenia, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ireland, Serbia, Egypt, Argentina and Bolivia. With her performances, she won the audience at the biggest Croatian festivals, such as the Dubrovnik Summer Games, Varaždin Baroque Evenings, Osor Evenings, Split Summer, Rijeka Summer Nights, etc.
She is the champion of the Zagreb National Opera and Ballet Theater, where she received the Marijana Radev Award for the best opera performance in the 2018/19 season for her role as the Queen of the Night in W. A. Mozart's The Magic Flute. For the same role, she won the Croatian Actor's Award.
Tia Pikija is a third-year student at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, in the class of Gabriela Lechner. She began her musical education at the primary music school (flute major), while she began to study singing at the Secondary Varaždin School of Music in the class of Doroteja Ilčić and at the time, she was also attending the music theory major.
She is the winner of six international singing competitions, including the Iuventus Canti competition in Slovakia and the Antonin Dvořak competition in the Czech Republic. During her studies, she gave two solo concerts: at the Varaždin School of Music and at the Croatian National Theater in Varaždin. As one of the award-winning students of the Varaždin School of Music, she performed regularly at the Varaždin Baroque Evenings. She participates in many concerts in Croatia and abroad and of particular note is the performance of the cantata Laudate pueri Dominum by G. F. Händel and participation in the realization of two sound carriers - Ave Maria and Alla media noche in collaboration with the Varaždin School of Music and the Embassy of the Kingdom of Spain in the Republic of Croatia. She participated in many musical projects, such as the musicals Beauty and the Beast (the role of Belle) and Grease and in the performance of the opera The Magic Flute by W. A. Mozart. In December 2021, she made her debut with the roles of Sandmännchen and Taumännchen in the opera Hansel and Gretel by E. Humperdinck at Schlosstheater Schönbrunn. In the performance of the Croatian Mass by Boris Papandopoulos in Vienna in the spring of 2022, she performed as a soprano solo.
She mastered her singing skills at solo singing seminars with Tiziana Šojat, Vlatka Oršanić, Luis Albert Llanez, Armand Puklavec and at the Vioce academy in Baden near Vienna.
Sonja Runje is an increasingly sought-after artist on international stages of baroque music, which have hosted her all over Europe - from the famous Tchaikovsky Philharmonic in Moscow to the magnificent Felsenreitschule in Salzburg, where she made her successful debut at the Salzburger Festspiele in 2019.
Although she made her name through the music of the 17th and 18th centuries, her repertoire includes a wide range of opera and concert titles. In the past few theater seasons, she performed the roles of Amadigi in the opera Amadigi di Gaul by G. F. Händel at Garsington Opera, Disinganna in the stage version of the oratorio Il trionfo del tempo e Disinganno by G. F. Händel at the National Opera in Montpellier and at the State Opera in Mainz. Following are the roles of Cornelia in the opera Julius Caesar in Egypt by G. F. Händel in the theater in St. Gallen, Tolomea in the opera Julius Caesar in Egypt by G. F. Händel at the Opera Festival in Savonlinna and in the Croatian National Theater Ivan pl. Zajc in Rijeka, Alcina in the opera Orlando Furioso by A. Vivaldi in Paris, Bradamante in the opera Orlando Furioso by A. Vivaldi in Dortmund, Sorceress in the opera Dido and Aeneas H Purcell in Helsinki and Calipso in the opera Polifemo N. Porpora in Bayreuth. During this period, she had a number of concert performances, among which her debut at the Cologne Philharmonic stands out.
Runje also regularly performs as a concert soloist (her highlights include Christmas Oratorio by J.S. Bach, Elijah by F. Mendelssohn, Nelson Mass by J. Haydn, Winter Journey by F. Schubert, Mass in B minor BWV 232 by J. S. Bach, Croatian Mass by B. Papandopoulos, Requiem M. -Saëns, L. van Beethoven's 9th symphony, etc.) with orchestras such as The English Concert, Armonie Atenea, Les Accents, Hofkapelle München, Athens State Orchestra, Zagreb Philharmonic, Zagreb Soloists, Croatian Baroque Ensemble and others, with conductors such as Christian Curnyn, Ruben Dubrovski, George Petrou, Rudiger Lotter, Ivan Repušić and others.
She graduated with honors in solo singing at the Academy of Music in Zagreb in the class of Martina Gojčeta Silić and is continuing her education with Eva Blahova in Bratislava.
Hugo Hymas's career sees him perform regularly at home and on the international stage. He has taken part in tours recently across Europe, USA and Asia, and also recently to Australia to perform the tenor solos in Purcell's King Arthur with Gabrieli Consort (Paul McCreesh). In the 2021/22 season Hugo will be performing Bach’s St Matthew Passion at the BBC Proms with Arcangelo and Jonathan Cohen and Haydn’s L ́isola disabitata (Gernando) at Vaasa Baroque Festival with Helsinki Baroque Orchestra and Aapo Häkkinen. He is also looking forward to a tour with Nederlands Kamerkoor under the baton of Peter Dijkstra this December (Bach’s Christmas Oratorio). A further highlight will be performances at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma in a world premiere of Giorgio Battistelli’s Julius Caesar (Lucius) under the baton of Daniele Gatti. Past concert performances include a German tour of Purcell and Handel with Freiburg Baroque Orchestra (Kristian Bezuidenhout), Handel's sacred oratorio La Resurrezione with The English Consort (Harry Bicket), Monteverdi's Vespers and Bach's St Matthew Passion with Dunedin Consort (John Butt), Handel’s Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno with Croatian Barokk Ensemble (Lawrence Cummings), Bach's B minor mass with Münchener Motettenchor (Benedikt Haag) and Handel's Semele with Monteverdi Choir (Sir John Eliot Gardiner) directed by Thomas Guthrie as a semi-staged concert performance for a tour which brought about his debut at Teatro alla Scala in Milan. Hugo has also performed the role of Uriel in Haydn's Die Schöpfung with Les Arts Florissants (William Christie) in New York and on tour in France. Hugo is a keen song recitalist, a former Britten-Pears young artist, and is currently on the ‘Rising Stars’ scheme with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, with whom he has collaborated many times.
Hugo grew up in Cambridge where he sang as a chorister in Great St Mary’s Church Choir. He then studied the clarinet through school after which he joined the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge as a tenor. In 2014 he graduated with an honours degree in Music from the University of Durham.
Franko Klisović was born in Šibenik, where he finished his primary and secondary music education at the Ivan Lukačić School of Music in Gordana Pavić's class, majoring in piano and music theory. While he lived in his hometown, he also worked as an organist in the Cathedral of St. Jacob. After graduation, he enrolled in the Music Academy of the University of Zagreb, where he studied conducting in the class of Tomislav Fačini. He made his conducting debut there in March 2019, conducting the opera Cosi fan tutte by W. A. Mozart.
At the end of 2015, he started singing and after only three months he got the role of Ottone in the opera Agrippino by G. F. Händel, with which he made his debut in April 2016 at the HNK Zagreb, for which he also received the Rector's Award. Not long after that, in addition to conducting studies, he also enrolled in singing studies in the class of Martina Gojčeta - Silić.
At the invitation of the Qatar Philharmonic, he performed in Doha at the Katara Opera House in February 2017 and in February 2018 he made his debut at the Croatian National Theater Ivan pl. Zajc in Rijeka in the role of Ghost in the opera Dido and Aeneas by H. Purcell. In addition to the role of the Ghost, he also plays the roles of Aeneas and the Enchantress at festivals such as Musica appassionata and Korkyra barouqe festival. In the 2020/2021 season he performs as Nireno in the opera Gulio Cesare in Egitto at HNK Rijeka and he will perform with the same production at the Savolinna Opera Festival in Finland in 2022. In September 2022, he will make his debut at the Margravial Opera House at the Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival as Apollo in Albinoni's Il nascimento dell' Aurora. From the 2015/16 season, he regularly performs with the vocal ensemble Antiphonus, the HRT Choir and the Croatian Baroque Ensemble (HRBA). He collaborates with famous conductors such as Tomislav Fačini, Mladen Tarbuk, Marc Korovich, Ville Matvejeff, Laurence Cummings, Aapo Häkkinen, Luca Oberti, Albrecht Hansjörg, Hervé Niquet, Philipp von Steinaecker and others.
Emanuel Tomljenović is a third-year student of soloing at the Academy of Music in Zagreb, in the class of Lidija Horvat Dunjko and he also graduated in solo singing in the class of Viktorija Badrov. In a very short period of time, he stood out as a singer who captivates with his artistic achievements and an enviable number of performed parts and roles, of which can be highlighted a solo performance at the Varaždin Baroque Evenings with the church choir Cantores Sancti Marci, the Croatian Baroque Ensemble under the direction of maestro Jurica Petar Petrač when hewas performed Magnificat by J.S. Bach and Te Deum by M.A. Charpentier. He has won numerous awards at national and international competitions, and for his achievements he was also awarded with the Rector's Award. Together with the church choir Cantores Sancti Marci, he performed as a soloist at the 40th festival Evenings on Grič in Missa Criolla and Navidad Nuestra A. Ramirez. He performed as a soloist in the performance of J.S. Bach's Mark Passion under the direction of Hansjörg Albrecht with the orchestra of the Academy of Music of the University of Zagreb. In cooperation with the Croatian National Theater in Varaždin, he made his debut in the role of Bastien in the opera Bastien and Bastienne by W. A. Mozart with the Orchestra of Young Musicians under the direction of Matija Fortuna. As a member of Opera B. B., he distinguished himself with numerous solo roles, among which the modern premiere of the baroque opera The Siege of Korcula by S. Arnold can be singled out. He recently toured in Germany (Lohne, Vechta) where, as a soloist, he participated in performances of G. F. Händel's Messiah and achieved great success in collaboration with renowned colleagues such as Krešimir Stražanac. He performed as a soloist with the Choir and Symphony Orchestra of the Croatian Radio and Television under the direction of the Norwegian maestro Greta Pedersen in the performance of W. A. Mozart's Great Mass in C minor. In addition to numerous concerts and opera and operetta roles, he also collaborates with vocal ensembles and orchestras.
Grga Peroš started his intensive musical education already in preschool age, and continued at the Elly Bašić High School of Music. He first studied philosophy and information sciences at the University of Zagreb, after which in 2011 he decided to study singing at the University of the Arts in Graz in the class of Ulf Bästlein. In 2012 and 2013, he got a scholarship from the City of Graz and the Society of Friends of KUG. He graduated in 2015, and received his master's degree in 2018, also in Graz. In December 2019, he received the Science Award of the City of Graz. In the summer of 2015, he performed at the 50th anniversary of the Jungen Oper Schloss Weikersheim in the role of Count Almaviva in Mozart's opera The Feast of Figaro under the direction of Bruno Weil.
Since December 2016, he has been a member of the ensemble of the City Theater in Gießen, where he performed in Mozart's operas Così fan tutte (Guglielmo), Don Giovanni (in the lead role) and The Marriage of Figaro (The Count) under the musical direction of Michael Hofstetter. He further expanded his repertoire with the role of Fra Melioten in Verdi's opera The Power of Fate, the role of Harlequin in Strauss' opera Ariadne on Naxos in Gießen and then in the State Theater in Meiningen, Augsburg and in the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. He made his debut at the Halle Opera in 2019 in the title role in the opera Julius Caesar in Egypt by G. F. Händel at the opening of the Handel Festival - under the musical direction of Michael Hofstetter and directed by Peter Konwitschny. In the 2019/20 season in Gießen he sang Figaro in Rossini's The Barber of Seville and Peter Besenbinder in Humperdick's Hansel and Gretel.
At the age of 23, Croatian bass-baritone Krešimir Stražanac became a soloist at the Opera in Zurich, where he performs under the direction of some of today's greatest conductors: Bernard Haitink, Franz Welser-Möst, Plácido Domingo, Vladimir Fedosejev and Peter Schneider. He debuted at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in 2017, at the Frankfurt Opera in 2018 and at the Grand Theater del Lice in Barcelona in 2021. He is performing in the following roles: Baron Tusenbach (Peter Eötvös' Three Sisters), Ping (Turandot), Harlequin (Ariadne auf Naxos), Creon (Oedipus Rex), Frank (Bat), Saint Peter (Carl Orff's Moon). In 2021, he made his debut in the title role of Orpheus (Telemann's Orpheus) under the baton of Rene Jacobs on a European tour. In 2022, he will make his debut at the Theater an der Wien in the title role of Ruggiero in Francesca Caccini's La liberazione di Ruggiero. He is the winner of international competitions: Cantilena in Bayreuth (in the category of opera and operetta), La Voce of the Bavarian Radio and Television (in the category of art song) and Hugo Wolf in the composer's hometown of Slovenj Gradec. He has an extensive oratorio and concert repertoire ranging from baroque to contemporary music and performs throughout Europe and Asia with the West German and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Royal Flemish Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Tokyo and Singapore Symphony Orchestras, the Orchester National de France, Orchester des Champs-Elysées, Concentus Musicus Wien, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Giovanni Antonini, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Philippe Herreweghe.
Zsolt Kalló acts as the concertmaster, soloist and artistic director of Capella Savaria. He studied violin as Eszter Perényi’s student at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, Budapest and graduated in 1990 as an honoured violin artist. He also studied with Sándor Végh in Salzburg between 1988 and 1989. As a concertmaster, he has played with several acclaimed chamber orchestras including Sonora Hungarica, Aura Musicale, Concerto Armonico, and the Orfeo Orchestra but he has also impressed audiences as a soloist via his numerous CD, radio and TV recordings. He is also renowned for founding the Trio Antiqua and the Authentic Quartet. He has been invited as a professor to various early music courses. He currently teaches at the Szombathely Conservatory of Music and at the ’Varga Tibor’ Institute of Musical Art, Széchenyi István University in Győr as a university professor. He was honoured with the Halász Ferenc Prize for his outstanding educational work in 2008. He earned his DLA degree in 2010. He is also known as the first artist to play the violin concertos of Tomasini, Kraus and Michael Haydn for Hungarian audiences. In 2012, he was awarded with the prize “For the Culture of Vas County”. In 2014 he received the Liszt Prize, and in 2018 he habilitated. In 2022, he was awarded another highly prestigious state award, the Artist of Merit of Hungary.
Anđelko Igrec finished his studies of composition, church music and orchestral conducting at the University of Music in Vienna. Among others, his professors were Hans Haselböck, Erwin Ortner, Ivan Eröd, Uroš Lajovic and Johannes Wildner. From 1999 to 2017, he was Varaždin cathedral’s organist, the choirmaster and director of the Varaždin Diocese’s Office for Sacred Music.
As a conductor and compositor, he cooperates with Varaždin and Croatian Chamber Orchestra, the Choir and the Orchestra of Croatian Radiotelevision, Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, Croatian Baroque Ensemble and many other international ensembles. For a number of years, he worked as a professor at the Institute for Church Music in Zagreb and at the Organ Summer School in Šibenik, and he especially stands out with his pedagogical work with church choirmasters and organists in Varaždin Diocese. A special place in his work takes Varaždin choir Chorus angelicus, with whom he, as a founder and choirmaster, has passed the development path from youth choir, cathedral choir, to the performing group. Now, Chorus Angelicus performs, with a great enthusiasm, the most challenging works of classical music literature like Monteverdi’s Vespro, Händel’s Dixit Dominus, Honegger’s King David and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. Amongst awards he had received for his compositions, some should be pointed out – Josip Štolcer Slavenski Award, Jurica Murai for the organ recital at Varaždin Baroque Evenings and stimulants of Croatian Ministry of Culture – the last one is for the piece Quattro pezzi sacri written and performed in 2017 on the 20th anniversary of Varaždin Diocese. CDs with his music (Pashalne slike, Kyrie, Psalmi, Može se živjet’ od ljubavi…) won several awards including Croatian discography award Porin.