Friday, September 27, 8 p.m.
Novi Marof, Ivan Rabuzin Cultural Center
Antiphonus Ensemble
Monika Cerovčec, Anabela Barić, sopranos
Martina Borse, Franko Klisović, altos
Ivan Bingula, Siniša Galović, tenors
Tomislav Fačini, Jurica Jurasić Kapun, bassos
Croatian Baroque Ensemble
Laura Vadjon, concert master
Tanja Tortić, violine
Hiwote Tadesse, viola
Lea Sušanj Lujo, cello
Izidor Erazem Grafenauer, theorbo
Pavao Mašić, organ
Gustavo Gargiulo, Krešimir Fabijanić, cornetts, recorder
Tin Cugelj, Adam Jakab, Hrvoje Sironić, trombones
Tomislav Fačini, conductor
CROATIAN MUSICAL HERITAGE
Programme:
Francesco Sponga Usper
Compositioni armoniche
About performer:
The members of Antiphonus intertwined after a long period of singing and music-making in various groups. Educated musicians of various profiles, they finally crystallised in a homogeneous group in 2008. Nourishing the sound that aims at a melange between the tradition of a full bodied eastern European vocal sound and the western balance and purity, they are building a wide-range repertoire-from the plainchant to the recently written, cross-over, or commissioned works. Paying special attention to the Croatian contemporary music, Antiphonus premiered pieces of the Croatian foremost authors, but also gave the first contemporary performances of the newly emerged works from the dusty libraries. Antiphonus performed at every major Croatian Festival, including Dubrovnik Summer Festival, Music Biennale, Dubrovnik early music festival and Varaždin baroque evenings; upon last summer’s tour on the SEVIQC Festival with Monteverdi’s madrigals, the Slovenian radio engaged Antiphonus to record them, together with the works of Slovenian baroque composers. Their performance crowned the festive concert of the Croatian joining the EU and represented Croatia at the national festival in Paris Croatie, le voici; the group records frequently for the Croatian television, and it’s album of the Croatian renaissance and baroque music, recorded with Dmitry Sinkovsky, Krešimir Špicer and Edin Karamazov among others, is to be released within few months. Antiphonus production of Purcells opera Dido & Aeneas toured all the major Croatian festivals.
Their regular concert season Triade , which started in 2014, featuring the Italian madrigal and premieres of new works, was expanded in 2015 with sacred a cappella and oratory cycle Trinitas, featuring a Monteverdi Vespro selection, Bach’s Johannespassion and works of Pärt and Perotinus, as well as Cavalieri’s Rappresentatione di anima, et di corpo. The cycle Trinitas was awarded a prestigious Milka Trnina prize for 2016.
Croatian Baroque Ensemble is the most prominent Croatian ensemble specialized in historically authentic interpretations of instrumental and vocal-instrumental music from the baroque and similar periods. The ensemble was founded in 1999 and consists of esteemed musicians of a younger generation. Along with a continuous concert cycles in Croatian Music Institute, they are also regular guests at numerous national and international festivals (Varaždin Baroque Evenings, Dubrovnik Summer Festival, Split Summer Festival, Korkyra Baroque Festival, Osor Musical Evenings, Musical Croatian Passion Heritage, Organum Histriae, Concerts in Euphrasiana, Rovinj Summer Music Festival, Brod Musical Summer, Osijek Summer of Culture, Pag Cultural Summer, SEVICQ Brežice Festival, Festival of Croatian Music in Wiena, Esteban Salas Festivl (Havana – Cuba), International Baroque Festival Melk, Misiones de Chiquitos Festival (Bolivia), International Festival of Sacred Music in Rome, Festival Tesori musicali Toscani – Pisa and others).
In their concert programs, the ensemble often hosts prominent international and Croatian soloists and conductors, experts with an authentic approach in performing baroque music (Enrico Onofri, Adrian Butterfield, Laurence Cummings, Richard Egarr, Hervé Niquet, Stefano Montanari, Philip Pickett, Catherine Mackintosh, Werner Ehrhardt, Ryo Terakado, Aapo Häkkinnen, Richard Egarr, Peter Lönnerberg, Mimi Mitchell, David Staff, Theresa Caudle, Enrico Onofri, Alessandro Tampieri, Rachel Brown, Adrian Butterfield, Stefano Montanari, Marcello Gatti, Jaap ter Linden, Jacques Ogg). Croatian Society of Musical Artists gave Croatian Baroque Ensemble the Milka TrninaAward in 2002. Dubrovnik Summer Festival gave them the Orlando Award for their performance in 2014. Except in Croatia, the ensemble performed in Austria, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Argentina, Cuba, Bolivia, Estonia, France, Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia.
Tomislav Fačini (Zagreb, 1975) graduated cum laude with a degree in conducting from the Music Academy in Zagreb. That same year, he won second place and a special award at the Antonio Pedrotti International Conducting Competition in Trento. After continuing his schooling at the Accademia Hans Swarowsky in Milan and the Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe, he started working at the Music Academy in Zagreb, where he currently teaches choral conducting. In addition to symphonic concerts, he has also directed a number of opera premieres in Zagreb, Sarajevo, Varaždin, and Dubrovnik (Verdi, Puccini, Salieri, Zajc, Bizet, Pergolesi). He is a frequent guest at the Zagreb Music Biennale and a promotor of modern music. From 2005 to 2009, he conducted Musical Evenings in St. Donat Church in Zadar. In addition to frequent performances at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, he also conducted the opening of the festival in 2003 and 2013. From 2004 to 2009, he was chief conductor of the Croatian Army Orchestra, with whom he held many symphonic and chamber concerts. He has worked with nearly every Croatian ensemble and many foreign ensembles, and he has made albums and recordings with the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra and the HRT Symphony Orchestra. From 1993 to 2008, he was director of the Oratorio Choir of the Church of St. Mark in Zagreb, and he has led the Antiphonus vocal ensemble since 2004. He has been the chief conductor of the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra since 2014. In addition to conducting, he also arranges and composes. He has been the chief conductor of the HRT Choir since the 2017/2018 season.