Six decades of culture and literature, with a high-quality selection of classical and contemporary music, jazz, of commissioning and recording musical works, six decades of live programming and enriching the national sound art archive. During this time, it has become an indispensable cultural and art institution, securing a prominent place in the Slovenian cultural and media landscape.
The year-long celebrations will culminate in September with an exhibition of Ars 60 posters, a celebratory booklet featuring writings by a range of past and present programme staff members, documents and photographs, and a link to access selected audio recordings of artworks and broadcasts. On September 14, the RTV Slovenija Symphony Orchestra will give a gala concert at the Cankarjev dom in Ljubljana, and the Lastovka award will be presented for the best short story of the 32nd literary competition. A 60-minute documentary film by Amir Muratović will be completed and screened; and by the end of the year RTV Slovenia's house label ZKP will be releasing a series of symphonic, chamber and opera music albums; sheet music by the composers Matej Bonin and Larisa Vrhunc, and audio books, including a German translation of Poetry by France Prešeren, the greatest poet of the Slovenian Romantic era and the author of the lyrics to the Slovenian national anthem. The German translation will be presented at the Frankfurt Book Fair, where Slovenia is this year's guest of honour.
The gala concert of the RTV Slovenija Symphony Orchestra with chief conductor Rossen Milanov, and under the honourable patronage of the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Nataša Pirc Musar, will also be the opening concert of the Kromatika concert season. The concert will begin with a performance of three important Slovenian works. The composer of the older generation Maks Strmčnik has gifted Ars with the opening composition INTROARS 23, featuring the master of historical instruments Janez Jocif and organist Polona Gantar. Lana Trotovšek, an internationally renowned Slovenian violinist of the younger generation, now residing in London, returns to Kromatika with Lucijan Marija Škerjanec's Violin Concerto, a work that, with its weighted symphonic development and delicately woven lyricism, could easily be one of the world's well-known concertante hits. Škerjanc's music also drew on the French tradition, so it is no coincidence that the evening will be closed by the famous French pianist Pascal Rogé, who is also renowned for his elegant, stylistically sophisticated interpretations of Camille Saint-Saëns' piano concertos. The composer's Piano Concerto No.5, subtitled "The Egyptian", provides a dazzling conclusion to this gala evening, which will also include poetry by numerous Slovenian poets.
The long-established music programme of the ARS channel, Komorni studio (Chamber
studio), will move to the Kozina Hall of the Slovenian Philharmonic for its festive edition on Wednesday, September 27, at 7:30 p.m., with a concert by a string sextet of outstanding Slovenian musicians, most of whom work abroad, presenting an exceptional programme of works by Vito Žuraj, Erwin Schulhoff and Arnold Schönberg.
The anniversary concert of the Obiski kraljice cycle (Queen's Visits) – shows and concerts dedicated to the organ – will be a very special organ recital on November 9 at the Franciscan Church on Ljubljana's central Prešeren Square. At the concert the internationally renowned German jazz organist Barbara Dennerlein will perform jazz improvisations and some of her own compositions.
