Antonio Vivaldi
Stabat Mater

The Slovene Philharmonic String Chamber Orchestra with soloist
Mirjam Kalin

The Slovene Philharmonic String Chamber Orchestra is composed of fourteen string players, otherwise members of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra. The Slovene Philharmonic String Chamber Orchestra was formed in 1993 with the support of the Slovenian Ministry of Culture for the purpose of performing on those stages in Slovenia that are too small for the larger symphonic orchestras.
In the fifteen years of its existence, the ensemble has had over 300 concerts in Slovenia and abroad. It performed at the Ljubljana Summer Festival, the Maribor Festival (then titled Festival Musical September), at the Musica Danubiana Festival, the Slovenian Music Days, and in 2003, and in Ljubljana as part of the ISCM World Music Days “Slovenia 2003”. The concerts held in Dubrovnik (the Dubrovnik Summer Festival), Zadar, Zagreb (the Zagreb Summer Festival and the Zagreb Baroque Festival), Samobor, Opatija (Biennial of Contemporary Music), Novi Sad, Klagenfurt, Ohrid, Podgorica (Festival A Tempo), Gorizia, Trieste, and Madrid (Veranos de la Villa) have always been received with enthusiasm by both, audiences and critics.
In 1999, the ensemble became an association which has been supporting musical creativity, new compositions, note editions and publications, and promotional CD-s from the start. This year, for the ninth season in a row, the Slovene Philharmonic String Chamber Orchestra Association in collaboration with the National Gallery of Slovenia is organizing a cycle of concerts titled Harmony of the Worlds, a project joining fine-arts lectures with chamber concerts.
The Slovene Philharmonic String Chamber Orchestra has collaborated with numerous Slovenian internationally acclaimed musicians such as the pianist Dubravka Tomšič Srebotnjak, flautist Irena Grafenauer, contralto Mirjam Kalin, and with numerous foreign renowned musicians such as violoncellists Alexander Rudin, Mischa Maisky, and Enrico Dindo, counter-tenor Markus Forster, violinists Sarah Chang, Priya Mitchell and Alissa Margulis, pianist Polina Leschenko, French hornist Stefan Dohr, flutist Massimo Mercelli, and accordionist Richard Galliano.
In 2009, it was the Orchestra in Residence and the co-producer of the Maribor Festival under the artistic leadership of Richard Tognetti. It performed 12 concerts and collaborated with various world-renowned musicians such as the pianist Boris Berezovsky, flutist Emmanuel Pahud, tenorist James Gilchrist, violinists Arvid Engegard, Atle Spoonberg and Satu Vänskä, soprano Sabina Cvilak, pianist Melvyn Tan, bassoonist Jane Gower, hornist Marie Luise Neunecker, guitarist Vlatko Stefanovski and kaval player Teodosii Spassov. The orchestra, which performs without a conductor, has recorded a number of live-concert audio and video recordings as well as several compact discs. The Slovene Philharmonic String Chamber Orchestra’s repertoire includes all period styles. It dedicates special attention to works of Slovenian composers, including the younger composers, who are in the process of establishing themselves in the world of music.
All this confirms high quality as well as the purpose and significance of the Slovene Philharmonic String Chamber Orchestra in the creative currents of Slovenia and Europe. In recognition of its artistic quality the ensemble has received the country’s most prestigious national accolade, the Prešeren Fund Award in 1999, the Župančič Award by the City of Ljubljana in 2004, and the Betetto Charter in 2006.