Homage to Stevan Mokranjac

Zoran was born in Montenegro in 1965.
He started playing the accordion around the age of six. ‘My parents hoped it would keep me out of trouble. But I changed to the double bass when I was fourteen because I was a big boy and I wanted a bigger instrument and more serious music. At the time I couldn’t have known how it would change my life so dramatically for the better.’  He studied at the University of Belgrade and in Venice, Cremona, Munich and Salzburg before settling in Ljubljana.
He performs in Slovenia and abroad as a soloist, with orchestras and with chamber ensembles. He is a regular guest of the Slovenian Radio Symphony Orchestra. In recent years he has also been conducting symphonic and opera music with a good deal of success. He teaches at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana and gives masterclasses all over the world. He is founder and Managing Director of ZMT Tailpiece, a company that specialises in tailpieces for stringed instruments.
Zoran’s happiest and most enriching moments have come through playing chamber music. ‘It’s so alive, so full of the unexpected. To play in Oxford, with such great musicians, is the stuff of dreams’.
He plays an eighteenth-century double bass of the Bologna School.

Iztok Hrastnik è nato in Slovenia nel 1987, si è laureato nel 2009 presso l'Accademia Musicale di Ljubljana con col M° Zoran Marković. Durante i suoi studi ha ricevuto molti premi in concorsi in Slovenia e all'estero.
Ha suonato come solista in varie orchestre e recitals. Ha frequentato master classes con Janne Saksala, Klaus Stoll, Josef Niederhammer, Joel Quarrington, Alberto Bocini e Antonio Sciancalepore. Ha suonato nella Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, nella Jeunesses Nusicales World Orchestra e nella Mahler Chamber Orchestra.
Come contrabbasso solista ha lavorato dal 2007 nella Orchestra Sinfonica RTV Slovenija e dal 2011 nella Wiener Staatsoper/Wiener Philarmoniker, dove dal 2013 ricopre il ruolo di Primo Contrabbasso.

Uroš Lečnik ha iniziato gli studi a Velenje (Slovenia) con il M° Blaž Zupan.Ha proseguito gli studi presso l'Accademia di Musica di Ljubljana col M° Zoran Marković, laureandosi col massimo dei voti e lode.
Ha frequentato la International Summer School a Semmering studiando col M° Josef Niederhammer e a Feldkirchen col M° Zoran Marković.
Ha collaborato con numerose orchestre slovene come la Slovensko Filarmonijo, la Symfoničnim Orkestrom RTV Slovenjia.
E' membro del quintetto Bass Chorus fondato da Zoran Marković nel 2006.
Dal 2009 suona nella Sinfonica SNG Maribor.

Soloist Double Bass at Simfonični orkester RTV Slovenija.

Principal Double Bass at Sofia National Opera and Ballet.