Artist description AMAEL PIANO TRIO: The Amael Piano Trio was founded by three very accomplished artists, who, individually, have backgrounds as prominent soloists, recitalists, and members of various chamber music groups. All three artists, the pianist, Tatjana Ognjanovic, the violinist, Volodja Balzalorsky and the cellist Damir Hamidulin, have performed internationally as guests of numerous music festivals and cycles, and as soloists with many orchestras. Individually, as well, they have also created multiple CD,s and have made extensive live and archival radio and TV recordings throughout Europe and in the USA and Asia.

Music Style from classical to contemporary

Artist History AMAEL PIANO TRIO has more than two years of successful performances in a variety of venues, including Cankarjev Dom, the most important cultural centre in Slovenia, the International Festival of Contemporary Music at Radenci, Musical Summer in Hvar (Croatia), International chamber music concert series The Spectrum concerts; http://www.amaeltrio-spectrum.si; The Amael Trio has achieved the status of being among the most sought after chamber groups in Slovenia. The trio has recently been invited to do a tour in China in the autumn, and to travel to Croatia for some concerts and Master Classes. In addition to performing known traditional trio literature from various style epochs, the trio is also dedicated to performing contemporary works, and to the promotion, internationally, of Slovenian composers of piano trio literature. In the immediate future, they plan to perform in various countries, make several CDs, and expand their repertoire, exploring the works of lesser-known composers and performing new works created for piano trio. They also plan to commission and record new works; some renowned Slovenian composers have already decided to write especially for their trio.

Group Members TATJANA OGNJANOVIC - concert pianist: Tatjana Ognjanovic, one of the leading Slovene pianists, has performed at International Music Festivals and given highly acclaimed recitals in 16 countries throughout Europe, as well as in Malaysia and Singapore. She has appeared as soloist with many orchestras, interpreting piano concertos by Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Rachmaninov, Scriabin, and Prokofiev. She has made many CD, LP, radio and TV recordings, embracing a wide repertory of music from the baroque era to the contemporary. Her growing interest in chamber music has resulted in her collaboration with pianist Bojan Gorisek, and more recently, the increasingly acknowledged Amael Piano Trio. Tatjana Ognjanovic is a prize winner of national, as well as numerous international piano competitions such as the Cidade do Porto in Portugal (1991), Maria Callas in Athens, Greece (1992), Jose Iturbi in Valencia, Spain (1992), and Premio Jaen, also in Spain (1993). She began her music education at the age of four, studying for 14 years with Darinka Bernetic. She continued at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana with Dubravka Tomsic, and furthered her studies with Hans Petermandl at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, and with Viktor Merzanov from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. In addition to her artistic performances, she has been teaching at the Academy of Music of the Ljubljana University since 1993. VOLODJA BALZALORSKY - concert violinist is considered to be one of the most prominent representatives of Slovene artists-musicians. He performs internationally as a solo violinist, recitalist, and chamber musician, for which he consistently receives outstanding acclaim. He has made numerous highly praised live appearances in concert and on broadcasts and recordings in various countries and has been a regular guest at International Festivals throughout Europe, including Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic, G. Britain, Croatia and Slovenia. Publishing houses of Helidon, RTV Slovenia, The Spectrum society records, Orfej records- Croatia and Bauer studio records-Germany have issued his recordings on CD,s. An active chamber musician, Mr. Balzalorsky recently founded the Amael Trio. Since 1999, he has also been the solo violinist of the Freiburger Barocksolisten in Germany. He has been a violin professor at the Music Academy of Ljubljana University. He regularly gives Master Classes in Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Britain and USA. After graduating from professor Igor Ozim's class at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne, Germany, he continued his studies in Moscow, and then with Czech violinist Josef Suk at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna. DAMIR HAMIDULIN: Cello virtuoso Damir Hamidulin is first solo cellist of the National Opera House in Ljubljana(Slovenia) and a member of the Amael piano trio. He performs throughout Europe as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. He has played as a soloist many times with the Kazan Philharmonic and with other symphonic and chamber orchestras in Russia and in Slovenia. He plays all the famous concertos on his instrument: Haydn, Dvorak, Saint-Saëns, Schumann, and Tchaikovsky. He has also been guest artist at various international festivals – Festival Groblje and Festival of Contemporary Music Radenci in Slovenia, Festival of Contemporary Music Kishinjev in Moldavia, Festival of Kazan in Russia, etc. While in Russia, he collaborated with many contemporary composers, among them the Tatar Rashid Kalimoullin and the Ukrainian Karmela Tsipkolenko, giving world premieres of their works. This resulted in a number of radio broadcasts of the classical repertoire (Radio Tatarstan, RTV Slovenija). After being invited to Slovenia, he continued in this tradition, and some composers have written pieces specifically for him. He has made LP and CD recordings with both Russian and Slovene music. In addition to a busy performing schedule, the cellist Hamidulin teaches at the Vic-Rudnik Music School in Ljubljana, with excellent results documented by the many first-prizes earned by his students in national and international competitions. He also taught cello and chamber music at the Conservatoire in his native Kazan and was Assistant to Professor Fedor Luzanov at the Gnesin Institute in Moscow. He also gives Master Classes for cello and chamber music in Croatia and Slovenia. He studied with Ittaki Halitov the Kazan Conservatoire, graduating in 1981. During his studies, he was awarded many prizes, among them the second prize at the Russian String Competition. Later he undertook postgraduate studies at the celebrated Gnesin Institute, where he studied with the renowned cellist Fedor Luzanov. As well as his regular studies, he has attended many master classes, thus becoming acquainted with some master cellists, including Aleksander Vlasov, Galina Kozolupova, Daniel Shafran, Lev Evgrafov and most importantly, the world famous Mstislav Rostropovich.

Instruments violin, piano, cello

Location Ljubljana, Slovenia - Slovenia

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