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Duo Mojca Vedernjak (SLO/CH), mezzosoprano and Žarko Ignjatović (SLO), guitar
Mojca Vedernjak in Žarko Ignjatović
Mojca Vedernjak in Žarko Ignjatović

PROGRAMME


Fanny Hensel (1805 - 1847)                                   FISCHERS KLAGE
                                                                                DER MAIABEND OP. 9/5
                                                                                FERNE
                                                                                DIE MAINACHT OP. 9/6
                                                                                UND WÜSSTEN'S DIE BLUMEN OP. 9/10
                                                                                ZWISCHEN GAETA UND CAPUA
                                                                                (Arrangement for voice and guitar: Guido Böger)
 

Fernando Sor (1778 – 1839)                                  LE CALME OP. 50
                                                                               (Guitar solo)


Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809 – 1847)          AUF FLÜGELN DES GESANGES OP. 34/2
                                                                               ERSTER VERLUST OP. 99/1
                                                                               VENEZIANISCHES GONDELLIED OP. 57/5
                                                                               PAGENLIED
                                                                               NEUE LIEBE OP. 19/4
                                                                               (Arrangement for voice and guitar: Ansgar Krause)


Hugo Wolf (1860 – 1903)                                   ALLE GINGEN, HERZ, ZUR RUH'      (Spanish songbook)      
                                                                           MORGENTAU      (From an old songbook)
                                                                           NUN LASS UNS FRIEDEN SCHLIEßEN      (Italian songbook)
                                                                           DER GÄRTNER      (Eduard Mörike)
                                                                           IN DEM SCHATTEN MEINER LOCKEN      (Spanish songbook)
                                                                           TRAU NICHT DER LIEBE      (Spanish songbook) 
                                                                           (Arrangement for voice and guitar: Ansgar Krause)


From 1999 to 2003 Mojca Vedernjak was engaged by Theatre Bielefeld (Germany). Now freelance, she has sung a variety of roles in her fach, from Cherubino to Carmen, at different European opera houses and opera festivals. She has also performed with the Bielefeld Philharmonic Orchestra, the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bern Bach Choir, the Basel Bach Choir and the Sinfonietta Basel. With artistic direction by Dirk Kaftan, Peter Kuhn, Stefan Asbury and Monica Buckland, she sang the orchestral songs "Chants d'Auvergne" (J. Canteloube), "Two Love Poems" (N. Moret), "Sea Pictures" (E. Elgar) and orchestrated songs by Alma Mahler, as well as chamber music such as Albert Moeschinger's "Miracles de l'Enfance" or "Verdiana".

She has given numerous recitals throughout Europe and participating in various concert- and opera CD recordings. Her interest in 20th century art song and of the art songs by women composers is particularly intense in her collaboration with her long-time musical partner, the pianist Stefka Perifanova. They recorded the CDs "Banalités" (1998) and "Intoxication" (Pianoversal, 2020), the later featuring songs by Fanny Hensel, Pauline Viardot, Clara Schumann, Luise Greger, Dora Pejačević and Alma Mahler. In the same year, the Lied duo also premiered the "Four Songs" (2019/2020) by the Swiss composer Luca Martin in Zürich, with which they also performed in Slovenia in 2021.

For the season 2022/23 Mojca Vedernjak and the members of the piano trio "Absolut Trio" have prepared a programme "Transformations" with performances in Switzerland and Slovenia, including Berlioz's "Les nuits d'été" in an arrangement for piano trio and mezzo-soprano. Mojca Vedernjak and guitarist Žarko Ignjatović will also perform recitals with songs by Fanny Hensel, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Hugo Wolf, arranged for voice and guitar.

Mojca Vedernjak graduated in singing from the Ljubljana Music Academy (prof. Eva Novšak Houška) and subsequently from the concert class (Kurt Widmer) as from the Opera Studio of the Academy of Music Basel. She was also a member of the International Opera Studio at the Zürich Opera House.



Guitarist Žarko Ignjatović graduated at the Academy of Music in Zagreb (Croatia) under prof. Darko Petrinjak in 1983 and at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Graz (Austria) in the class of prof. Marga Bäuml-Klasinc in 1987. He completed his postgraduate studies at the Salzburg Mozarteum under prof. Eliot Fisk in 1995. He attended numerous master classes all around the world (held by Julian Bream, John Williams, Assad Brothers, etc.) and won many prizes at national competitions.

He has been living in Ljubljana since 1984 and teaches at the Faculty of Education in Maribor (Slovenia). As a performer, Ignjatović is active both as a soloist as well as a member of various chamber groups. His first solo recording with compositions by Weiss, Piazzolla, Tippett, Bogdanović and Rojko was published in 1998, whereas the second one, Hic et Nunc, with contemporary Slovene music in 2001. He also appeared on Cveto Kobal’s CD 20th Century Flute Music, published in 2003. Together with Jerko Novak, he released two recordings of guitar duos (2005 and 2013), with cellist Nebojša Bugarski a CD Southwest Meets Southeast in 2010, with mezzosoprano Barbara Jernejčič Fürst a digital album in 2020 and the most recently, in 2022 CD Dialogue with clarinetist Slavko Kovačič.

Many years is active as jury member at national and international guitar competitions (TEMSIG Slovenia; Guitar art festival Beograd, Serbia; Distant chords Split, Croatia; Mörski festival Murska Sobota, Slovenia; Sarajevo International Guitar Festival, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Moscow International Festival of Slavic Music, Russia).