FESTIVAL PREČKANJA - SCONFINAMENTI: OPENING CONCERT (Slovenia/Italia, Israel/Germany, S. Korea)

Alexander Gadjiev, piano
Ido Ramot, piano
Jonghwa Park, piano

Programme:
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827), Eroica Variations, Op. 35
Jonghwa Park (1995) & Ido Ramot (1994), Improvisation on Two Pianos
Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849), Heroic Polonaise, Op. 53

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Jonghwa Park, Solo improvisation
Alexander Gadjiev (1994) and Ido Ramot, Improvisation on Two Pianos
Alexander Gadjiev, Ido Ramot, and Jonghwa Park, Improvisation on Two Pianos
Maurice Ravel (1975–1937), La Valse (Arr. for six hands, two pianos)

The newly established Festival Prečkanja - Sconfinamenti is the result of the cross-border cooperation of Glasbena matica Furlanija Julijska krajina, Ustanova Imago Sloveniae and renowned piano virtuoso Alexander Gadjiev, who, as the initiator of the project, also took over the role of Programming Director. The Festival programme is based on top-class classical music concerts with an emphasis on young "stars in the making" from around the world, artist residencies and master classes led by renowned pedagogues. The premiere edition of the Festival will take place between July 24 and August 4 at several venues between the Gorizia-Nova Gorica cross-border area and Ljubljana.

We are opening our brand new Festival Prečkanja - Sconfinamenti with an inimitable concert of three world renowned pianist super-virtuosos of the new generation.

Piano virtuoso Alexander Gadjiev is personification of transnationalism. Born into an international family in Gorica, a city that unites two countries, he soon developed an extraordinary ability to absorb and process different musical styles and languages. He performed as a soloist with an orchestra for the first time at the age of nine, and at the age of ten he performed his first solo piano recital. At the age of seventeen, he graduated with honors and won the Premio Venezia, a prestigious piano competition for Italy's most talented young musicians. After that, he became an unstoppable winner at the world's most prominent piano competitions. He drew international attention to himself in 2015, when he won the first prize and the audience prize at the prestigious triennial Hamamatsu International Competition in Japan, and in 2017, when the jury was chaired by the legendary Martha Argerich. In 2018, he won the prestigious World Piano Masters competition in Monte Carlo. Between 2019 and 2022 he was a BBC New generation Artist, and in the summer of 2021 he won first and several second prizes at the Sydney International Piano Competition, and then second place and the prize for the best sonata reconstruction at 18th Chopin Competition in Warsaw. The Sydney competition opened the doors to the biggest stages of the southern hemisphere for him - thus he closed 2022 magnificently with a more than three-month tour of Australia and the Far East, and in 2023 he played a tour in Japan. He recently performed with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra in Vienna's Musikverein and in Florence with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino orchestra and choir under the baton of the famous Zubin Mehta.

German-Israeli pianist Ido Ramot plays an important role in the trend of reviving the lost art of improvisation in classical music, which he incorporates into his own creations, solo concerts and master classes. As a child prodigy, he presented himself to the public at the early age of nine, when he played as a soloist with the Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra. He continued his career at a fast pace, as he immediately started working with the best orchestras in Israel, Italy and France. He tours all over the world with solo recitals; so far he has filled venues in Germany, Spain, Italy, Scandinavian countries, Asia and the USA, and performed on the stages of prestigious institutions such as Berlin Philharmonic. He is often invited to play for various national television and radio stations of European countries. He is also not short of prizes at national and international competitions, as he took the highest places at the Maria Canals Piano Competition in Barcelona, ​​the European Piano Competition in Bremen, as well as at the Les Etoiles du Piano international competition in Lille. As the winner of the auditions for L'europe du Piano, he performed intensively throughout Europe as part of the Toulouse Piano Aux Jacobins festival.

Seoul-born piano improviser, virtuoso and composer Jonghwa Park shook up the classical music scene with his innovative trans-genre improvisational approaches. In 2022, he became the first "Stomp Music Rising Artist" and opened the first improvisational classical concert in South Korea in the same year. He continued the series of historically groundbreaking events with a concert that explored the chronological sequence of improvisation, from pre-baroque periods to modern times. In 2023, Drawing Music and Hermann Art Hall awarded him the title of Burning Up! Artist for his innovative improvised suites on the theme of Hesse's Demian. At the invitation of the Concert Hall and the South Korean co-pioneer of improvisation Changsoo Park, he delved into the project 'Thanateros' (death and life), with which he directed the attention of the international public to classical improvisation.

The Festival Prečkanja – Sconfinamenti project is funded by the European Union from the Small Projects Fund GO! 2025 financed by the Interreg VI-A-Italy-Slovenian 2021–2027 programme, managed by EGTC GO.

Complimentary tickets, courtesy of Večer, can be collected an hour before the concert at the venue. Reservations are not possible, spaces are limited.