Sunday, January 26, 2014: Barbara & Zarko
Mezzo-soprano Barbara Jernejčič Fürst and guitarist Žarko Ignjatović have been active on the Slovene and wider European music scene for a long time, each in their own respect. They met long ago, as Barbara has been a great guitarist herself and studied the instrument for ten years. A few years ago, they decided to form a duo. And right after their first concert, they noticed that their views of life, art and especially music and its interpretation are very much related. A chamber duo was born – one beyond compare in their homeland. Barbara and Žarko have performed extensively home and abroad. Outside Europe, their first appearance in this combination will be on their US and Canada tour.
Barbara Jernejčič Fürst graduated with honors in choral conducting and performing arts and gained master´s degree from the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz. She was a member of the Flemish Operastudio of the Belgian city of Ghent and received scholarship from the Steans Institute for Young Artists at the Ravinia Festival, Chicago. Additionally, she has had master classes with M. Lipovšek, C. Ludwig, D. Fischer-Diskau, M. Martinu, R. Piernay, and, on baroque singing, with B. Schlick and C. Rousset.
Barbara Jernejčič Fürst has appeared on celebrated opera stages, including that of the Theater im Palais in Graz, the Flemish Opera in Ghent and Antwerp, the Vienna Chamber Opera, the Theater an der Wien, and Ljubljana´s and Maribor´s National Theaters.
As a concert vocalist, Barbara Jernejčič Fürst has appeared on the following occasions: the Ljubljana Musical Youth, the Ljubljana Festival, the Kogoj´s Days Festival, the Slovenian Music Days, the Radovljica Festival, as well as the Steirischer Herbst, the Zagreb Music Biennale, the Hamburg Klangwerktage, the Wien Modern, the Bregenzer Festspiele, the Styriarte, the International Weeks of Early Music in Krieglach, the Echi Lontani, the Retz Festival, the Frühling Festival in the Musikverein and the Carinthischer Sommer.
Barbara Jernejčič Fürst is one of the few artists focused on contemporary works by Slovenian composers – she has premiered more than 50 works.
Recording for record labels from Slovenian and abroad, Barbara Jernejčič Fürst has appeared on more than 10 CDs. She has released a recording of the complete art songs by M. Kogoj together with the pianist Gaiva Bandzinaitè. In october 2010 her new record was released, featuring works by C. Monteverdi, L. Berio, L. Vrhunc, V. Globokar, U. Pompe, B. Jež Brezavšček, and A. Bauld.
Since october 2011, Barbara Jernejčič Fürst has been teaching singing at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana.
Guitarist Žarko Ignjatović graduated from the Academy of Music in Zagreb (Croatia) under Prof. Darko Petrinjak in 1983 and from 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 Mozarteum University of Salzburg under Prof. Eliot Fisk in 1995.
As a student, 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 has been teaching at the Ljubljana Music and Ballet Conservatory as well as at the Faculty of Education in Maribor (Slovenia). As a performer, Žarko Ignjatović is active both as a soloist as well as a member of various chamber groups.
He has performed with cellist Nebojša Bugarski since 1993, with flutist Cveto Kobal since 1994, in a guitar duo with guitarist Jerko Novak since 2001 and with mezzosoprano Barbara Jernejčič Fürst since 2010.
His first solo recording featuring compositions by Weiss, Piazzolla, Tippett, Bogdanović and Rojko was published in 1998, and 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, they released a recording of guitar duos in December 2005 and with cellist Nebojša Bugarski a CD Southwest Meets Southeast in December 2010. His second CD of guitar duos together with Jerko Novak with works by W. Lawes, F. Sor, J. Ibert, M. Gangi, J. Novak, E. Granados and D. Bogdanović was released in 2013.