A propos: Culture for full recovery; the Slovenian Youth Orchestra with young Ukrainians and people of Kranj at Križanke

Media: Radiokaos.si
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Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2022
Link: http://www.radiokaos.info/a-propos/a-propos-kultura-za-popolno-okrevanje-slovenski-mladinski-orkester-z-mladimi-ukrajinci-in-kranjcani-v-krizankah/

Živa Ploj Peršuh, conductor and programme director: If we had to give Thursday’s concert at Križanke a title – not least because of the outstanding collaboration of the Kranjčan family and the brilliant young musicians – we would call it a musical triptych entitled Family, Planets, Dance. The usual symphonic line-up is somewhat enlarged and also includes young Ukrainian musicians; together with their National Youth Symphony Orchestra, we gave 131 concerts in four countries between 8 March and the end of July.

A propos: Culture for a Full Recovery; the Slovenian Youth Orchestra with young Ukrainians and the Kranjčans at Križanke | Radio KAOS

After the summer break, with the programme A propos: Culture for a Full Recovery, which this time we are producing with the help and support of Vzajemna zdravstvena zavarovalnica, we are taking culture and art to an edge that goes far beyond the workings and effects of the COVID pandemic, whose consequences led us to tackle the topics covered in programmes of this kind. This time we reach to the very edge of the war in Ukraine and, at the same time, to the centre of Thursday’s events at the Ljubljana Festival.

Our guest is Živa Ploj Peršuh, conductor of the Slovenian Youth Orchestra, in which some young Ukrainian musicians are also taking part this time, and which, through her efforts and those of her colleagues and their immediate action after the aggression against Ukraine, enabled more than a hundred young Ukrainians – members of their youth symphony corps – and some of their companions to withdraw to safety in Slovenia.

For Thursday’s concert, which will take place at the Križanke Summer Theatre as part of the 70th Ljubljana Festival, The Slovenian Youth Orchestra has prepared an interesting programme, devised by the conductor and her colleagues in collaboration with the versatile and, above all, musically exceptionally creative Kranjčan family.

This, dear listeners, is another programme in this year’s rather curtailed A propos series, which, in the hope that the COVID-19 pandemic is now over, we have titled Culture for a Full Recovery. In financial terms, we have based the project – or rather, what remained of it after the now former team at the Ministry of Culture ensured that we were left without the support we had expected through the so-called media call for proposals – on the goodwill of a number of supporters.

The programme, in which our guest is the artistic director and conductor of the Slovenian Youth Orchestra Živa Ploj Peršuh, was produced with the understanding and help of Vzajemna zavarovalnica.

Incidentally, and right at the end – although this question would belong in the central part of the programme, where we discuss the conditions for the life and work of young Ukrainian musicians in Slovenia – there is also the status of these young people with regard to health insurance, to which they are entitled as applicants for international protection. The formal procedures relating to their rights in this respect are, however, rather complicated in our country and take far too long.

Who these young musicians are and what they know and are capable of – some of them also play in the ensemble of the Slovenian Youth Orchestra – you can see for yourself this Thursday at Križanke, at a concert that will be more than an ordinary musical performance by promising symphonic players, the future masters and virtuosos.

The creators of Thursday’s concert, or more precisely the musical and staged event, are, alongside the Slovenian Youth Orchestra under the direction of conductor Živa Ploj Peršuh , Lojze Krajnčan as composer and arranger, singer Romana Krajnčan, Kristijan Krajnčan on cello and drums, and Žigan Krajnčan with singing and dance. Details of all eleven items in the programme can be found on the website of the Ljubljana Festival, which – as you probably already know – is completing its 70th year this year.

The programme was prepared and recorded by Andrej Pengov, and the team of Radio KAOS took part in its production.