Media: Kritik.si
Authors: Marijan Zlobec
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2022
Link: https://kritik.si/2022/08/15/mednarodni-orkester-ljubljana-z-mahlerjevo-peto/
This year marks ten years since the founding of of the Ljubljana International Orchestra, the cultural ambassador of the City of Ljubljana, which works under the artistic direction of Živa Ploj Peršuh. To mark the anniversary, they will perform at the 70th Ljubljana Festival on Tuesday, 16 August, at 8.30 pm at the Križanke Summer Theatre.
The Ljubljana International Orchestra brings together outstanding young musicians from more than thirty-five countries who gain invaluable experience by playing in a symphony orchestra and, in collaboration with renowned professors, conductors and soloists, strive together towards the highest performance standards.
The Ljubljana International Orchestra is also part of the European project Sounds of Change, which, by uniting people in artistic creation, strives to realise the European Union motto United in Diversity.
The young musicians will perform Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor in five movements, composed during a happier period of the composer’s life between 1901 and 1903, when, as conductor and artistic director, he was already the critically esteemed director of the Vienna Court Opera; in 1902, far from the public eye, he also married the Viennese femme fatale Alma Schindler and dedicated to her, as a wedding gift, the lyrically refined Adagietto of this symphony, with a dedication to the most beautiful woman in Vienna, Alma: “To my dear Alma, my faithful and brave companion on all my paths. “
The legendary symphony, regarded as the most popular in the composer’s output, will be performed by the orchestra under the guest Portuguese conductor Osvaldo Ferreira, founder, music director and principal conductor of the Portuguese Philharmonic Orchestra. He was previously music director and chief conductor of the Algarve Orchestra and artistic director of the Algarve International Music Festival and the Oficina de Música de Curitiba (Brazil).
After completing his conducting studies in Chicago, Osvaldo Ferreira undertook postgraduate studies at the St Petersburg Conservatory, where he was a student of Ilya Mussin. He continued his training and refined his skills in Salzburg and Berlin under the mentorship of the legendary Italian conductor Claudio Abbado, founder of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, with which he performed as a guest in the Gallus Hall of Cankarjev dom forty years ago.
As a guest conductor he has performed in cities such as Berlin, Vienna, Brussels, Rome, Lisbon, Porto, Prague, Łódź, Katowice, Madrid, Seville, Valencia, Cape Town, Caracas, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, St Petersburg, London, Aspen and Chicago.
In 1999 Osvaldo Ferreira won an award at the Sergei Prokofiev Competition in Russia. He received a “Fellowship” from the Aspen Music Festival in the USA, where he attended the American Conductors Academy. He also studied with Jorma Panula and David Zinman. He held scholarships from the Portuguese Ministry of Culture and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Portugal.
