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On Saturday April 7th 2018 Marina left the earthly dimensions. In silence she remains connected alive forever with everybody.
07.04.2018

short biography

In 2008 Marina Horak was awarded the coveted Betetto-Prize, given each year to selected performers for outstanding artistic achievement by the Association of Music Artists of Slovenia.

 

Slovenian pianist of Polish-Macedonian descent spent most of her life in Munich, Paris, Holland and London. In 2001 she returned to Slovenia where she is now Professor of Chamber Music at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana and sustains a busy performing schedule at home and abroad. In the summer 2008 alone she was a guest as performer, pedagogue and/or jury member at Pera Piano Festival (Istanbul,  Turkey), Banja Luka Biennale (Bosnia), Summer in the Old Town (Ljubljana, Slovenia), Northern Lights Music Festival (Minnesota, USA), Terra Magica Music Festival (Porec, Croatia) and Hopes, Talents, Masters (Dobrich -Albena, Bulgaria).

 

She concluded the season 2007/08 in Ljubljana with a recital of forgotten Slovenian composers. In the same vein she started the season 2008/09 in Ljubljana with a contemporary program of Slovenian works, to be continued with recitals in Munich, Novi Sad, Beograd and Copenhagen (duo violin/piano with Volodja Balzalorsky).

 

Marina took her concert degree at the age of 19 in the class of her mother Prof. Hilda Horak at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana. She continued her studies and graduated in Munich at the Hochschule für Musik (Künstlerisches Staatssexamen) and in Paris at the Ecole Normale (licence de concert). Further development was due to private tuition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris and with Peter Feuchtwanger in London, studying harpsichord in Paris with Huguette Dreyfus at the Schola Cantorum (diplôme en virtuosité) and attending master classes (Yvonne Lefebure, Ilona Kabos, Hephzibah Menuhin ...).  She was a prize winner at the Yugoslav Competition in Zagreb and at international competitions in Paris (Debussy), Vercelli (G.B.Viotti), La Rochelle (contemporary music) and ARD Munich (piano duo with Norwegian pianist Hakon Austbo). She received the JRT (Yugoslav Broadcasting Corporation) award for Best Recording of the Year, and in Holland the Gaudeamus Foundation "Podium Young Artists" award.

 

During her career she appeared in recitals and with orchestra, in piano duo and chamber music, from Oslo to Madrid, from Reykjavik to Skopje. Among her chamber music partners were Hakon Austbo, Simon Nicholls, The Zagreb String Quartet, cellists Maurice Gendron, Ina Joost, Victor Uzur, Milos Mlejnik, Karmen Pecar, violist Roger Chase, mezzo-soprano Marjana Lipovsek, clarinettist Thomas Friedli, flutists Erella Talmi, Irena Grafenauer, Irmela Nolte, violinists Mads Westergaard, Jacques Israelievitch, Vasilij Meljnikov, Volodja Balzalorsky, as well as members of the Berlin and the Munich Philharmonic.

 

She was a guest at such festivals as Festival de Musique Sacrée (Paris), Bergen Festspillene (Norway), Summer Festival in Oslo (N), Ljubljana Summer Festival (SI), Hitzacker Sommertage (D), Tschechische Nacht (München), Shanghai Music Festival, Hvar Summer (Croatia), Copenhagen Summer Festival (DK), Festival Tibor Varga (Sion, CH), Festival Kromeriz (Czech Republic) and others.

 

She toured Hong-Kong, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore and India with concerts, radio and television broadcasts and master classes.

 

Discography includes a Schumann LP, a Chopin CD (Sonata Op. 4) and a highly acclaimed CD with four sonatas by Slovenian composers. She was also a regular guest in many broadcasting studios.

 

Since her return home she appeared in many towns of Slovenia, and in Croatia, Italy, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Germany, Denmark, and the USA.

 

As a soloist with orchestras and ensembles she played with Chamber Ensemble Slovenicum, Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra,  Slovene Radio Symphony Orchestra, Macedonian Philharmonic, Sarajevo Symphony Orchestra, Belgrade Philharmonic, Croatian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Havant Symphony Orchestra UK), Den Norske Opera Orchestra, Rijeka Opera Orchestra (Croatia), Het Gelders Orkest (NL), The NOS Omroep Orkest (NL), Vivaldi Chamber Orchestra (UK), The Bow Ensemble (London, UK), Gaudeamus Chamber Orchestra (Zagreb), Young Symphony Orchestra of London (UK), Amator Symphony Orchestra (Oslo), Barock Strings Zurich (CH), Highgate Chamber Orchestra (London), Orchesterverein Zurich (CH), Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra (UK).

 

Among the conductors were Marko Munih, Uroš Lajovic, Dimče Muratovski, Samo Hubad, Lojze Lebič, Pierre-Yves Artaud, Jean-Pierre Jacquillat, Yves Prin, Okko Kamu, Zdenko Peharda, Igor Gjadrov, Ladislaus Rybach, Frank Gassmann, Cyril Diederich, Mladen Bašić, Radivoj Spasić, Sverre Bruland, Robert Neden, Zlatan Srzić, Geoff Love, Charles Rosen ...

 

Marina Horak is devoted to pedagogy and has been teaching in Holland, Germany and England (Middlesex University). She gave master classes in almost all European countries, Australia and New Zealand as well as USA, held many summer courses in Germany, Switzerland and Croatia and guided permanent groups in Zagreb, Croatia and Liege, Belgium. She gave lectures at academic institutions (New York University, Belgrade Faculty of Musical Art ...) and at international conferences (EPTA Bern, ISSTIP London, EPTA Novi Sad).