Entertainment
ČRNOMELJ MUSIC SCHOOL
Thursday, 17. June 2010 at 7.00 PM - Jurjevanjska draga
Črnomelj Music School was founded on 30 September1964, which means that this year it is celebrating its 45th anniversary. In the beginning the school worked within the area of Črnomelj municipality. However, with the establishment of subsidiaries in Metlika (1 September 1968) and Semič (28 September 1984), its activities expanded to the entire Bela krajina region.
In this school year they have 27 teachers and 318 students that are enrolled in regular and special programmes. The school has symphonic, string, wind, tambura and guitar orchestras. This year two orchestras, wind (conducted by Tone Kralj) and string (conducted by professor Andrej Ožbalt) participated at two national shows organized by the Slovenian Association of Music Schools where they were reviewed by Simon Robinson, the artistic director of Maribor Opera House. Both orchestras received good reviews, the wind orchestra even received one of the best reviews for its repertoire. Since tambura is the trademark instrument of Bela krajina, 13 years ago the school decided to establish a tambura orchestra. This was the first tambura orchestra in Slovenia that was established within a music school. In this year's national competition of tambura and mandolin orchestras held in Šmartno pri Litiji, the tambura orchestra of Črnomelj Music school led by Anton Grahek won the golden award. Their concert activities are organized under the name Local stage. Within Local stage they invite artists from all over Slovenia, in particular musicians from Bela krajina who chose music as their professional paths. Their students regularly attend local events and competitions for young Slovenian musicians as well as national shows organized by the Slovenian Association of Music Schools. The school's motto and vision is: Let's make Bela krajina musical.
2B Band
Friday, 18. June 2010 at 5.00 PM - Jurjevanjska draga
Our band 2B was not established on a specific date, but has been active in many different ways and with different members for quite a while. The core of the band are three brothers Gašper, Primož in Jernej from a small town of Vinica in the south-eastern Slovenian region of Bela krajina. Depending on the type of performance, the trio is joined by various other musicians. Last year, we issued a CD dubbed „Frnikule" (Marbles) featuring 10 of our songs. The lyrics, which we write ourselves, speak of live in general and everyday moments, events and people, who sometimes make us laugh, while sometimes they make us think about who we are and where we are heading. „Everyone who has ever met someone special, a soul mate or has found himself in a mood where he could easily start crying or laughing uncontrollably, can find himself in my lyrics," songwriter Jernej says. All this and more is life, the endless source of our inspiration. In terms of genres, our music is very diverse. Everyone in the band simply loves music and makes music with a lot of enthusiasm and creativity. 2B could be categorized as a pop band, but some of our songs blend in well with jazz, blues and rock music. Apart from our own songs, we also love to perform adaptations of blues, jazz, rock and pop hits. So far, we had held concerts in various clubs in Bela krajina, the Dolenjsko region and Ljubljana. We are also used to big stages, such was the one at the Schengenfest festival, where we performed last summer. Our biggest success so far has been the second place at a festival organised by public broadcaster RTV Slovenia, the MMC Festival, and the first place at the Etnokostel festival in 2007.
The band's members are:
Lead singer - Gašper Mihelič
keyboards - Primož Mihelič
guitar - Dejan Hudoklin
bass - Jernej Mihelič
drums - Kaja Žunič
saxophone - Uroš Rangus
mouth organ - Brane Banovec
Our wish for the future is as many live performances a s possible.
Črnomelj Wind Band
Sunday, 21. June 2010 at 7.00 PM - Jurjevanjska draga
Established in 1866, the cultural and artistic association of the Črnomelj Wind Band is one of the oldest amateur associations in Črnomelj. In its long history, the band went through some ups and downs in terms of membership, conductors as well as its own existence but it never closed its doors. Janez Kramarič researched and described in detail the interesting and colourful history of the Črnomelj Wind Band in his book Črnomelj Wind Band Now and Then, which was published in 2001. In 2006, the band celebrated its 140th anniversary.
Since 1986, it has been under the professional leadership of the conductor Tone Kralj, who is at the same time a teacher in the Music School of Črnomelj. The Črnomelj Wind Band has been on the rise ever since he took it over, which is shown in the successful participation in national competitions organized by the Slovenian Band Association. After the competition held in Kamnik in 2003, the band qualified for the category of the Slovene bands with the highest level of difficulty. In May this year, we participated in a competition held in Laško, won a silver plate and kept our position in this category. In 2007, we participated in a competition with an entertaining repertoire in Ormož where we received a golden plate. We have also recorded two CDs: Med brezami (Among the Birch Trees) in 2002 and Belokranjci Belokranjcem (People of Bela krajina for the People of Bela krajina) in 2004. The association also takes care for the preservation of the cultural heritage of Bela krajina region collecting music scores for the adaptations of songs and dances from this region: Med brezami (Among the Birch Trees), Pastirče mlado (Young Shepard), Belokranjska rapsodija (Bela krajina Rhapsody, written on the occasion of the 140th anniversary), Pijmo bratci vince (Let's drink wine my bothers) and Aj zelena je gora (Ah, the Mountain is Green). Every year we organize three independent concerts and have approximately 40 performances. At the moment, there are around 60 active members. We encourage young, educated musicians (also those from the Music School of Črnomelj) to join us, and thus try to complete the band with new instruments. We set our goals and plans for the future striving for successful future work and further development of the band.
President of the Association: Polona Godina
Artistic Director and Conductor: Anton Kralj
PRESENTATION OF DOBREČ TAMBOURA ORCHESTRA DOBREČ
Friday, 18. June 2010 at 6.30 PM - Jurjevanjska draga
Tamboura orchestra is made up of 23 tamboura players, and has been under the professional leadership of Anton Grahek since 1993. Their repertoire has always been very wide and versatile. The orchestra has won the title of best tamboura orchestra in Slovenia for four times in a row at the Meeting of Tamboura and Mandolin Orchestras and Groups of the Republic of Slovenia. The orchestra has also received numerous international awards and recognitions. The orchestra performs on shows across Slovenia and takes part in various international festivals of tamboura orchestras. They have published three CDs and recorded numerous compositions for the national television RTV Slovenia. They successfully organised and carried out the International Festival of Tamboura Orchestras and Groups in Dragatuš twice in a row, which is the largest festival of its kind in Slovenia. Both festivals hosted more than 360 musicians from many recognised tamboura orchestras with topmost soloists from ten countries.
