Blaž Šparovec, Odense Symphony Orchestra & Anna Skryleva
Biography Blaž Šparovec, Odense Symphony Orchestra & Anna Skryleva
Blaž Sparovec
Slovenian born clarinetist, Blaz Sparovec, is one of the leading artists of his generation and first prize winner of the 2019 Carl Nielsen Competition. Alongside a growing reputation as a soloist, Blaz has been principal clarinetist of the Gürzenich-Orchestra Cologne since 2015 and is Associate Professor at the University of Arts in Berlin. He also performs as a guest principal with leading German orchestras, including the Staatskapelle Dresden and WDR Symphony Orchestra, and is a passionate chamber musician, partnering with artists such as Anna Lucia Richter, Bernarda Fink and Pierre-Laurent Aimard.
As a soloist, Blaz has appeared with the Gürzenich-Orchestra Cologne, Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Slovenian National Philharmonic, RTV Slovenia Symphonic Orchestra and Göttingen Symphony Orchestra.
In 2015 Blaz released his debut album entitled “Enter Clarinet”, performing a wide span of repertoire from Debussy to Penderecki showing “a bold programme selection that presents the master student of François Benda as a versatile musician” (Das Orchester). Also reviewing the album, Germany’s Klassik-Heute commented “To put it bluntly: Blaz Sparovec succeeds brilliantly (…) thanks to the twenty-one-year-old’s ability to guide his instrument like the human voice (…) Sparovec’s articulation is crystal-clear, his phrasing highly vivid (…) creating the purest joy of playing and joie de vivre.
In 2020 he recorded his second album for the British label Orchid Classics, reuniting with the Odense Symphony Orchestra for the first time since winning the Carl Nielsen Competition. On that occasion Blaz was awarded not only first prize but also the Odense Symphony Orchestra Prize and Junior Jury Prize for his performance of the Nielsen Clarinet Concerto which was broadcast internationally on medici.tv.
Prior to his success at the Carl Nielsen Competition, Blaz has won numerous international prizes both in his native Slovenia and internationally, including the 1st prize and Audience Prize in the Aeolus Winds Competition 2014 and 1st prize in the hülsta woodwinds competition in the same year. In 2012 he represented Slovenia in the Eurovision Young Musicians Competition in Vienna, having previously won a special prize at the 2011 Concertino International Radio Competition in Prague.
Blaz grew up and studied in Slovenia with Andrej Zupan at the Ljubljana Conservatory of Music, before moving to Germany to continue his studies with François Benda at the University of Arts in Berlin under the patronage of the Republic of Slovenia.
Anna Skryleva
has worked in some of Germany’s most distinguished opera houses and from the 2019/20 Season takes up the position of General Music Director at Theater Magdeburg.
From 2013-15, Anna was First Kapellmeister at the Staatstheater Darmstadt where she made her debut conducting Strauss’s Salome. She previously held the same position at the Staatstheater Schleswig-Holstein, where her interpretation of Weber’s Der Freischütz met with critical acclaim.
Anna has been employed on the music staff of both the Cologne Opera and the Staatsoper Hamburg. She worked as first assistant conductor for landmark productions of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen at both companies, where she collaborated closely with music directors Markus Stenz and Simone Young. In Hamburg, Anna conducted main-stage performances including Lehar’s The Merry Widow, Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel and Rossini’s Il turco in Italia.
As a guest conductor, Anna has appeared at houses including the Dallas Opera and the Hessian State Theater, Wiesbaden. In the season 2019/2020 she makes her debut at The Royal Swedish Opera Stockholm with Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker.
Anna Skryleva is under great demand on the concert stage, working with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Aarhus Sinfonieorchester and Copenhagen Philharmonic, the South German Philharmonic Konstanz, the North German Philharmonic Rostock, the Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM in Mexico City and debuts with the Deutsches Sinfonie Orchester Berlin in March 2020.
She is an experienced ballet conductor and has worked with dance companies including New York’s Paul Taylor Dance Company.
Anna’s operatic repertoire ranges from the Viennese classics through to German and Russian Romantics, the Italian bel canto school, and staple works of the twentieth century and beyond. She has conducted works by composers from Wagner to Kurt Weill, from Rossini to John Adams.
Anna was named Person of the Year in 2013 by the arts section of the Main-Echo newspaper. In 2014, she founded the international peace initiative Classics for Peace, which immediately met with widespread support from both the public and from high-ranking politicians, including the Hessian State President Volker Bouffier.
Anna was raised in Moscow, where she studied piano and composition at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory. She later studied at the University of Fine Arts in Berlin. She signed to Nordic Artists Management in 2018.
Vincenzo Milletarì
the young Italian conductor, is one of the most respected and sought-after conductors of his generation. After studying at the “Giuseppe Verdi” Conservatory in Milan and the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, he pursued advanced studies with Riccardo Muti at the Accademia dell’Opera Italiana in Ravenna and with Pier Giorgio Morandi.
He won second prize at the 10th “Arturo Toscanini” International Conducting Competition and the “Hera Comm” audience award in Parma. In 2015 he was awarded 2nd prize at the “Sir Georg Solti” competition in Chicago.
He embarked on his career in 2017, and soon was to be seen at the Royal Danish Opera, Royal Swedish Opera and Czech State Opera, the Festival della Valle d’Itria and the Macerata Opera Festival. He has conducted Milan’s Orchestra Sinfonica La Verdi, Parma’s Filarmonica Toscanini, Bologna’s Orchestra del Teatro Comunale and the Aalborg and Odense Symphony Orchestras.
Upcoming engagements include concerts at the Musikverein in Vienna, with the ORT – Orchestra della Toscana and the Bergen Philharmonic and operas at the Royal Danish Theatre, Royal Swedish Opera, Czech National Opera, Norwegian National Opera and Bergen National Opera.
The Odense Symphony Orchestra
one of Denmark’s five regional orchestras – was established in 1946, but its roots go all the way back to about the year 1800. From being a theatre orchestra that also played symphonic music, the orchestra today is continuously developing and expanding its modern symphony orchestra with 72 permanent musicians and a high level of activity. Concerts and productions with Odense Symphony Orchestra vary in terms of size and genre: from symphony concerts, light classical and opera to chamber music, children/youth concerts and crossover.
Odense Symphony Orchestra is the owner and host of Carl Nielsen International Competition, and the orchestra and its musicians play an important role in the competition as jury members, repertoire consultants and contact persons to many international artists.
The first of the Carl Nielsen International Competitions was held in Odense in 1980. After nearly four decades, the violin, clarinet and flute competitions have established themselves as some of the most demanding and rewarding in the world, by highlighting Carl Nielsen’s musical masterpieces, and offering each winner the chance to launch a significant international career.
