Uršula Jašovec

Life has a way of returning us to where we began, but with a new song in our hearts. In 2023, I had the immense honor of being featured in the Vocal Abonma of the Slovenian Philharmonic Choir.

As I stood in the prestigious hall of the Slovenian Philharmonic, I was suddenly transported back to when I was five years old. I remembered standing on that same stage for the very first time, a small child in a choir singing the folk song "Barčica po morju plava." To return decades later—not just to perform, but to hear my own composition brought to life by one of the finest choirs in the country—was overwhelming. Even after many years of performing there, this felt different. My heart was pounding as the first notes began.

The Story of "Tu-Ji-Na"
The piece performed that night, "Tu-Ji-Na," was born from a deep personal connection. The lyrics were written by my former colleague from my very first job at GSŠRM Kamnik, Katarina Galič van der Linden.
Katarina moved to Australia years ago, where she now works at a Slovenian radio station in Melbourne and teaches music. Her poetry perfectly captures the ache of "tujina"—the longing and missing of one’s motherland. I felt a responsibility to externalize her words into music, to bridge the distance between Slovenia and Australia through sound.

The Ultimate Reward
When I sent the recording to Katarina in Melbourne, she told me the music brought tears to her eyes. As a composer, that is all I ever need to hear. It meant I didn't just write notes; I felt her words truly and deeply.
A massive thank you to the Slovenian Philharmonic Choir and conductor Gregor Klančič for making this "little dream" come true and for treating my music with such care.

Sometimes, as musicians, we don’t just find music; we find a mirror. In 2023, I was invited to participate in a project marking the 50th anniversary of the passing of Cvetana Priol. Before this project, I didn’t even know she existed. Today, I feel as though I’ve found a part of myself in her story.

Cvetana was a true daughter of Maribor—a pedagogue, a talented organist, and a composer. Though her life was defined by the physical suffering of a grave illness, she transformed that pain into a "Spiritual Diary" and a legacy of profound faith.

When I sat down to set five of her lyrical poems to music, I expected a challenge. Instead, I found a miraculous ease. It was as if the melodies were already there, waiting in her words; the music flowed out of me effortlessly, a natural conversation between two women who speak the same language of the soul.

These pieces weren't just personal experiments. They were brought to life in the most sacred of settings:
• Performance: Part of the Sacral Abonma in the iconic Ursuline Church in Ljubljana and in her home city of Maribor.
• Publication: I am incredibly proud that these works, including the piece "Kesanje" (Repentance), have been published by Edicije DSS (Slovenian Composers' Association).

Cvetana is currently in the process of beatification, a testament to her extraordinary life. Her story has inspired me to launch a Women Composers Project on my Patreon. I want to ensure that voices like hers—and the voices of other underappreciated women in music—are no longer hidden in the archives.

In Slovenia, we carry our history in our songs. As we gathered to celebrate our Independence Day, I had the honor of performing with the Vocal Group Muze at the local celebration gala in the Kamnik municipality.

For us, folk music is more than just tradition—it is a living, breathing aspect of our identity. We wanted to bring that heritage to life on stage, but the evening took an unexpected, creative turn. With one of our members absent, we decided to "spice things up" by integrating the piano into our arrangements.
What started as a necessity turned into something truly magical. The piano added a fresh, lyrical layer to our folk roots, creating a bridge into the more symphonic works that followed later in the evening. It was a night of deep connection—to our culture, to our town, and to our history.

Happy Birthday, Slovenia! 🇸🇮

Over the past few years, I’ve had the privilege of leading several of Slovenia’s most spirited choirs through their major anniversaries. From the tiny rehearsals where it all began to the grand stage of Križanke, these moments define my life as a conductor and educator.

The Heart of My Journey: DROUZ (10th Anniversary, 2021)
DROUZ is my project, my "everything." What started with just a few girls grew into a powerful mixed choir that has consistently earned golden plaques at competitions. This project eventually expanded into Radomlje, and I am so proud of the musical community we built from the ground up.

The Waldorf Spirit: OŠ Waldorf (30th Anniversary, 2022)
Teaching at the Waldorf schools in Ljubljana and Naklo was a joy. These children are overflowing with a love for the arts. Preparing a performance using Orff instruments for the massive, historic hall of Križanke was both a challenge and a highlight—a true celebration of creative freedom.

A Standard of Excellence: GŠ Matije Tomca (25th Anniversary, 2022)
It was a distinct honor to conduct the Children’s Choir at Zavod Sv. Stanislava (ŠKG). Leading such proud singers in one of the most prestigious choral schools in Slovenia was a deeply rewarding professional peak.

Continuing the Legacy: GŠ Kamnik (70th Anniversary, 2023)
A major milestone for the Kamnik community! In 2023, I conducted the Children’s Choir for the school’s 70th anniversary. It was a "full circle" moment where I was able to honor the school’s long-standing legacy while also performing my own original compositions.

The Soul of Mengeš: MePZ Svoboda (70th Anniversary, 2024)
I have been with Svoboda Mengeš since 2019. These are "people with soul"—full of determination, love for music, and a sense of adventure. Our 70th-anniversary concert in 2024 was a massive event, made even more special by our collaboration with the folklore group.

History in the Hall: MePZ Cantemus (45th Anniversary, 2024)
Performing in the historic and beautiful hall of Castle Zaprice with Cantemus was magical. Having led them since 2021, this anniversary felt like the perfect culmination of our work together in a setting that breathed history.

A Golden Bond: ŽePZ Rozka Usenik (50th Anniversary)
I have been the 5th conductor of these wonderful women since 2013. Our 50th-anniversary event was breathtaking, and receiving an award from the Ljubljana Municipality (MOL) was a proud moment for all of us. I truly love these singers; their connection with the audience is something special.

A Decade of Excellence: KGBL Children’s Choir (10th Anniversary, 2025)
Celebrating ten years with the choir at the Ljubljana Conservatory of Music and Ballet (KGBL) was a highlight of my 2025. On April 11th, we filled the Great Hall on Vegova with music that represented a decade of growth and artistic dedication. It was particularly special to share the stage with our musical guests from abroad, making the anniversary a truly international celebration of young talent.

It was a profound honor to serve as a teacher and conductor for the Children’s Choir at the 70th-anniversary celebration of Glasbena šola Kamnik. For seven decades, this school has been a cornerstone of our community’s soul, and being part of this milestone felt like stepping into a living history.

What made this evening truly unforgettable was the opportunity to not only uphold our school's rich legacy but to contribute to it directly. Conducting the choir as they performed my own original music was a 'full circle' moment I will always cherish. Seeing my students breathe life into my compositions on such a historic stage reminded me why we teach: to pass on the flame of tradition while sparking the fire of new creation.

Pesem iz vira moči (The Song from the Source of Strenght/The Power of the Swamp) is a musical theatre play, a fairy tale for children. It was written on the initiative and in cooperation with the Terra Anima society, with which we raise awareness of the importance of the swamp ecosystem for our environment.

We are losing wetlands faster than rainforest - we have lost nearly 90% of wetlands globally since 1700. These earth's most vulnerable ecosystems are important as air conditioners in managing climate change, providing drinking water and purifying and enriching groundwater. Wetlands are the kidneys of the landscape and a treasure trove of biodiversity, the most biotically diverse ecosystems.
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Our goal was to show how to stand up for it, how to become its guardian or just someone who lets the power of the place through themselves and thus becomes much more.

In April KUD Franc Kotar Trzin celebrated their anniversary and performed two of the theatre plays and showcased the music I wrote for them in the chain of events during the whole month. Was very honoured to see it being performed again.

Later, in May they attended a theatre play competition and got an award for their performance. Cheers to Blaznost igre and Salto mortale crew.

At the beginning of January I wrote a the piece "Hrepenenje" (Longing) for choir SATB, which has been premiered in February by Pedagoška Fakulteta Choir and also successfully performed at a competition in March. A piece is an ode to longing for some peace in this ever hurrying world.

Was also nice to see my pieces Coprnica Zofka and Nekaj je v zraku be performed by various choirs at regional competition Sozvočenja, to see people enjoy performing it.

I am honoured that I was interviewed and was able to present a piece of my works at a Slovenian Radio ARS in the show "Izpod peresa slovenskih skladateljev". It was such a pleasure speaking with Katarina Radaljac about my work, although at first it was quite hard for me to talk about it, since I usually just let people listen to it, but over a time it was such fun to discuss it that I forgot I was actually interviewed. Still haven't mustered time to listen to it, but I am sure Katarina prepared it well. Here is the link to the podcast, if you are interested, but unfortunately it is only in Slovenian.

https://ars.rtvslo.si/podkast/izpod-peresa-slovenskih-skladateljev/173250848/174931814

How the donkey who defeated the monster is a therapeutic musical story to help children cope with fear. It was inspired by a real donkey named Bard. Bard is such a character and Špela Kaplja felt that for his birthday she will write a story inspired by Bard. It is a lovely story about how we make the fears ourselves and how the donkey deals with it, showing townspeople how to get through it. It was such a pleasure to write music for this lovely story, which came alive with illustrations by Jana Fak.
The book was published and presented in December 2022 by Terra Anima and can be purchased by Chiara publishing house. Since Špela is also a storyteller we started touring with this book around and I am looking forward performing pieces live with her throughout Slovenia, helping kids realise fear is but a big fluffy furry friendly "monster".

It is funny that though I write a lot of pieces, especially for kids, and I also teach kids from 5 years and above, I tend not to sing and perform my pieces with them, but last year I was encouraged by school to prepare something and we started with this little piece about the upcoming winter. The children loved singing it so much they begged me to repeat and repeat singing it so many times I had to stop them and continue with other topics. Since then I started teaching kids some of my songs and I am so happy when I see them enjoy singing it. Although it is mostly classroom performances to me it feels like we are on a big stage and just seeing them shine like little rays of happiness when they sing it, it makes it all worthwhile.

The performance of a piece "Zima bo" took place on big stage in Kamnik with 50 of my little students singing it. What a blast!

At the begging of 2022 we started with the performances of ballet for kids with an environmental note to it, to start preserving and taking care of our surroundings. Everything starts with a small gesture. In December we successfully finished our tour with 25 fully packed performances. I am so proud of all the dancers, seeing them develop from performance to performance, enjoy every second of it each time they were on stage, and really grateful to all the moms who took time to help out with organising such big children corpus of dancers. And in the end the biggest thanks goes to a wonderful choreographer and ballet dancer, Ana Trojnar who made this ballet come to life.

I enjoyed writing music myself and hearing all the positive feedback from the dancers, organisers to the kids and other listeners who came to see ballet just made me so blessed and thankful I was able to be part of this project. Thank you all for making this become live and thriving.

A piece that was written over the night, literally.
When things are tight in schedule, more new things need cram into, but when you have time, there's silence. And so it was also the case this time. I got a call from a conductor of De Profundins choir to write a new piece on a lyric from old Slovenian folktales about castle life of medieval Slovenia. Mine was about a lady and a beggar. A story is quite bitter so I will not explain it here, but the process of writing a piece for choir on these story was a one where music became to be quickly. I loved how the conductor had a clear vision of a concept, how she explained the story and background to me in detail and her enthusiasm came all over me so it was quite easy to write the piece "Grajska gospa in berač" (A court lady and a beggar).
Seeing and hearing a piece performed by beautiful voices of this choir in beautiful castle settings all over Slovenia, despite driving in narrow roads on a rainy night, was an experience one doesn't forget.

When they asked me to write music on a text by Nebojša Pop-Tasić I couldn't resist but say yes, although my concert and teaching schedule was crazily packed. This time I loved the story even more than the previous one, as well written as always, so the music just followed the pace of the work itself. Unfortunately due to some other events I wasn't able to come see the premiere, but was enjoying every second of it when I finally got to see it a couple of performances later. Actors played the part as brilliant as always and the show was thrilling from the beginning to the end. Thank you Hlodi for inviting me to be a part of this amazing theatre piece once again.

https://www.kud-trzin.si/salto-mortale/

Amongst many other songs I have written in 2022 is a piece called "Ljubim" dedicated to a dear friend of mine and her husband. I wrote it in Brela, a beautiful town in Croatian coastline in a shed with a view to the sea. It somehow reminded me of a shed that Grieg has made for himself to compose and with this thought in my mind I felt inspired writing the piece whilst looking to the clear waters down below.
Ljubim is a first piece in a long time for which I have also written lyrics, not only the music and arranged it for three female voices with piano accompaniment. At the beginning it was a bit of a struggle, but more I have dedicated to it, more the lyric and music poured out. I wish a couple to live a long and prosperous life with abundance of love.

Not only my piece Ave Maria was recorded and produced by a publishing house last year but was also performed on a tour by Petra Vrh Vrezec and Gregor Klančič throughout Slovenia, starting with a concert in Ljubljana. On a day when it was performed I just flew back home and I took off from a very long flight, forced myself not to go directly home to sleep but to go to the concert and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed it. Listening pieces from Caccini, Mozart, Verdi, Saint-Saëns etc. my soul was lifted up and the fact that on a same concert where all those big names were performed I heard my piece it just made my heart full of happiness. A beautiful sound coming from above filling the space of the Ursuline church was so special I felt better when the concert was finished, although I had to hurry back to the bus station not to miss my last bus home. Worth every second of it. Thank you Petra and Gregor for that!

Night of Slovenian music days 2022. Uroš Vegelj and Lovorka Nemeš Dular tackle my new piece for tuba and piano, a piece called "Nič na kvadrat", translated to Zero squared. What a nonsense of a statement! This piece is my reaction to what is currently happening in this world in different areas of life. I love that both instrumentalists really enjoyed performing the piece and I also enjoyed collaborating with them, seeing it develop and be performed. Am very grateful to collaborate with musicians like Uroš and Lovorka and I thank them for bringing my piece to life as they did.

In a season of 2022 Gaja Sorč, Sabina Gruden, Mojca Lavrenčič and Tina Sapundžić have prepared a project on which amongst all the great female composers throughout history have been presented and on this concert cycle they also performed a couple of my works, what an honour to be in a presence of such calibre! Throughout art song and painting they dedicated the night in the honour of all that a woman is. Was glad that my music could be a part of this beautiful project.

Photo by Tamara Bizjak

Happy to announce my second ballet was finally performed. Premiere was on 4th of February in Kulturni dom Kamnik and since then we already had 14 repeats. There will be more from April on, touring around Slovenia.
Story that I wrote 50 minutes of music on was written by young ballerina Karolina Graj who is also performing as a mermaid in the show and choreographed by Ana Trojnar whose ballet class is performing the whole ballet.
Besides writing the music I had a privilege to illustrate the story background and posters as well. Had such fun doing that. Sharing a snippet of it here.

In January an award was given and my piece Ocean breath was finally performed by male choir of AG Ljubljana, conducted by Sebastjan Vrhovnik and broadcasted by RTV Slovenia.

At the Regional competition of choirs we received 3rd place and golden award and a special award for best performed folk song. I feel very proud of where we have come with Drouz and feel very happy on going forward with them.

https://domzalec.si/zlato-priznanje-in-posebno-priznanje-zirije-za-kulturno-prosvetno-drustvo-drouz/

Ever since I can remember I loved folk songs and had a wish to reach out to people with them. This weekend I had a chance to transcend this to all the people who came and enjoyed, sang with us and gave us the best applause ever. Thank you KUD Franca Kotarja for making us a part of your St Martin’s Holiday concert.

I had an honor to be picked as a participant of Enoa to be part of an amazing experience at the Queen Elizabeth music chapel in Belgium. Very inspiring place and people make you full of new ideas and energy, so got home with new aspirations.

At Viteška dvorana in Križanke my new and recycled old pieces just got performed by two amazing artists, Zala Hodnik [soprano] and Ana Semič Bursać [piano].

Theatre show Blaznost igre for which I wrote music for based on text of Nebojša Pop-Tasič and one of the actors as well just got a Matiček award at Linhartovo srečanje in Postojna. Feeling very proud of what we did.

As a child I loved these magazines and now I had an honor to write new pieces for that same publication. For me these kind of things are the most rewarding!

I just got this batch right out of print from Astrum publication. Two new works I did for children’s choir and one for high voices. 🎶

We had a privilege to participate at the 1st gospel festival in Novo mesto arranged by MePZ Pomlad and Alenka Podpečan, where we performed at two different venues and I even had a chance to lead a bit at a workshop and conduct to united choir made out of three amazing choirs (Pomlad, Bee Geesus). It really was a joyous moment.

When you have the best audience and best musicians you could wish for to make one of the most rewarding evenings where you could perform your own works as well.

This year I was a part of a wonderful experience, where I had a chance to write a short opera and work with amazing musicians under Anthony Heidweiller.

Here is a short video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ysv7cJhpYHQ

A link to the website: https://academie.festival-aix.com/en/workshop/voice/opera-de-ci-de-la-residency
and official festival site: https://festival-aix.com/en/event/opera-de-ci-de-la

And a link to an online journal: https://www.journalzibeline.fr/critique/de-ci-de-la/

I've already written a blog about Aguilera's little copy-paste and we all know about some famous plagiarisms like the most famous Bizet's aria from Carmen and Celine's Dion All By Myself, so I won't be writing about these, but about the latest discovery I've come across with.
I've been studying Caccini's Ave Maria and thinking of what song does it remind me of. I've changed rhythm a bit and took few notes out and got a completely different genre of music out of it.
Here is a sheet music example. If you play yourself on a piano harmonies and take orchestral melody when it comes out and take last 2 notes from it (if you listen to the Sumi Jo's performance it comes out at 1:17) you get a melody from a song we probably all know: Fly Me To The Moon. Here is sheet music from Fly Me, so you can compare, but look at it from where main theme comes out. Maybe in this performance you could hear the developing harmonies from Ave Maria better.
I know these are completely different genres of music and I'm not saying B. Howard stole it from Caccini, but if he did he camouflaged it brilliantly!
So, if you think you can make a better song from a previous one, take the part of music you like the most, progressing hamonies, which you spice or transpose a bit, maybe change the rhythm and you've got a completely new song out of it! But basically it's the same music ...
But all in all, one can get similar melodies to the existing ones really quickly these days, so who blames it? Some even say they did it because they thought that way they would do music its justice. Well, at least they admit.
In this case I think that there are a bit too many similarities (excluding the main voice melody) to the orchestral part for me to say he didn't copy it, but who knows-I don't. I think he and Caccini are the only ones to know ... Both songs are huge "hits" even till now, so I think it doesn't matter if it was copied or not, because both are artistically and musically very good and listenable and both served their justice.
What do you think, was it copied or not? :)

Music Academy in Ljubljana prepared and performed Monteverdi's opera L'Orfeo/Orfeo (info about the opera itself). Thus I think they did a very decent performance of it I'm posting here their performance from Ptuj.
If you like it, you can still see it in Ljubljana and in Venice. All the details about performances and performers etc. you can find on this site.
Enjoy!

List of my compositions, performed from november 2011 till may 2012 (that I know of):
 
November:
Črni muc (mixed choir; performed by MePZ Slamnik)
December:
Orhideja (voice&piano; first performance, performed by Klemen Torkar)
March:
Trobentice II (mixed choir; first performance by MePZ Slamnik)
May:
Črni muc (mixed choir; performed by vocal group Krila and my MePZ Slamnik)
Trobentice (voice&piano; first performance; performed by Eva Černe&Uršula Jašovec)
Deček in sonce (female choir&piano; performed by vocal group Sončnice)
Asha (2 flutes&piano; first performance by Medeja Unuk&Andreja Marčun&Mateja Lasič)
Trobentice II (mixed choir; performed by MePZ Slamnik)
Kelih (voice&piano; performed by Eva Černe&Uršula Jašovec)
Pomladni dan (voice; performed by Matej)