MusMA composer 2011 - Nana Forte
Biography
Nana Forte (*1981) graduated in composition from the Ljubljana Academy of Music in the class of Marko Mihevc in 2005. She continued her postgraduate studies at The Carl Maria von Weber University of Music, Dresden,Germany with Lothar Voigtländer. From October 2007, she furthered her knowledge of composition in a masterclass of composition at the University of Arts in Berlin led by the well-known composer Walter Zimmermann, where she finished her postgraduate studies in July 2009.
Work review
Her list of works includes compositions for solo instruments, chamber music, orchestral music and several pieces for choir. Her compositions are performed all over the Europe and have been presented in a variety of concerts, international festivals and competitions: Rheinsberger Pfingstwerkstatt Neue Musik, Germany, Weimarer Frühjahrstage für zeitgenössische Musik, Germany, The 24th Zagreb Music Biennale, Croatia, The Young Euro Classic 2007 Festival in Berlin, Germany, Festival Slowind 2008 , Slovenia, The Randspiele Zepernick Festival, Germany, The 17th International Review of Composers 2008 in Belgrade, Serbia,
The 2nd Biennale of Contemporary Music,Koper, Slovenia, Festival Radovljica Slovenia, etc.
Some of her choral pieces have been published and recorded.
Nana Forte is one of the few young Slovenian composers devoting a great deal of attention to composing new works for choir. While studying, she worked with many Slovenian choirs and conductors and was awarded a number of prizes for her work in choral composition:
- 3rd prize at the National Composition Competition for a Choral Composition in Slovenia in 1996
- 2nd prize at the International Composition Competition of the Choir APZ Tone Tomšič in Slovenia in 1999
- her composition Ajda for mixed choir was chosen as the obligatory piece at the 4th International Choir Competition in Maribor, Slovenia, in 2002
- her piece Libera me for two mixed choirs was the obligatory piece in the finals of the 5th International Competition for Young Choral Conductors in Ljubljana in 2009 and has been performed by many Slovenian and European Choirs (including by the Norwegian Youth Choir in July 2010 with conductor Ragnar Rassmusen).
- her piece Izštevanka (Counting Rhyme) for mixed choir was performed in the finals of the European Choral Grand Prix 2008 in Debrecen by the Slovenian choir APZ Tone Tomšič, which won the first prize (Grand Prix) in the competition
In 2007, she was chosen to represent the Republic of Slovenia in the project "European Ensemble Academy", organised by the German Music Council (Deutscher Musikrat) on the occasion of the German presidency of the European Union. Her piece "Chiming" ("Pritrkavanje"), composed for a chamber ensemble especially for this event, has been performed in Dortmund, Bremen, Ljubljana, Rome and Brussels.
In August 2007, her orchestral composition “Genesis” was performed at the festival “Young Euro Classic” in Berlin by the Ljubljana Music Academy Orchestra conducted by George Pehlivanian, with soloists Jože Kotar (cl.) and Borut Zagoranski (acc.). In the same year, she also presented her choral piece Libera me at the Zagreb Music Biennale in Croatia.
In November 2008, her composition “ O smrti “ sonnet (on death a sonnet) for wind quintet and percussion (commissioned by the Slowind Wind Quintet) was performed at the Slowind Festival in the Philharmonic Hall in Ljubljana and was chosen to represent Slovenia at the International Rostrum of Composers, held in June in Paris.
In May 2010, her composition v lovljenju besed med izštevanjem tišine (searching for words while counting out silence) for flute and soprano was awarded the first prize at the 2nd Biennale of Contemporary Music in Koper, Slovenia.
