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RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra
Simfonični orkester RTV Slovenije
 Street address: Glasbena produkcija, RTV Slovenija, Kolodvorska 2-4, SI-1550 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Telephone: 386 (0) 1 475 2469
Fax: 386 (0) 1 475 2471
E-mail: gprtv@rtvslo.si
Website: http://www.rtvslo.si/simfoniki
Proprietor: Music Production Unit, RTV Slovenia
Contact: David de Villiers Chief Conductor
Contact: Boris Rener Managing Director
Telephone: 386 (0) 1 475 2471
E-mail: boris.rener@rtvslo.si
RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra was established in 1955 as the Slovene Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra under the leadership of violin virtuoso and composer Uroš Prevoršek. At that time its musicians were mostly students from the secondary schools of music and from the Academy of Music. In 1966 Samo Hubad took over leadership of the Orchestra, and in 1981 Anton Nanut became its director. Thereafter the orchestra embarked upon various concert tours in Europe and beyond, earning recognition in America in 1984 and 1985.
Led since 2003 by Chief Conductor David de Villiers, the Orchestra has a broad repertoire which ranges from Baroque to modern symphonic music, opera, oratorio and cantata, theatre and film music, with an emphasis on work by Slovene composers. Its recordings have been broadcast on many RTV radio and TV programmes and its discography is now quite substantial, numbering more than 150 CDs to date.
While the Orchestra's major activity is recording, it continues to give concerts on a regular basis. In the 1990s the orchestra appeared at the Venice Biennale and the Trieste Contemporanea, and also performed Bartok’s Concert for Orchestra, Lutoslawski’s 4th Symphony, Mozart’s Requiem, Mahler’s 6th Symphony and other important works as part of RTV Slovenia’s regular season of performances in the Gallus Hall of Cankarjev dom Culture and Congress Centre. In September 2000 Lior Shambadal became its Artistic Director, and in the 2000-1 and 2001-2 seasons the Orchestra made a series of recordings for the Arte Nova label, giving concerts in Germany and Italy and performing three evenings of Mozart and religious music at the Ljubljana churches of St Peter and St James.
Other recent performances of note include the November 2001 concert of music by Vinko Globokar conducted by Diego Masson at the Vienna Modern Festival, and the Lange Nacht der neuen Klaenge events of April 2000 and March 2001 under conductor Johannes Kalitzke. During this period the Orchestra performed and recorded new works by many Slovene composers, including Larisa Vrhunc’s Hologram, Pavel Mihelčič’s Music for 'Cello and Orchestra, and Alojz Srebotnjak’s Škofja Loka Passion. The recording of Neville Hall’s Silence Rained Down Quenching Time’s Fire finished in the top 10 of UNESCO’s prestigious Rostrum competition. In the Autumn of 2002 the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra performed in Geneva with Vinko Globokar conducting and toured Germany and Italy with Lior Shambadal.
In 2004 the orchestra received a great amount of publicity by appearing at a concert together with the rock group Siddharta. More recently the Orchestra was involved in another extraordinarily successful collaboration, this time with the Canadian dance company Compagnie Marie Chuinard.
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