Rebeka Pregelj | Ana Maria Beguš

Emerging Slovenian soprano Rebeka Pregelj (1998) is finishing her Master of Arts degree at

the University of Ljubljana Academy of Music in the class of Barbara Jernejčič Fürst,

Mag.Art.

She interpreted the role of Agrippina (Händel, Agrippina) and Paquette (Bernstein, Candide)

at the Theatre Cankarjev dom in Ljubljna and the role of Lauretta (Puccini, Gianni Schicchi)

with ensemble Opera Pannonica in Grožnjan (Croatia).

Under the direction of Maestro George Pehlivanian she performed the role of Susanna in a

concert performance of Le nozze di Figaro, the role of Rosina in a concert performance of Il

barbiere di Siviglia and the role of Micaëla in a concert performance of Carmen.

She also performed the role of Miss Hope in the opera by G. Menotti The boy who grew up

too fast and participated in premiere performances of some contemporary operas as well.

The young soprano won several awards: 1st Prize at the International Singing Competition

Lav Mirski 2019, 1st Prize at the Slovenian National Competition in 2019 and 2022, 3rd

Prize at the International Competition for Young Musicians in Treviso, and classified herself

in the final round at the International Singing Competition Seghizzi in 2018 and 2019 and in

the semifinal round of the Premio Etta e Paolo Limiti 2020.

In addition to opera, she devotes herself to art song recitals and concert singing. She prepared

a song recital as part of several concert cycles at the Slovenian Philharmonic and The

National Theater of Maribor. For Lieder interpretation she trained with renowned artists such

as Hans Adolfsen, Martha Guth, Erica Switzer and Nejc Lavrenčič.

She is also establishing herself as an interpreter of contemporary music. With the ensamble

Neofonía she performed an astonishingly virtuosic contemporary piece Voi(rex) by Philippe

Leroux.

She performed at many festivals in Slovenia, Italy and Croatia (Festival Ljubljana, Cortina

incanta la mente, Altolivenzafestival, Kaiser Karl Festival, Kogojevi dnevi, Imago

Sloveniae...).

She performed the soprano solo in Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and soprano I in Bach’s

Magificat in D major.

She also worked with conductors such as G. Pehlivanian, S. Loy, S. Dvoršak, E. Mihajlović,

N. Firšt, M. Grdadolnik. And performed as soloist with several orchestras among others

Slovenian National Theatre Orchestra of Ljubljana, Baroque Orchestra of the Academy of

Music, Cantabile Orchestra.

Ana Maria Beguš (1995) was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia. After she successfully finished her piano bachelor and masters degree at Academy of music in Ljubljana in the class of professor Tatjana Ognjanovič, she then started a one year course with professor Ruben Dalibaltayan at Music Talent Courses in Brescia, Italy. She also worked with professor Julia Gubaidullina in Zagreb, Croatia, who inspired her to start actively working as a piano teacher at different elementary music schools in different cities in Slovenia. At the moment she is teaching at Music school Radovljica and at a private music school in Ljubljana, where they implement the Edgar Willems teaching system.

Ana Maria has presented herself with different recitals and competitions solo and as a member of a piano trio Soufflé in Slovenia and abroad. She continues to be a part of different projects, i.g. Montessori materials for solfeggio, Tomatis and projects concerning improvement of her teaching abilities as well as gathering new insights into the process of teaching music.

In the year 2019 she participated at Epta Slovenia forum as a speaker where she presented her master thesis theme “Clara Schumann's Pianistic Career in the Context of the Critical Life Events”. In the year 2022 she also spoke at the International Epta forum in Portugal where she talked about teaching during the period of the Covid-19 crisis. She presented her theme under the title “Share screen!? Did the pandemic actually give us an opportunity to broaden our teaching horizons?”

In February 2020, she performed with the world-renowned pianist Simon Trpčeski in the scope of the Velenje Festival concerts. In October 2020 and December 2021, she performed with the soprano Marinka Golob in the framework of the Samospevanje concert series, where they performed as the winners of the Mlad PerArtem audition. They also recorded a concert which was broadcast via the YouTube platform of the cultural institute PerArtem,

aired in December 2020.

She and the soprano Rebeka Pregelj have been working together as a duo since 2021. They are actively performing, studying, and expanding their repertoire. In December 2022, they performed at the Slovenian Philharmonic as part of the Musical Youth of Ljubljana. Currently, for the second year in a row, they are attending a training course “Lieder Interpretation” at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana in the class of prof. Hans Adolfsen, who is a visiting professor. Other professors in the field of solo singing, such as Theresa Plut, Barbara Jernejčič Fürst and pianist Nejc Lavrenčič, provided exceptional support to the duo. In the coming months, Ana Maria and Rebeka plan to participate in several competitions, including the international IVC competition in the Netherlands.