Matjaž D•••

About

On the record

Matjaž D••• (b. 1965 in Maribor, Slovenia) is Vice-Rector of the University of Ljubljana for the Arts, for a period from 1st October 2021 to 30th September 2025 and full professor for saxophone at the University of Ljubljana Academy of Music. He performs as a soloist and chamber musician, member of the Zagreb Saxophone Quartet, LJD Ensemble (formerly Juhart - Lazar - D••• Trio) and other classical, jazz and rock bands in Europe, South and Central America, Asia, Canada and the USA. As a soloist he plays with leading symphony and wind orchestras at home and abroad: Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, Maribor Philharmonic, Slovenian Philharmonic Chamber String Orchestra, Slovenian Army Orchestra, Zagreb Philharmonic, HRT Symphony Orchestra and Big Band, Zagreb Soloists, Croatian Chamber Orchestra, Croatian Army Symphony Wind Orchestra, French Republican Guard Orchestra, the Hong Kong Festival Wind Orchestra, the Royal Northern College Wind Orchestra, the Emory Wind Ensemble and the University of Minnesota Wind Ensemble, and the National Symphonic Band of San José, Costa Rica. He is a founding member of the Chamber Orchestra of Soloists (Society of Slovene Composers) and solo saxophonist of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra. He is a member of the jury at national and international competitions for young musicians (Bayreuth, Belgrade, Graz, Krško, Limoges, Nichelino / Turin, Nova Gorica, Požarevac, Riga, Skopje, Szczecinek, Zagreb) and leads numerous summer schools and master classes in Europe, Hong Kong, China, Costa Rica and the USA (Hong Kong International Saxophone Symposium, International Wind Instruments Workshop in Szczecinek, master class at the Amsterdam Conservatory, master class at the University of Costa Rica, master class at the Zhejiang Conservatory of Music, music workshops at more than twenty North American universities, etc.). He has premiered more than 70 new compositions of domestic and foreign authors and participated in 21 discographic publications; the most important are Z-Quartet, Cascades, Tsunagari and Sax+(all with the Zagreb Saxophone Quartet - they won 5 Croatian Porin prizes for discography) and Duo - Matjaž D••• - alto saxophone, Zoltan Peter - piano. He chaired the Saksofonija Music Society, which hosted the 14th World Saxophone Congress in summer 2006, and Jeunesses Musicales Slovenia. From 2004 to 2019 he was the artistic director of International Saxophone Meetings and Competitions SAXGO in Nova Gorica. He is co-founder and artistic co-director of Minoriti Music Festival in Maribor.