Janko Kastelic

Canadian–Slovene conductor (born 1969)

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Janko Kastelic (born 10 January 1969) is a Canadian–Slovene conductor who was the music director for the Opera House of Maribor, Slovenia from September 2008 until June 2011.

Biography

Janko Kastelic was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and grew up in Toronto, Canada. He began his musical career at St. Michael's Choir School as a boy soprano and accompanist. He traveled the globe and acquired a vast musical repertoire ranging from Gregorian chant to 20th-century music. At a very young age, he acquired the gold medal in performance from the Western Ontario Conservatory of Music in both piano and organ. Upon graduation, he was accepted to the Edward Johnson Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto, where he continued his studies in conducting, theory, composition, and piano.

Kastelic's "desire to learn and experience more"^[1] drove him back to Europe after his studies, where he attained a position as coach and assistant conductor at the State Opera of Slovenia where he simultaneously led a baroque and wind orchestra. After three seasons, he was invited to the Opéra National de Paris as assistant coach where he worked with prominent singers and conductors. In 2002 he took the position as an assistant in the Vienna State Opera, where he conducted performances of Das Traumfresserchen, Aladdin and Bastien und Bastienne.

Kastelic has prepared works for the Klangbogen Festival Vienna and the Salzburger Festspiele and conducted the TU Orchester Wien, where he led orchestra concerts focusing on French and Classical repertoire. He was responsible for the choruses in Moses und Aron by Arnold Schoenberg at the Vienna State Opera in March 2007. In 2008 he conducted performances of Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss at the Musik Theater Schönbrunn in Vienna.^[2]

While primarily conducting in Europe (including Austria, Italy, Spain, and Slovenia among others) Kastelic has also conducted in North America.

Educating children

Kastelic is a strong advocate for the education of youth in classical music. In September 2005, he was appointed as a musical leader for the opera school for children at the Vienna State Opera,^[3] where they performed a staged-work arranged by Kastelic in June 2006 (Mozart Year) on lieder by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart called Der kleine Friedrich written and staged by the writer Claudia Toman.^[4] Beyond education, he has conducted many performances of children's opera in Vienna.

SNG Maribor

Janko Kastelic was General Music Director of the Maribor Opera House from September 2008 until June 2011.^[5] In May 2009, he conducted Carmina Burana by Carl Orff in Ljubljana and Maribor. In September 2009 he conducted his first Premiere, The Queen of Spades by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.^[1]

Notes

^ ^a ^b "Janko Kastelic « Slovensko narodno gledališče Maribor". Sng-mb.si. Archived from the original on 12 September 2011. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
^ "Janko Kastelic". Musik-theater-schoenbrunn.at. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
^ [1] Archived 9 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine
^ htoman. "REGIE - Friedrich". Members.aon.at. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
^ "Mladi francoski dirigent bo vodil mariborsko Opero" [A Young French Conductor Will Lead the Maribor Opera] (in Slovenian). MMC RTV Slovenia. 16 July 2011.