Piano Concert with Sašo Vollmaier

VOLLMAIER Piano

Vollmaier, born in 1982 as Sašo Vollmaier, works as a pianist, composer, performer and vocal teacher. Trained at the Ljubljana Music Academy and influenced profoundly by Pantheatre – a renowned French non-profit organization offering artistic training – his international success includes theatre and cartoon scores, choral arrangements, big band stations and much more. As a vocal teacher and pianist/accompanist, he has worked at the Slovenian National Theatre in Maribor and at other engagements in France, Germany, Italy, Brazil and Switzerland. Click here for his complete biography

For his Berlin appearance, which includes his own works from his piano album Kind of Laibach, Vollmaier combines older and more recent compositions according to the stations of his biography: Vollmaier was a member of LAIBACH from 2007 to 2013. Founded in 1980 in Socialist Yugoslavia, the group, known for its Fascist aesthetics, quickly became one of the most controversial artist collectives in Europe. Over time, the intellectual firebrands of Yugoslavia became one of Slovenia’s cultural export hits, and they kept on causing a stir: for example, in 2000 the artist collective appeared at the Slovenian pavilion at the EXPO 2000 in Hanover. In 2015 LAIBACH managed to pull off one of the greatest coups in the rock and art business of the 21^st century: they were the first Western rock group ever to perform in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

During the concert, a selection of Slovenian wines will be available for tasting.

PROGRAMME

Vollmaier: Nietzsche
Vollmaier: Brat moj RE (from „Kind of Laibach”)
Vollmaier: Sredina (from „Kind of Laibach”)
Vollmaier: Nous deux encore
Vollmaier: Odsev
Vollmaier: Obsedenost (from „Kind of Laibach”)
Vollmaier: Krvava gruda plodna zemlja RE (from „Kind of Laibach”)
Vollmaier: Če mogel bi
Vollmaier: Resistance is futile RE (from „Kind of Laibach”)
Vollmaier: Ti, ki izzivaš RE (from „Kind of Laibach”)

Statement on the music:

“The roots of German-Slovenian cooperation reach back to the 16th century: The Reformation, for example, had a profound influence on the formation of the Slovene language, and Slovene Impressionism, in turn, was born in Munich. This time we wanted to show something contemporary, after all Slovenia is known for its outstanding contemporary creativity, especially in the field of visual arts and music. Sašo Vollmaier is part of a new, internationally renowned generation of Slovenian music makers whose original approaches provide exciting impulses.”

– Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia