The new chief conductor of the Slovenian Philharmonics, George Pehlivanian, announced his plans for transforming the Ljubljana orchestra into one of the world's most renowned orchestras at a news conference on Tuesday.
Pehlivanian, who is an American of Armenian origin, assumed the post of chief conductor at the beginning of the year. While he plans to make the orchestra one of the leading ambassadors of Slovenian culture, he admits the goal would take up to ten years to achieve.
Outlining the repertoire for the next season, Pehlivanian said that it will mark anniversaries of five celebrated composers: Mozart (250th anniversary of birth), Shostakovich (30th anniversary of death), Schumann (14Oth anniversary of death), Boulez (80th birthday) and Aratunian (58th birthday).
He revelead that four young conductors would work with the orchestra in the 2005-2006 season.
Moreover, he said one of the top musicians to perform with the Philharmonics would be Japanese pianist Fujiko Hemming.
As for concerts abroad, the orchestra is scheduled to tour Austria in December 2005, Switzerland in January 2006 and Japan in April 2006. It is also due to attend the Ravenna festival and the Pula festival, both due in July 2005.
Director of the Philharmonics Damjan Damjanovic meanwhile outlined the institution's financial situation, which is said to be improving. While the Philharmonics posted a loss of SIT 29m (EUR 0.12m) last year, it made a profit of SIT 4m (EUR 16,700) this year.
Also encouraging are figures which show that the Philharmonics saw a 3 percent rise in audience numbers
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