The Preseren Fund board revealed on Tuesday that the 2007 Preseren Prize for lifetime achievement in arts would go to Janez Maticic (1926), a pianist and composer, and Radko Polic Rac (1942), one of the greatest Slovenian actors.
Announcing the decision, the chair of the Preseren Fund board Dusan Jovanovic said that while Maticic was unknown to the broader public and unfairly overlooked, this could not be said of Rac, although he won all major awards late in life.
Maticic writes mostly music for strings and piano. Jovanovic described his music as extremely distinctive and marked with "childlike playfulness".
Maticic said he saw the prize as an encouragement for the future. However, he said he would continue to work even if he had not been honoured.
"I am surprised at the riches hidden in a person completely boring at first sight," Jovanovic jokingly said referring to Polic, who has played over 100 theatre characters and starred in more than 50 films.
Polic noted that he was humbly grateful to his parents, who always supported him and revealed to him the greatness of the Slovenian language. He is therefore pleased that the award is named after Preseren, "a master of Slovenian".
The nominees for the Preseren Fund prizes, which are given out for individual achievements, are ballet dancer Anton Bogov, poets Primoz Cucnik and Ales Steger, video artist Ema Kugler and multimedia artist Marko Peljhan.
Also nominated are composers Urska Pompe and Bor Turel, painter Joze Slak - Dzoka, photographer Jane Stravs, writer Suzana Tratnik, the Trutamora Slovenica group and architects Vesna and Matej Vozlic.
The winners will be revealed at the award ceremony on 7 February 2006, on the eve of Slovenia's Culture Day, when Maticic and Polic will also receive their Preseren Prizes.
The Preseren Prize, named after Slovenia's best known poet France Preseren (1800-1849), is the highest commendation an artist in Slovenia can get.
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