Divine Forces

The collaboration with the Icelandic university choir Háskólakórinn began with two invitations to the folk festival Siglufjörður, where Zvezdana Novaković ZveN performed as both a singer and a mentor for traditional folk singing. The festival is led by the conductor of Háskólakórinn, who, after last year’s edition, expressed a wish for Zvezdana to compose a piece for the choir – and to perform in it herself.

The result was Devine Forces, a powerful composition that carries a strong message about the urgent need to respect nature. In the piece, Slovenian and Icelandic gods come together—disappointed and outraged by humanity’s disconnection from the sacredness of the natural world. At their gathering, they make a decision: it's time to teach humankind a lesson by unleashing natural disasters. It’s time for the elemental forces to remind us who truly holds the power.

In a unique musical evening in Maribor, the University Choir of Iceland (Háskólakórinn) and the Hugo Wolf Chamber Choir will meet for the first time – two ensembles united by their dedication to choral artistry and their shared passion for preserving and co-creating musical heritage. Joining the choirs as the evening’s special guest will be Zvezdana Novaković ZveN

The University Choir of Iceland (Háskólakórinn) was founded in 1972. It consists of around 70 singers, most of whom are students at the University of Iceland, Reykjavík University, or the Iceland University of the Arts. Each year, international exchange students also join the choir. The choir regularly performs at important university events and ceremonies, and each semester it presents an independent concert. At the end of the academic year, the choir goes on tour – either within Iceland or abroad – to participate in concerts, choral festivals, and competitions. Over the years, it has received numerous awards and recognitions for its performances. The choir has released several albums of Icelandic music. For its 50th anniversary, it commissioned a new piece titled The Time is Now by composer Bára Grímsdóttir.

The Hugo Wolf Chamber Choir was founded in 2010 to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of composer Hugo Wolf, who attended high school in Maribor and composed his first works there. The choir operates under the auspices of the cultural association Mostovi(Bridges), an organization of German-speaking women from Maribor that fosters connections between Slovenian and German culture in the Slovenian Styria region. Currently, around 40 singers perform under the direction of vocal pedagogue Aleš Marčič. The choir places special emphasis on commemorating composers connected to Maribor, including, in addition to Wolf, Eduard Lannoy, Robert Stolz, Rudolf Wagner, Valentin Lechner, Emil Hochreiter, and others, while also encouraging the creativity of young Slovenian composers.

Zvezdana Novaković ZveN is a versatile musical creator and performer whose artistic path has led her from folk traditions through theatre music to bold experimentation enriched with electronics. In over a decade of creative work, she has been active in so many fields and involved in such a wide range of projects that it’s nearly impossible to list them all. Her scope stretches from theatre stages to concert halls, from collaborations with Laibach to performances with Svetlana Makarovič, from Bulgaria to Brazil, from ancient traditions to cutting-edge electronic sounds, from puppetry to the acclaimed productions of Jernej Lorenci, from classical music to jazz, from teaching vocal techniques and studying composition to conducting choirs, from national opera houses to underground clubs, from storytelling to playing the harp. All of this is held together by her voice. Her ZveN.