Echoes of Summer 2026 Chamber Music Festival • Opening: In Good Company

When Goethe described the string quartet, he wrote that it was like listening to a conversation between four sensible people. This thought lies at the heart of this year's Echoes of Summer. Chamber music is a conversation among friends — an exchange in which each voice retains its individuality, while everyone listens to one another and together shapes a thought that none could express alone. This year's programme emerges from this intimate circle and invites the audience to step inside it.

This edition has also been shaped by circumstances. Due to significant cuts in funding, the programme is more compact and intimate than in previous years — yet this very concentration creates space for greater closeness between the performers and a stronger connection with the audience. At the same time, the festival is expanding beyond the Minorite Church to unusual venues throughout the Minorites Cultural Quarter: the balcony above the Puppet Museum, the stage beneath the oak tree — which will also host the free family concert For Young and Old (26 August at 6 pm), playfully introducing children and their families to the world of Mozart — and the exhibition space beneath the church.

The programme spans a broad musical arc: from the Baroque clarity of Bach and Barrière's Sonata for Two Cellos, through the Classical elegance of Mozart and Boccherini, to the Romantic warmth of Schubert, Brahms and Dvořák. The twentieth century is also represented, with works by Martinů, Honegger, Glass and Ligeti. Mozart remains the central thread — a language of clarity, balance and dialogue that understands chamber music as a friendly exchange. A special place is reserved for his Ganz kleine Nachtmusik: a work for string trio that he wrote as a teenager in the mid-eighteenth century. Its rediscovery was announced only in September 2024, following its discovery in Leipzig's municipal libraries — and at Echoes of Summer it will receive its Maribor premiere. That friendship is not merely a framework but a story embedded within the music itself is demonstrated by Brahms's String Sextet No. 1, with which the festival opens: the composer arranged its famous slow movement for piano and presented it to Clara Schumann as a birthday gift in 1860.

The festival brings together established musicians and a younger generation developing their artistry alongside them. Violinist Lana Trotovšek performs as a soloist and chamber musician around the world. In July 2024, she performed Beethoven's Violin Concerto with Zubin Mehta in a performance recorded by Mezzo, and last year she released the second volume of Prokofiev's Milestones on the Somm label. She lives in London, teaches at Trinity Laban Conservatoire and plays a 1750 Pietro Antonio Dalla Costa violin. Flautist Boris Bizjak performs as a soloist and chamber musician from Slovenia to the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan, and is also active as a Baroque flautist. Violist Nejc Mikolič, formerly principal viola of the Klagenfurt Opera, teaches chamber music at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana. Horn player Sarah Akif, the recipient of numerous competition prizes, graduated with distinction from the Academy of Music in Ljubljana and has been a member of the SNG Maribor Orchestra since 2018. The artistic director of the series, cellist Nikolaj Sajko, is deputy principal cellist of the Maribor Orchestra. Since 2012, he has served as artistic director of Carpe artem, and since 2024 he has taught and coordinated chamber music at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (KUG).

Echoes of Summer also remains a space for young musicians. Cellist Ariel Vei Atanasovski is continuing his master's studies with Pieter Wispelwey in Amsterdam and was selected this year for the prestigious Cello Biënnale 2026. Violinist Laura Calligaris, following her studies in Graz, is continuing her education in Brussels, with a particular focus on historically informed performance practice. Violist Julija Tomac, a multiple prize-winner at national and international competitions, is continuing her studies at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana. The meeting of generations is not merely a programming choice, but lies at the heart of what Echoes of Summer aspires to be.

You are invited into this intimate circle — three evenings in which classical music, friendship and new discoveries meet at close quarters. The Echoes of Summer festival is produced by the Amadeus Chamber Music Society in co-organisation with the Maribor Puppet Theatre.

Programme

25 August at 7:30 pm — Opening: In Good Company / Minorite Church

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Quintet for Horn and Strings in E-flat major, K. 407
Johannes Brahms: String Sextet No. 1 in B-flat major, Op. 18

Sarah Akif (horn), Lana Trotovšek (violin), Laura Calligaris (violin), Nejc Mikolič (viola), Julija Tomac (viola), Nikolaj Sajko (cello), Ariel Vei Atanasovski (cello)

25 August at 9:00 pm — Night Impressions / Balcony above the Puppet Museum

Jean-Baptiste Barrière: Sonata for Two Cellos in G major
Antonín Dvořák: Terzetto
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Ganz kleine Nachtmusik

Lana Trotovšek (violin), Laura Calligaris (violin), Nejc Mikolič (viola), Boris Bizjak (flute), Nikolaj Sajko (cello), Ariel Vei Atanasovski (cello)

26 August at 6:00 pm — For Young and Old (Family Concert) / Stage beneath the Oak Tree — Free Admission

Exploring the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Boris Bizjak (flute), Miladin Batalovič (violin), Nejc Mikolič (viola), Nikolaj Sajko (cello)

26 August at 7:15 pm — Confidential Conversations / Minorite Church

Bohuslav Martinů: Duo for Violin and Cello No. 1, H. 157
Arthur Honegger: Sonatina for Violin and Cello, H. 80
Franz Schubert: String Trio in B-flat major, D. 581

Laura Calligaris (violin), Julija Tomac (viola), Ariel Vei Atanasovski (cello)

26 August at 8:00 pm — Exhibition and Presentation of Audio Recordings / Exhibition Space beneath the Minorite Church

Urška Lukovnjak Mustafa (photographer), Jasmina Padar (visual artist)

26 August at 8:30 pm — Alone in the Room / Exhibition Space beneath the Minorite Church

Philip Glass: Orbit for Solo Cello
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonata for Solo Violin No. 1 in G minor, BWV 1001
György Ligeti: Sonata for Solo Cello
Johann Sebastian Bach: Partita for Solo Violin No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004

Lana Trotovšek (violin), Laura Calligaris (violin), Nikolaj Sajko (cello), Ariel Vei Atanasovski (cello)

27 August at 7:30 pm — Closing Evening: Goodbye, Summer / Minorite Church

Gioachino Rossini: Quartet No. 1 in D major
Heitor Villa-Lobos: Jet Whistle (Assobio a Jato)
Luigi Boccherini: Flute Quartet No. 3 in D minor

Boris Bizjak (flute), Lana Trotovšek (violin), Nejc Mikolič (viola), Nikolaj Sajko (cello)

Tickets

Tickets can be purchased at the Minorites Cultural Quarter box office and online at www.minoriti.si.

Daily ticket • €15
Single-event ticket • €12
Festival ticket package • €35

More information • www.carpeartem.eu

Nikolaj Sajko, Artistic Director
+386 41 866 171
niko@carpeartem.eu

Sarah Akif, Producer
+386 41 789 281
sarah@carpeartem.eu