BIOGRAPHY
Veronika Vilar Brecelj completed her bachelor’s degree at the University of Arts Berlin with prof. Tomasz Tomaszewski. She continued her studies with prof. Boris Kuschnir at the University of Performing Arts Graz and later studied with prof. Yair Kless, graduated with top honours in the class of prof. Silvia Marcovici. She participated in several masterclasses with renowned teachers such as Pavel Vernikov, Igor Ozim, Latica Honda-Rosemberg, Yair Kless, Krzysztof Wegrzyn and Ivry Gitlis.
In October 2020, she was appointed as a violin professor at the Conservatory of Music and Ballet Ljubljana. Her students have received prizes at international competitions such as Young Virtuoso (Croatia), International Gathering of Violinists (Serbia), Giovani musicisti (Italy), Temsig, Tartini competition and the international competition “Matija Bravničar” (Slovenia). They have also been successful in auditions for renowned youth orchestras such as Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra (Switzerland) and Concertgebouw Young (Netherlands). She regularly gives masterclasses in Slovenia.
She actively performs concerts with renowned Slovenian and foreign musicians in various chamber ensembles, and occasionally leads the FVG Orchestra (Italy) as concertmaster. As part of the chamber music cycle Carpe Artem, she recorded a CD featuring works by D. Elfman, A. Dvořák and D. Jakšič. She was a member of the Austrian string octet Oberton, with whom she released two CDs. The first CD, titled "Slavic Soul", was released by the ARS Produktion label and was nominated for the prestigious »Opus Klassik 2020« award. In year 2021, their second CD "Tangabile", featuring works by Astor Piazzolla, was released.
Veronika is a multiple first prize winner of national and international competitions such as Paolo Spincich, Ithaka, Antonio Salieri, Nuovi orizzonti, Musica insieme, Povoletto, Temsig (2006, 2009, 2012), Svirel, Marie Cantagrill (special prize), Alpe-Adria Marcosig (2nd prize), Georg Philipp Telemann (4th prize). In 2009/2010, she was a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO) under the artistic direction of maestro Vladimir Askhenazy. She has performed at numerous festivals in Slovenia, Italy, Austria, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Israel, Russia and Latvia. As a soloist, she has played with the Symphony and Chamber Orchestras of the Slovenian Philharmonic, the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Orchestra (Italy) and the Orchestra of the Conservatory of Music and Ballet Ljubljana.
Additionally, she has received the Škerjančeva Prize in 2012 for outstanding artistic achievement and the award of Šempeter-Vrtojba municipality in 2019 for individual achievement.