Mario Kurtjak (1989) is a Slovenian guitarist, guitar professor, composer and scientist with a Master’s degree in Chemistry and a PhD in Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies. In 2018 he obtained a Master of Arts degree with distinction from the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he studied with prof. Michael Lewin, David Russell and Fabio Zanon. He obtained his previous musical education in Slovenia with prof. Eva Hren, prof. Igor Saje and prof. Andrej Grafenauer. He was accepted to the Academy of Music in Ljubljana as an extraordinary talent already at the age of 16 and graduated in 2010 with the highest mark and summa cum laude. During his studies, he won first prizes at national and international youth competitions and received special music awards, such as the Škerjanc award at the Conservatory of Music Ljubljana, the Prešeren award at the Academy of Music Ljubljana and the Blyth Watson award at the Royal Academy of Music London. In 2019 he won the 2nd prize (the first was not awarded) and the audience prize at the prestigious 16th International Guitar Competition Miguel Llobet in Barcelona. In the same year, as the artist in the Slovene Arts and Culture Residency he performed several concerts in London, at which he premiered the composition Guitar Rhapsody (written especially for him) by the Brazilian composer Bernardo Simões, who launched a video of this composition in 2021.
Mario regularly performs over Europe as a soloist and a member of various chamber ensembles, among which currently most active are Slovenian Guitar Quartet (with Erazem Grafenauer, Simon Krajnčan and Aljoša Vrščaj) and Solent Duo (with the Colombian soprano Meliza Metzger). Recently, he has collaborated with the Slovenian Philharmonic, Slovenian National Theatre Opera and Ballet Ljubljana, the Neofonia ensemble and the Domžale-Kamnik Symphony Orchestra, performed at the Imago Sloveniae, Arsana, Lent and Velenje Festivals, in the Kit-ara and Rasgueado concert series in Ljubljana and in the Komorni Studio show on the Slovenian national radio (Ars). He also performed several concerts in England and organized his own concert series called Logaške kitarodije.
As a composer, he is currently best known for his Guitar sonata no. 1, which was premiered by Erazem Grafenauer in 2017 in Berlin, a year later in Slovenia, and in 2019 in Croatia. The same guitarist then recorded this composition in 2019 and released the recording on the CD Works of Slovenian Composers with Baros records. In 2023, Mario's first sheet music collection of arrangements of Slovenian folk songs, choral songs, solos and arias for voice and guitar was published by the Založba Bogataj publisher.
Mario is currently teaching Guitar and Chamber Music at the Conservatory of Music in Ljubljana and Pedagogical Practice of Plucked String Instruments at the Academy of Music Ljubljana. He has also been teaching and conducting the guitar orchestra at the Guitar Summer School in Črnomelj every year since 2015. In 2023 he held an invited lecture about guitar techniques and notations at the Guitar Week in Postojna. He has also been invited into juries of national and international guitar competitions. He was the president of the jury in both editions of Velespaña international guitar competition in Velenje. Since February 2019, he has been serving as the president of the Slovenian Guitar Teachers' Association (EGTA Slovenia).
Find more about the Slovenian Guitar Quartet on their website and Facebook page and more about the Solent Duo at melizametzger.com/solent-duo or facebook.com/solentduomusic.