The Gallery of Music — Spring 2022

The Gallery of Music is a series of chamber concerts focused on providing a better understanding of classical music from all historical periods including the current one. In 2022, we will present important pieces of both solo and chamber music from various historical periods including the current one. Pieces by international and national composers will be performed by successful musicians who have established themselves on the national and international art scenes.

The main purpose of the concert series is to support high-quality concert art that can be developed in an architecturally and acoustically unique concert space – the Concert Hall of the County House featuring a piano from Steinway & Sons.

Ivan Šiller is a concert piano player, conductor and organiser of music and educational projects. He studied piano in Bratislava (the Academy of Performing Arts) and Ghent (Royal Conservatory), he also took residencies in the US (Tanglewood Music Center), Canada (Banff Centre for the Arts) and Germany (Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt). He usually performs contemporary music as a part of an ensemble or solo, while also doing musical re-interpretation of fine art. He enjoys collaborations with other musicians and forms various groups like the Cluster ensemble, Ensemble Ricercata or the Prague Modern. He also cooperates on creating alternative “educational institutions” – the VENI ACADEMY student project or a series of workshops called the SoundOrchestra that focus on improvisations, graphic scores and experimental music. He has created several festivals, concert series and other musical projects. He is the chairman of the Slovak section of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) that he also cooperated with on the best music project of the year 2013 – ISCM World New Music Days. In 2016, the Cluster ensemble’s first CD was nominated for the Tatra banka Foundation Art Award, the Crystal Wing and the Radio Head Awards prize. 

Helga Varga Bach started with concert performances back during her studies. She has collaborated with such chamber ensembles as Camerata Bratislava, Musica aeterna, Solamente naturali, SKO Bohdana Warchala, Musica Florea, Collegium Marianum, Voci Festose and others and also different conductors (John Toll, Stephen Stubbs, Andrew Parrott, Peter van Heyghen and others). As a concert singer, she also performs abroad – Hungary, Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic… where she cooperates with a number of instrumentalists and ensembles (e.g. she has regularly performed with the leading Hungarian cembalist Soma Dinnyés as a part of vocal recitals of early Baroque composers).