As a child, he played the recorder, then switched to the cello, until at the age of thirteen he found his true instrument – drums. He was particularly drawn to jazz, which he was introduced to by Professor Adam Klemm. After enrolling at KGBL, he continued his studies at CODARTS in Rotterdam, where he graduated in 2020, and then pursued a master’s degree at the Amsterdam Conservatory. He currently lives and creates in Amsterdam, collaborating with numerous musicians. At this year’s Ljubljana Jazz Festival, he is presenting his original project Introducing Domen Cizej, a set of five albums with different ensembles.

The KGBL (Conservatory of Music and Ballet Ljubljana) Choir was founded in 2010. After four years, it split into two bodies – the KGBL Choir, attended by KGBL students who don’t attend orchestras, and KGBL Chamber Choir, which consists of approximately 40 singers, who are eager to be challenged, who wish to expand their vocal technical knowledge, and who want to take their repertoire to the next level of quality and tackle more demanding choir compositions. The chamber choir’s repertoire is diverse in genre and style, ranging from Renaissance to Contemporary music. They also often commission new compositions, which they then promote at concerts and competitions on Slovenian as well as foreign stages.

The KGBL wind orchestra is composed of young musicians, students of the Ljubljana Music and Ballet Conservatory, many of whom are recipients of national and international awards. Under the baton of Andrej Zupan, the orchestra performs a classical wind instrument repertoire, as well as arrangements of different genre pieces. The ensemble’s systematic approach to working with young musicians helps them to acquire musical experience during study and provides the foundation of the orchestra’s high quality performances. Many concerts at home and abroad (Greece, Serbia, North Macedonia) testify to the good work of the ensemble.

Tom Varl (1998) began studying at KGBL in 2013 and later took up solo singing and conducting. In 2017, he started composition studies at the Ljubljana Academy of Music under Vito Žuraj. He leads the Ivan Cankar vocal group and has conducted various ensembles. In 2019, he entered choral conducting studies and competed at Aegis carminis. He teaches solfeggio and works as a ballet accompanist at KGBL since 2020.