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Biography
Simon Krečič has been the Artistic Director of the Slovene National Theatre Opera of Maribor since 2013. Starting his career as an accomplished pianist, he completed his piano studies at the Ljubljana Academy of Music in 2002, as the last graduand of Professor Aci Bertoncelj, and pursued his postgraduate piano studies at the Bern University of Arts with Professor Aleksandar Madžar. In September 2012, he graduated in conducting under Professor Milivoj Šurbek with the premiere and nine performances of the Ballet Evening Stravinsky (Les Noces, Pulcinella, Apollon Musagete), a production of the Opera and Ballet of the Slovene National Theatre in Ljubljana. During his postgraduate studies in Switzerland, he also studied conducting under Professor Dominique Roggen, and conducted several Swiss orchestras.
the begining
In 2008, Simon won a prize at the international conducting competition in Grosseto in Italy and has subsequently been conducting the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra on a regular basis, within the orchestra’s regular subscription series as well as on tour. In addition to the Slovenian Philharmonic, in the last years, Simon developed a close working relationship with the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra.
Simon Krečič built a vast symphonic repertoire with various orchestras and is, based on his background as an accomplished pianist, valued as a seasoned and masterful accompanist by renowned international soloists, singers and instrumentalists alike. To list just a few, Simon worked with Jose Cura, Marcos Fink, Dimitra Theodossiu, Piero Giuliacci, Carlos Almaguer, Bruno de Simone, Eugene Indjic, Aleksandar Madžar, Wonji Kim Ozim and Dubravka Tomšič Srebotnjak.
In season 2019/20, he conducted the PKF-Prague Philharmonia and the Zagreb Philharmonic orchestra in Prague and Zagreb respectively, with programmes including world renowned soloists Baiba Skride, Harriet Krijgh and Lauma Skride. His recent cooperations include orchestras such as Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Savaria Symphony Orchestra - Szombathely Hungary, HNK Rijeka - Croatia.
A prolific all-round artist, Simon is also well known for his engagement in the promotion of contemporary music, as a conductor as well as supporting and commissioning new works on a regular basis.
On the operatic stage, Simon started his international engagements in 2011, serving as the assistant conductor in Massenet's Werther at the Teatro Royal Madrid and had conducted Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia in 2014 at the opera festival Opera in Piazza in Oderzo. In 2015 he conducted Verdi's Macbeth at the Teatro Verdi in Pisa (with stage director Dario Argento). In 2016 he toured with his Maribor Opera ballet company at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival conducting the very successful world premiere ballet production of l'Après-midi d'un faune by Edward Clug, along with Rodion Shchedrin’s Carmen. His successful cooperation with Edward Clug continued with two ballett evenings - Carmina Burana and Les Noces, Le Sacre du Printeps from Igor Stravinski.
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Later in 2016, Krečič conducted Verdi’s I Masnadieri at the Festival Verdi in Busseto (Teatro regio di Parma). Since 2017 some of the productions he lead included Wagner’s Das Rheingold in Maribor, Rossini’s La Cenerentola, Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann and Čajkovski’s Jean d’Arc in Ljubljana, Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera in China (Tian Jin, Harbin Grand Theatre), Puccini’s Tosca in Rovigo, Skopje and Rijeka, Donizetti’s La Fille du Regiment and L’Elisir d’Amore at Teatro Verdi in Trieste, Weber’s Freischütz at Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg in Germany and Puccini’s Turandot in Rovigo and Ferrara.
In 2019 the city of Maribor awarded him with Glazer Prize for special achievements on cultural field.