Iztok Kocen (1986), conductor, composer, choirmaster and pedagogue studies orchestral conducting in the class of prof. Marko Letonje and Assoc. Simon Dvoršak at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana. As a conductor, in 2018 he led the premiere and 19 repetitions of the musical Rodgers & Hammerster: Cinderella, and in the last 3 years he participated as the second conductor in the operetta Radovan Gobac: Hmeljska princesa (in Žalec), in the opera Dean Burry: The Hobbit (produced by SKGG) and in the musical Rodgers & Hammerstein: My Songs, My Dreams (produced by NAGP).

 

As an assistant conductor and accompanist, he took part in chamber operas produced by the Slovenian Chamber Music Theater - Tomaž Svete: Ada, Stephen McNeff: The gentle giant, Tomaž Svete: Junak največasa. Since 2014, the men's Primorski Academic Choir has been led by Vinko Vodopivec, with whom he regularly participates in European tours. and international competitions. In June 2018, together with PAZ Vinko Vodopivec, he organized a jubilee concert for the choir's 65th anniversary at an outdoor venue in Dolenja vasi near Senožeče. In March 2019, he was the artistic director of the first Student Choir in the great hall of the Slovenian Philharmonic, where 7 student choirs performed. Since May 2017, he also leads the Ljubljana Partisan Choir, with which he performs approximately 50 concerts a year, all over Slovenia. In April 2019, he was the artistic director and conductor of the Jubilee Concert on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the choir's activity in the sold-out Gallus Hall of Cankarjev dom. Under his baton, the Partisan Choir, the Primorski Academic Choir, Vinko Vodopivec, the Laška Brass Band and the soprano Gaja Sorč came together on stage. He is also active as a composer, where he graduated from Assoc. prof. Dušan Bavdek at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana.

 

So far, his compositions have been performed not only in Slovenia but also in Austria, Italy, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. He attended master classes taught by Philippe Manoury, Peter Ablinger, Heiner Goebbels, Gyula Fekete, Klaus Ager, Stephen McNeff, Sidney Corbett, Johannes Kretz, Vinko Globokar, Jana Andreevska and others.