In 2012, the Society of Slovenian Chamber Music Theater awarded the Sam Smerkolje Professional Award for the fifth time.

The award is given to opera singers for artistic achievements in the field of opera, especially chamber opera. The expert commission, consisting of conductors Franc Rizmal and Simon Robinson and pianist Jelena Boljubaš, awarded the prize to soprano VLATKI ORŠANIĆ, champion of the SNG Opera and Ballet in Ljubljana and full professor of singing at the Academy of Music in Zagreb.
 

Vlatka Oršanić was born in Zabok, Croatia. She studied at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana with professor Ondina Otta Klasinc, and furthered her studies with Olivera Miljaković in Vienna. already as a student she received the Pre�ern Award, and then won an international singing competition in Italy, you can find out on the website of SNG Opera and Ballet Ljubljana.
 

She started her career very young, first as a soloist of the SNG Opera in Ljubljana, and then she worked abroad. She performed on many major European opera and concert stages, namely in Vienna, Salzburg, Madrid, Edinburgh, Berlin, Paris, Frankfurt am Main, Cologne, Dresden, Leipzig, Munich, Florence, Zurich, Prague, Rotterdam and Bilbao. She also toured in Japan.

Her most important roles include Gilda in Rigoletto, Rozina in The Barber of Seville, Adina in The Love Potion, Elettra in Idomene, Donna Anna and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Tosca in the opera Tosca, Mimi in La Boheme, Ariadne in the opera Ariadne na Naxos, Abigaille in Nabucco, Margaret in Faust, Cho-cho-san in Madame Butterfly, Violetta in La traviata, Leonora in The Troubadour, Aida in Aida, Tatiana in the opera Eugene Onegin and Rusalka and the Princess in Rusalka. She participated in important European music festivals, such as the Maggio musicale Fiorentino, the Salzburg Summer Festival, the Vienna Festive Weeks and the Edinburgh Festival. She has recorded several CDs for Sony Classical and Emi. She is an associate professor and head of the chair for solo singing at the Academy of Music in Zagreb. From 2006 to 2010, she was also an associate professor at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana.

The award was presented on October 24, 2012 at 8:00 PM in the Kosovel hall of Cankarjev dom. This was followed by Christoph Willibald Gluck's play The Cheated Judge, which was co-produced by SKGG and Cankarjev dom, directed by Yulia Roschin.