In 2010, on the initiative of three key members of this ensemble (Marian Lejava, Daniel Matej and Ivan Šiller), the VENI ACADEMY education platform was launched, which gradually became an international community of young people, linked by an interest in performing music which they do not usually have a chance to encounter in school. Selected players from the VENI ensemble, who seek to foster their further artistic growth, show them how to play it.
During its ten years of existence, the VENI ACADEMY has grown to a quite unexpected size: from the originally modest aim of being a creative environment for students of Slovak conservatoires and music academies, the range of interested parties gradually grew to include first the former Czechoslovakia and then other European countries. Today, over 200 students take part in VENI ACADEMY projects, not only from Europe, but also from countries outside our continent.
In addition to numerous successful concerts in varied environments (from conventional concert halls, through unusual spaces such as parks, shopping centres or urban trams, to large-scale events such as the Music Biennale Zagreb or the Pohoda festival), the VENI ACADEMY ensemble also released a CD, “ROLLING TONES / In zarter Bewegung” which won the prestigious Radio_Head Award 2013 for “Best album of the year in the Classical Music category”.
In 2018, another CD, “DISPERSION“, was released on the prominent American Mode Records label, with the music of the legendary American composer and multi-instrumentalist Elliott Sharp, recorded during the summer academy of 2015 in the Košice “barracks”. The CD was launched a ta joint concert with Elliot Sharp, the New York ensemble SysOrk and several members of the VENI ACADEMY in the famous Brooklyn Roulette club on November 1st 2018.
Since its beginnings, the activities of the VENI ACADEMY have been under the auspices of the ISCM’s Slovak section, in cooperation with other Slovak and foreign (not only education) institutions.
~ Daniel Matej
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