AUTHORS

ILONKA PUCIHAR

Ilonka Pucihar completed her degree at the Ljubljana Academy of Music with Prof. Tatjana Ognjanovič. As a soloist, she concluded her studies of the piano in a concert accompanied by the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, and subsequently performed in the subscription series of the Maribor Philharmonic Society Symphony Orchestra. She has performed as a member of various chamber ensembles throughout Slovenia, as well as in Germany, Austria, France, Israel, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands. She also devotes a great deal of attention to pedagogy. In 2007, she obtained a diploma in the music teaching methods of Edgar Willems, in 2014 she completed a three-year programme (540 hours) of training for psychosocial assistance and support, and she is currently in the third year of doctoral studies at the Ljubljana Academy of Music. Together with her husband Jaka Pucihar, she has written the highly successful piano method books entitled My Friend the Piano, and she presents regular lectures about creative piano teaching both in Slovenia and abroad (USA, Switzerland, Serbia, Croatia, etc.). Ilonka Pucihar teaches the piano at the Vrhnika Music School and lectures in teaching practice at the Ljubljana Academy of Music.

JAKA PUCIHAR

Jaka Pucihar completed his Master’s degree (Composition & Music Theory, 2002) at the Ljubljana Academy of Music. His compositions and arrangements have been performed and/or recorded by numerous renowned ensembles and orchestras worldwide. As jazz pianist he has performed as a member of various chamber ensembles throughout Slovenia, as well as in Germany, France, Hungary, Croatia, Italy, Austria, Czeck and Russia. In 1998 he received the Students’ Prešeren Prize of the Music Academy for a symphonic work Concert for percussion and orchestra. From 1999 he lectures in Jazz harmony, Jazz arranging and Improvisation at the Ljubljana Academy of Music.