Urban Stanic

Biography

Pianist URBAN STANIČ is the winner of the Slovenian selection for the Eurovision Young Musicians 2014 and runner-up at the final contest in Cologne.

He has performed multiple times as a soloist with the Slovenian Philharmonic and the Slovenian Radiotelevision Orchestra. He has won first and other high prizes at national and international competition, such as the first prize at the national competition three times in a row.

Currently he studies in the class of professor Stefan Vladar at the mdw University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

He has finished his Master's Degree in the class of Music professor emeritus Dubravka Tomšič Srebotnjak at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana.

He has played the Schumann Piano Concerto with the Academy in Ljubljana Orchestra in Gallus Hall in Ljubljana and in the Berliner Konzerthaus, at the 2018 Young Euro Classic Festival. 15 December, he performed the first movement of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto with the orchestra of RTV Slovenia and conductor George Pehlivanian, at the Managers' Concert in Gallus Hall in Ljubljana, and in May, at the same venue, he performed the Concertino for Piano and Strings by L. M. Škerjanc with the Slovenian Philharmonic and conductor Nil Venditti, in the Slovenian Philharmonic's 2018/19 season.

He has performed with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra at the New Year concert in the Gallus Hall in Ljubljana, under the baton of maestro Uroš Lajovic. With the Concertino for Piano and Strings from the Slovenian composer L. M. Škerjanc, he has performed in 2013 with the Chamber String Orchestra of the Slovene Philharmonic and again with them in 2016. He has recorded the third movement of Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Slovene Radio and Television Orchestra and performed with them the third movement of Schumann’s Piano Concerto. He has also played with the orchestras of the Academy and the Conservatory in Ljubljana. In October 2020, he has performed Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra.
    
He has given recitals at various festivals and concert cycles, such as Imago Sloveniae, Ljubljana Festival (Young Virtuosi) and The International Holland Music Sessions; in June he collaborated again with Imago Sloveniae at the opening concert of the festival “Summer in Old Ljubljana”.

He has won first prize and first place at the international Competition for Young Musicians in Povoletto, Italy four times in a row. At the international Zlatko Grgošević 2014 competition in Zagreb, he won absolute first prize and special prize for the performance of a classical sonata. At the international 2014 Young Virtuosi Competition in Zagreb, he has won second prize and special prize for the best performance of a virtuosic etude. In 2013, he was laureate of the national competition (TEMSIG) in his age category with the first prize, in 2016 again, adding a special prize for best interpretation of a Scarlatti sonata, and again in 2019, with special prizes for the compulsory piece and piece from a Slovene composer.

Urban started learning piano at the age of three, at a private music centre. He studied at the Moste-Polje Music School in Ljubljana in the class of prof. Lilijana Žerajić until 2011, where he was laureate of a international competition, in Povoletto, for the first time, then he studied at the Conservatory for Music and Ballet Ljubljana in the class of prof. Lidija Malahotky Haas, parallelly also being a student of Gimnazija Bežigrad. He has perfected his piano playing and musicianship with professors such as Natalia Trull, Andreas Frölich and Konstantin Bogino.
        
According to the opinions of critics, Urban is „the pianist that we have waited for for a long time in Slovenia“. His musical successes notwithstanding, he has considered study in other fields as well; although in the end music prevailed, he was during his school years twice national champion in mathematics and five times in logic, and also once in chess.