Marián Lejava - conductor
Slovak composer and conductor. He studied with Ondrej Lenárd, Vladimír Bokes and was trained by Zsolt Nagy, Günter Herbig, Peter Eötvos, Iván Fischer, Tristan Murail, Erich Urbanner, Klaus Huber, Christian Wolff to name a few. Since 2014 he is principal conductor of Prague Modern ensemble. He was former principal conductor of Melos Ethos Ensemble (2005 – 2007) and VENI ensemble (1999 – 2009). Subsequently he invented, founded and conducted VENI ACADEMY (2010 – 2015) and most recently Bratislava Contemporary players SOOZVUK (since 2012). He has travelled over the Europe, Japan and China with both concerts and opera performances. Guest conductor in Slovak national theatre since 2006, Slovak Philharmonic since 2007, State Philharmonic Košice since 2011 and State opera Košice since 2014. Within last 15 years Lejava has premiered more than 80 works of chamber, orchestral and stage works of both domestic and foreign composers and has participated on more than 15 CDs winning twice Radio_Head Award for best classical recording of the year (2013 and 2016). Since 2007 he teaches both conducting and composition at Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Bratislava and lectured both conducting and composition at Academy in Aveiro (Portugal) and AMU Prague (Czech Republic).