Ljerka Očić.com

Biography

Ljerka Očić, one of the most eminent Croatian music artists, was born in Zagreb, and graduated organ from the Music Academy in Ljubljana, in the class of professor Hubert Bergant. She continued her studies with Prof Gaston Litaize (Paris), Prof Michael Schneider (Köln) and Prof Luigi Celeghin (Rome). She has achieved an outstanding international career, giving concerts all over the world. She has played in almost all European countries, the United States, Japan, Russia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Moldavia, Siberia, and Malaysia. She gives concerts with famous orchestras and soloists, and has been performing with the Slovene trumpeter Stanko Arnold for years.

Since 1992 she has been teaching organ and chamber music at the Academy of Music in Zagreb. She is a jury member at the international organ contests and she gives master courses in interpretation. She has received a number of prestigious awards both in Croatia and abroad, among others the American Biographic Institute award for the contribution to the art of music, and in 1993 the Croatian “Milka Trnina” award for the best concert of that year.

She has recorded many of her concerts for both radio and TV, for domestic and foreign record houses, and has released more than 20 CDs. In 2000 she won two Porin Awards (Croatian music awards) - for the album of the year and for the best solo performance of the Bach-Vivaldi Organ Concerts.

She publishes expert articles about organ, and she worked on numerous organ-music collections, including the entire opus of Franjo Dugan. She is the author of the book “The Organ Interpretation in the Period from the 16th to the 19th Century”, and in 2004 her book of essays “The Organ Art” was published by Matica hrvatska. In 2006, for the purposes of her pedagogical work, she wrote the book ”Organ…the Energy of Spirit”, the new approach to learning and playing, published by Music Play.

She is the president of the “Franjo Dugan Organ Music Promotion Society”. In her interdisciplinary attitude toward music and organ, she is also the author of several exhibitions, uniting her artistic expression with the phenomenon of the organ sound.

ENSAMBLES

DUO

  • JELENA OČIĆ – violoncello (Germany)
  • LJERKA OČIĆ – organ
  • STANKO ARNOLD – trumpet (Slovenia)
  • LJERKA OČIĆ – organ
  • LIDIJA HORVAT - DUNJKO – soprano
  • LJERKA OČIĆ – organ
  • LJERKA OČIĆ –organ
  • ALEN KOPUNOVIĆ-LEGETIN - organ
  • LUCA VIGNALI – oboe (Italy)
  • LJERKA OČIĆ – organ

TRIO

  • STANKO ARNOLD – trumpet
  • BRANIMIR SLOKAR – trombone
  • LJERKA OČIĆ – organ
  • LIDIJA HORVAT-DUNJKO – soprano
  • STANKO ARNOLD – trumpet
  • LJERKA OČIĆ – organ

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REPERTOIRE

Includes all stylistic periods, ranging from the music of early masters to renaissance, baroque, classicism and romanticism to contemporary music particulary focused on the Croatian musical heritage:

  • Gabrieli, Frescobaldi,Cabezón, Sweelinck, Gibbons, Froberger, Weckman,
  • Kerll, Buxtehude, Blow,Muffat, Pachelbel, Walther, Lübeck, Böhm, Bruhns,
  • Couperin, Marchand, de Grigny, Händel, Zipoli, Daquin

J. S. BACH – Organ works

Complete organ works :

  • C. FRANCK
  • F. LISZT
  • F. MENDELSSOHN - BARHOLDY
  • R. SCHUMANN
  • J. BRAHMS
  • F. DUGAN

Sonatas, Suites, Symphonies and cycles:

  • Reubke, Guilmant, Rheinberger, Widor, Gigout, Elgar, Boëlmann, Bossi, Vierne,
    Reger, Dupré, Duruflé, Peeters, Langlais, Litaize, Messiaen, Alain, Eben, Dott...

Croatian composers from renaissance to 21st century:

  • Motovunjanin,Bajamonti,Livadić, Dugan, Vidaković, Lučić, Odak, Klobučar, Lešćan, Detoni, Brkanović, Parać, Kempf, Bradić, Bobić, Seletković, Prohaska...

Works for two organs:

  • A. SOLER
  • G. PIAZZA
  • D. BOBIĆ
  • S. BRADIĆ
  • H. P. DOTT

Baroque and contemporary music for trumpet and organ
Baroque and contemporary music for violoncello and organ

Concerts with orchestra:

  • G. F. HÄNDEL: Orguljski koncerti Op.4, (Nr.1,2.3,4,6) Nr.13-F-dur
  • F. X.BRIXI: Koncert Nr.1 u D-duru
  • J. STANLEY: Koncert u c-molu
  • W. A. MOZART: Crkvene sonate (K.244,263,328,336)
  • C. Ph. E. BACH: Koncert u G-duru Wq 34
  • F. POULENC: Koncert u g-molu za orgulje gudače i timpane
  • C. SAINT - SAENS: Simfonija Nr.3 (s orguljama)
  • S. ŠULEK: Orguljski koncert (Memento...)
  • D. KEMPF: Freska za orgulje i orkestar

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SERIAL

Ljerka Očić is the author of “Organ Tales of Long Ago”, the cycle of five 30-minute documentaries filmed in co-operation with Mira Wolf, director, and Željko Kliment, screenwriter, for the purposes of the Croatian Television Science and Education Department.

In an interesting way these part documentary-part dramatization films tell stories of historically valuable Croatian organs and their builders. Besides being shown on the Croatian National Television, the cycle was also presented in Italy, in the frame of the Ascoli Piceno Festival, and it is an interesting example of popularization of Croatian organ heritage.

Organ Tales of Long Ago

  • "In the Church of St. Leonard"
  • Kotari (Samobor) – choir organ built in 1697 by an unknown organ-builder
  • "In the Church of St. Servelus"
  • Buje – organ built by Gaetano Callida in 1791
  • "Krapina - Organ and Other Tales of Long Ago"
  • Trski Vrh (Krapina) – organ built by Antonius Römer in 1761
  • "Master Organ-Builders: Heferer & Sons"
  • marking the 150th anniversary of the first organ, harmonium, and piano-building workshop
  • "Humble Organ Builder Father Petar Nakić"
  • the documentary showing the life and work of one of the most famous Venetian organ builders, of Croatian descent, presenting the instruments he built in Croatia (Šibenik), and Italy (Venice, Codroipo)

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