FESTIVAL GUEST
Conductor: Štefan Sedlický
The Slovak Teachers' Choir was founded in Trenčín on March 3, 1921. It gradually developed into an all-Slovak, national, men's, teachers' and representative choir. His first public appearance was a concert in Nové Mesto nad Váhom under the direction of Miloš Ruppeldt. In the next period, conductors alternated with the choir: professors Ján Strelec, Ján Valach, Juraj Haluzický, Peter Hradil and Štefan Sedlický.
The artistic body is known at home and abroad. During its continuous activity lasting over a hundred years, it gave concerts in almost all cities and towns in Slovakia and in almost all European countries, in the USA, Canada and Japan.
The founder of the Slovak Teachers' Choir is the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sports of the Slovak Republic, and since 1933 the headquarters of the choir has been the SZSU Home in Trenčianske Teplice
Štefan Sedlický studied piano at the VŠMU in Bratislava (1985-1990), where he also began to study choral conducting in 1989, which he completed in the class of prof. Hradila in 1994. He works as a docent of conducting at the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica and partially at the Department of Music Culture of the Faculty of Music, UMB. He is the conductor of several choirs (SZSU, Žilina Mixed Choir, Cantica collegium musicum Martin), with which he achieved significant success at international competitions at home and abroad (Spittal 1992 – 1st prize in the main competition, Llangollen 1997 – 2nd prize in the main competition, 2nd Prize at the Palestrina Competition in Rome, 2nd and 3rd Prize at the Grand Prix Slovakia - 1999, absolute winner and the prize for "excellent conducting performance" at the Prague Choir Days 2000, Grand Prix in Bielsko Biala 2008 and others). In the years 1998 – 2008, he conducted the Academic Choir of J.Cikker at the FHV UMB in Banská Bystrica (1st prize and 2nd prize at IFAS Pardubice 2000, 1st prize in the category of chamber choirs at the international competition ABB (Akademická Banská Bystrica) 2005, absolute winner on ABB 2001 and 2007 and others) From 2002 he is the conductor and artistic director of the Slovak Teachers' Choir (after his professor P. Hradilov). With this body, he won in Gorizia in 2007 in its category first place "Premio" and the Special Jury Prize in Neuchatel, Switzerland (2010). He recorded several CDs with his choirs and made recordings for Slovak Radio. As a choirmaster, he regularly cooperates with the State Chamber Orchestra in Žilina in presenting large vocal-instrumental works. He is a regular member of expert juries at national and international competitions at home and abroad.