Opera was never the only kind of music that I liked to perform. From an early age I showed an affinity to all kinds of styles of music. The first concert I ever went to was a Tina Turner concert my dad took me when I was 6 years old. A year later, my mom took me to see the Nutcracker at the Vienna State Opera house. These two event pretty much summarise the gamut of my musical experiences and likes.
It was essential that I had a musical education so piano and theory lessons at the Viennese Music School. Later on I sang at the Viennese Conservatory in the choir for girls. The Conservatory has since changed its name and capacity and is now the Vienna private university for music and art. As a teenager I started to write my own music, heavily influenced by the grunge era and Tori Amos. I also sang in my brother’s rock band and eventually in another band in Ottawa where I was too young to enter the bar for our gigs, so my mom went with us on many occasions.
It was time however to go to university so I picked the piano because it was really the only thing I wanted to do – play piano. I played at the Kiwanis Music Festival and was invited to play at the Ottawa Music Club concert series for young musicians and finished my Bachelor degree from Carleton University in 2004.
Carleton became my home for 4 years. I met some wonderful people during my time there, made long-lasting friendships and was introduced to different kinds of music that I never imagined I would. One of those was jazz and contemporary improvisation. Having been brought up by a very strict and old-fashioned Viennese music school system, I yearned to broaden my horizon. I never wanted to be a concert pianist. Frankly, at 23 I felt like I was already too old to ever be good enough. So Carleton offered these wonderful alternatives that gave me a new perspective which fed my internal need to create more outside the ‘classical music framework’.
The foundation for my future was laid during those 4 years, even though I didn’t know it yet at the time.
Playing piano definitely set a solid musical foundation. It also helped me collaborate with other musicians as an accompanist. I accompanied my first instrumentalist, a cellist, when I was only 12 years old in Vienna. I continued to accompany throughout my university years in various performances, from concerts to competitions and exams, from violinists, cellists, trombone players, trumpet players and double bass players.
After university I sang more intensely with Yoriko Tanno and Stuart Hamilton. I entered more Kiwanis and NATS competitions and went to the finals at the Canadian Music Competition. Eventually, I had to leave the nest and decided to audition in Europe. It wasn’t a success. It cause me a great amount of anxiety and stress, to say the least. I wasn’t getting anywhere and it was costing me my singing abilities, not to mention my parents’ financial capacities. I will admit here that at one point, I had lost my voice completely and found myself with no engagements at all. I was beginning to question the big leap I had made, moving from Canada to Europe, and the life choice seemed to be a big mistake.
I had to find work somewhere. The odd singing gig here and there was mostly ‘to advertise myself’ for future engagements, meaning to sing for free at various events, was not going to be a valid way to spend my time. My parents supported me financially but I had to find my own way. With the help of my dad, I got a long-term gig singing and playing in a hotel on the Slovenian coast. The job was playing every night except Sunday, from 8pm to midnight with breaks in between. At the time, I knew about 40 songs that I could play for an environment like that. I needed to get to work.
And that I did.
I played in Slovenian hotel bars for the better part of a year, from Hotel Kempinski, Hotel Mons, to Hotel Palace and Hotel Bernardin. That’s 6 nights a week for approximately 3 hours of actual playing time. Sometimes I played for no people, just the barman and me, other times for 60 people. You never really knew what would happen and how many people would show up. And what state they would be in, alcohol wise.
It was definitely an interesting experience but I was happy when I ended up going to Ljubljana for my first opera gig. After more than two years of auditioning, failing, trying again, practicing, going to masterclasses, hoping, failing again and stepping away from it all to play other kinds of music entirely. It was also during this time where I made a new demo for new possible lounge music gigs with Slovenian musician Tomaž Kozlevčar.
While steadily singing at the opera house, there was still a part of me that wanted to create more which led to two music groups being established: Čuden Duo with my partner and violinist/guitar player Saša Olenjuk and the vocal trio Serafine with fellow opera colleagues Mojca Potrč and Dada Kladenik.
Serafine have performed with the Maribor Big Band, ‘Toti Big Band‘, at the Old Vine House, for the Golden Fox banquet in Maribor, at the Lent Festival, and a feature length concert at the National Slovene Opera House of Maribor.
Through the years and personal experiences and many ups and downs, I ultimately found another voice inside of me. One that I had forgotten about since my teenage years. I started writing my own music again. I wrote some arrangements with Serafine but in 2025 I started to write just for myself again. For a song dear to my heart, I hired Rok Predin to make a music video, ‘One last hello’.