photo by Tamara Tasev

Matjaž Debeljak , born 1961, is a piccoloist and flautist in the orchestra of the Slovene National Theatre Opera and Ballet in Ljubljana, as well as a teacher at the Secondary Music School in Celje. He graduated in 1994 from the Academy of Music in Ljubljana under the mentorship of Professor Fedja Rupel. Debeljak played in the Slovene Police Orchestra for thirteen years, and was a member of the FOReM flute quartet. He occasionally works with other orchestras and is often in demand as a piccoloist (by, for example, the RTV Slovenia Symphoy Orchestra, the Symphonic Orchestra of the Slovene Philharmonic, the Academia Ars Musicae orchestra and others). Debeljak has played with conductors such as Carlos Kleiber, RudolfBaršaj, Serge Baudo, Stefan Sanderling, En Shao and DieterRossberg. He has appeared as a piccolo soloist at international festivals (in Zagorje 1996, 2004 and 2006, in Belgrade 2004 and BFS Manchester 2008) and concert evenings (Tuesday evenings, Concert Studio of the DSS, The Night of Slovene Composers, DGUS, etc.). He cooperate with piccolists artists like: Nicola Mazzanti (Maggio Musicale Fiorentino), Lior Eitan (Israel Philharmonic Orchestra),  Stewart mcIlwham (London Philharmonic Orchestra), Gudrun Hinze – Hönig (Gewandhouse Leipzig) and others. He is leading masterclasses for picolo.

 In 2000 he recorded and published his first CD, together with the pianist Vlasta Doležal Rus, entitled Grafiti (Graffiti). He also records for Radio Slovenia. Slovene composers have written nine compositions for piccolo and dedicated them to him: from pieces for piccolo solo to works for piccolo and piano, for two piccolos, for piccolo, bassoon and piano, as well as for three piccolos and piano. In May 2006 he release his new CD titled Prebliski (Ideas).