The Pulse of Buenos Aires

On Wednesday, August 19, at 8:00 p.m. We cordially invite you to Bogenšperk Castle for an evening of passionate tango rhythms: The Beat of Buenos Aires.

The concert evening, part of the Bogenšperk Festival, will be performed by the Odeon ensemble, which consists of young musicians trained at Europe’s top institutions; their artistic director and conductor is local resident Samo Vidic.

In recent years, the Odeon Ensemble has taken shape through projects organized by the Youth Music Initiative and the Slovenian Youth Subscription Series. It regularly performs new works by young Slovenian composers, collaborates with young soloists, and organizes a variety of concerts throughout Slovenia. Looking ahead, the ensemble also aims to perform at a professional level and present significant works from all periods of music history.
The ensemble flourished during the 2025 season, when, in addition to its established “Music of the Youth” project, it also carried out the “SMA Soloists” project, in which it presented itself as a unified ensemble and brought to life the artistic vision of cellist Lenart Prek. To conclude the summer season, in collaboration with violinist Maša Stopar, accordionist Teja Udovič Kovačič, and guitarist Jaka Klun, they performed a tango music project titled “The Pulse of Buenos Aires,” which was conducted by Samo Vidic and performed in Koper and Radovljica, later recorded at the RTV Slovenia studio, and will be released on CD this year. At the end of the year, the ensemble, together with the Vokalna Akademija Ljubljana choir and under the direction of Lara Willewaldt, also performed a Christmas concert of sacred music titled *Na poljani, v temnem hlevčku…* (In the Meadow, in a Dark Little Barn…), during which they also ventured into historical music performance for the first time.
The Odeon ensemble consists primarily of young musicians trained at Europe’s leading institutions. Artistic direction of the projects is provided by conductors of the younger generation, such as Samo Vidic, Lara Willewaldt, and Jakob Ivačič, while the ensemble is led by violinist Timotej Willewaldt.

In addition to presenting unique musical projects featuring classical music from the past, one of the ensemble’s main goals is to provide young composers with high-quality performances of their new works that are faithful to their artistic vision, while also enabling young instrumentalists and conductors to explore contemporary music and ensuring the collective development of the Slovenian contemporary music scene.