Janko Kastelic

Born in Slovenia, Janko Kastelic moved to Toronto Canada as a child, and after completing his music education at the Royal Conservatory of Music and gaining his BMus at the Universtiy of Toronto, returned to Slovenia as assistant conductor and korrepetitor at the Ljubljana Opera House from 1997-1999.
 
In 1999, he was appointed assistant coach and korrepetitor at the Opéra National de Paris and worked on a production of Prokofiev’s War and Peace with Bertini and as a cembalist/ assistant on all the major productions including the Opera Studio with prominent young singers.
 
In 2002 he won the auditions and was appointed as assistant and 2nd Chorus Master at the Vienna State Opera and was responsible for the chorus in the acclaimed production of Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron in 2007.  Here he had the experience of devouring an enormous operatic repertoire and had the opportunity of working with many of the greatest singers and conductors, as well as young and upcoming artists.  Being a strong advocate of educating young people about the wonderful and diverse world of classical music, he was appointed as one of the musical leaders of the children’s opera school at the Vienna State Opera where they performed and staged a work arranged by him on Mozart’s lieder for his 250th birthday(2006).  He also conducted the opera’s Aladino e la lampada magica, Das Traumfresserchen, and Bastien und Bastienne with splendid young singers from the Ensemble.
 
In 2008 he was invited to become the Artistic and Musical Director of Opera Maribor where his production of Tschaikowsky’s Pique Dame, with Marjana Lipovšek as Countess was hailed as a triumph and was said to have ushered in a new era in the central European operatic scene. “Kastelic created such a colourful sound picture from the orchestra with a perfect stylistically shaped form and differentiation in the intimate and dramatic moments…the love duets were with great breadth and the scene with the Countess was a rare operatic moment of great intensity. The house has won a marvellous musician with ambitious plans.” Das Opernglas 12/2009
Following this triumph, he was invited to perform Pique Dame at the International Ljubljana Festival 2010 with the great Russian soprano Elena Obrazcova.
 
Though Romantic and Modern music play a big role in his musical diet, he is no stranger to Baroque and Classical repertoire and conducted interesting composers from the Balkan region i.e. Dusek, Ivanschiz, Tartini,….  Primarily conducting in Europe, he has also conducted in North America and tries to continue his work as a composer and chamber musician. He has been invited to return to the Vienna State Opera as a free lance conductor and coach and will also be working with Young Singers from the Ensemble on several future productions.
 
Finally, his drive and hunger for new and exciting  repertoire satisfies his enormous curiosity and quenches his thirst for novel and atypical musical genres and scores.