Youngest member of the ensemble plays the oldest piece in the 20 for 20 birthday project

Božidar Kunc: Dance - Iva Ledenko, oboe

Entering its third decade, Cantus Ensemble, entered its new permanent concert space, the Croatian Music Institute. The ensemble begins new chapters and opens to new members. This musical episode of the 20 for 20 cycle thus presents the youngest member of the ensemble, oboist Iva Ledenko, performing the oldest composition in the ensemble’s birthday project. Namely, the composer and musician Božidar Kunc passed away in 1964, having just held his last concert in Detroit with the famous soprano Zinka Kunc-Milanov, his sister. At the time, avant-garde ideas of New Music were growing in Europe, while Kunc continued, in the midst of 20th century pluralism, favoring impressionism throughout his opus. Although his piano opus is perhaps the most famous part his compositional work, Kunc nurtured a special attitude towards vocality which he transferred to both his chamber and solo opus.

Oboist Iva Ledenko studied with Branko Mihanović, a long-time Cantus member, and by joining the ensemble, initially as a guest, and from 2020 as a permanent member, she continued in Mihanović's footsteps. A series of first prizes won at regional and national competitions from 2004 and 2014 announced a very talented oboist emerging on the Croatian music scene, and her concert experience so far has confirmed her as a very gifted musician. She has participated in the work of the Central European Youth Orchestra, trained abroad and collaborated with numerous orchestras and ensembles in Croatia.

"From the Cantus ensemble's repertoire, I enjoy playing first performances the most, because in this way we can, unencumbered by the performances of other ensembles, interpret the work in the way we feel at the moment as musicians," said the young oboist. Iva Ledenko has already presented her interpretation of Božidar Kunc's composition Dance – a piece featuring classical stylistic characteristics and compositional means – at the 51st Tribune Darko Lukić.