Anže Palka started his musical mission at the age of 12, and completed his studies with post-graduate studies at the Music Academy of Ljubljana. The many awards and prizes are proof of his extraordinary talent: two first prizes at the national competition of young musicians of Slovenia, the Škrjanček (Lark) prize for extraordinary results in promoting the school, the first prize at the national competition in guitar duo playing, as well as the Prešeren student prize. During his studies, he also wrote songs and his own texts, and also trained in the Czech Republic. As a singer-songwriter, he has performed in the group Presneti vohuni (darn spies), who have issued a CD called “Daj denar” (Give the Money) with Nika Records, and shot three video spots. In the summer 2006, he won the 1st prize at the Kantfest singers-songwriters festival in Ruše. He has participated in Adi Smolar’s last CD.
Besides being a passionate singer-songwriter, Palka is extremely fond of flamenco. Everything began when Palka wrote Fantasía Flamenco during his studies. The composition was initially written for guitar, symphonic orchestra and chorus, but was later also adapted for guitar and brass band, as well as for guitar and piano.
Palka completed his post-degree studies in guitar with the performance of just this “Fantasía Flamenco for Guitar and Orchestra”, with the wind orchestra of the Music Academy under the baton of Prof. Milivoj Šurbek. He also performed his work with wind orchestras in Schladming and Gorizia, and his successful performances of Fantasía Flamenco continued. As a composer and guitarist, he reached the final of the nine best participants of the European Guitar Contest in Dresden. In the same month, Palka called the Slovene public’s attention to himself with an evening of self-composed works held in the Grand Hotel Union, where, in addition to Fantasía Flamenco, he performed the Suite Flamenco for guitar and string quartet, and indeed enchanted the public. For this concert, he wrote the following variant of Fantasía Flamenco for guitar and the New Flamenco Orchestra – a chamber orchestra composed of selected students and graduates of the Music Academy. The orchestra is dominated by the strings, as Palka has found that these instruments offer excellent opportunities to reach the right shades of colour and rhythmical characteristics of flamenco music. In the past year, Palka has maintained the performance of the New Flamenco Orchestra, and held different concerts in Slovenia (Dvorni trg and Kongresni trg squares in Ljubljana , Grand Hotel Union in Ljubljana and Imago tour around Slovenia). Anže Palka is an all-round musician and composer, who successfully manoeuvres between teaching, composing, performing flamenco music and his organisational work as the director and art manager of the SIFF 2008 Slovenian International Flamenco Festival. Official website www.siff.si