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Stage director (+3)

Stage director, Conductor, Set designer, Composer

Karmina Šilec

Maribor, SI

Slovenia

Conductor

Stage director

Set designer

Composer

Artist

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As a theatre director-author, conductor and composer Karmina Silec executes projects with various companies, drama and opera houses, festivals and ensembles worldwide.Renowned for her original and research-oriented approach, Karmina has brought freshness to the music theatre world. Her projects have been granted with major international awards in the fields, including Music Theatre Now awards for Threnos (2021) and From Time Immemorial... (2008) and the International Robert Edler Prize (2004). 

Her projects have been performed on stages and festivals of the highest esteem, including the Festival d'Automne á Paris (FR), Ruhrtriennale (DE), Prototype Festival NYC (USA), Holland Festival (NL), Moscow Easter Festival (RU), Dresdner Musikfestspiele (DE), Golden Mask (RU), Melbourne Festival (AU), Operadagen (NL), Auditorium, Rome (IT), Steierischer Herbst (AT), Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space (JP), St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall (RU), Radialsystem (DE), World Music Days (organized by the ISCM), Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Teresa Carreño Theater (VE), Teatro Colon (AR), Z Space (USA) and Esplanade (SG), among others.
 

Šilec does not shy away from politically charged material. Her diverse range demonstrate a broad range of thematic concerns that are driven by the need to respond to current social and political transformations. She is drawn to issues that are disturbing, that stir emotions and rile audiences rather than placate them. Her works are loci for debate, contestation and provocation. They intentionally put at risk ideas that are insufficiently interrogated. 

Karmina takes a creative approach to several critical political issues of our time, using a research informed approach. She foregrounds stories, situations and issues that are all too often overlooked, suppressed, or ignored and tries to contribute to the acceptance of the Otherness, to integrate the marginalized, transform and heal. For example, she tackles misogyny and sexism through an examination of the creativity of women in isolated environments (such as in monasteries, concentration camps) and research of himenology (virginity) as a phenomenon. She has used her artistic voice to speak politically on the necessity of the radical transformation of human-animal relations, above all in the transition from animal to meat. Her work has explored the phenomenon of collectivities when infected by ideology and dogmatic principles. She has critiqued the murderous violence behind religions; populism and radicalization; the abuse of church and state with their political doctrines and corrupt practices; and challenges facing societies in transition. In her projects she often puts music in a self-reflective frame by examining the complex relation between music and trauma. Her work posits that music becomes a universal symbol in suffering, and the ultimate sanctuary in despair. 

As author-director she has developed a unique artistic concept - Choregie. Choregie focuses on the creative process that brings the musical notion of composing to the theatrical aspects of performing and staging. In Choregie a ‘meta composition’ is created by positioning different materials (movement, music, words, visual) into a bigger composition. Choregie is a performance in the 'no-man's-world' – a world that is not a world of music, nor drama or dance; it is a scenic adventure. Each new project signed by Karmina Šilec is an expedition into the field of the unknown and the unexplored. The various and multiple dimensions of these projects surface in multi-disciplinary stage performances which logically complement the musical tissue and permeate with the basic elements of musical theatre – the concept of Choregie. 

She has published: BABA: Catalog and Colossal Balkan fiction (fiction/essays, Založba Sanje (SI), 2021), Nolite tacere – Translated in music (essays, Carmina Slovenica (SI), 2013), DERT endemic songs (poems, Carmina Slovenica (SI), 2021) and.

Karmina Šilec is artistic director of CARMINA SLOVENICA, New Music Theatre CHOREGIE and ensamble !Kebataola!.

Karmina Šilec / Repertoire

Repertoire

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