I’m Pija and I’m from a small town called Šentjernej in the south-east of Slovenia. I grew up on a farm in a family of 6, where each of the children played 1 or 2 instruments (the 2nd instrument was always the accordion), and we also worked together as a family folk ensemble. My mother sang a lot to us and my father was more of an employer and organiser of manual work, so all 4 of us have a great musical ear and a wide range of experience and work habits.
The development of singing and playing by ear, improvisation, group playing and performing, in addition to the ensemble, was later followed by various choirs and folklore groups, where we learned dance steps and folk traditions.

Upon entering the music school, lots of us wanted to play the piano, but I accidentally ended up playing the recorder, and later the flute.
My first 2 years of recorder, my teacher was clarinetist Sandi Franko, followed by oboist Ernest Jazbec, with whom I completed 6 years of flute. The latter has never let up on the amount of home practice, so I really had a lot of work to do, but honestly it was never difficult, just a bit strange, as I was the one with the most to practice. The hardest thing was to keep up with the longer practice sessions when I was preparing for my first competition – I remember how my mother was ironing and I was practising alongside her until I knew the repertoire by heart and played without any mistakes. So through the practice and a lot of performances, I learned a lot of literature, but I always felt like something was missing..

In music, I always felt accepted, safe and happy, so it was no wonder that I wanted to continue my musical education. Well, that’s when I encountered the first major obstacle – I didn’t-know-why I couldn’t continue my secondary music education, I didn’t have anyone to prepare me for the entrance exams, and on top of that, my family wouldn’t let me go to Ljubljana, which was “too big” for me. So the first barrier was set and sealed. 

To be continued . . . 💛