Violoncelli Itineranti ft. Marko Čepak

Andrejka Možina, original compositions, cello, vocals; Irene Ferro-Casagrande, cello; Carla Scandura, cello; Marko Čepak, guitar

The Trieste-based female group Violoncelli Itineranti performs a varied and extensive repertoire of original music, inspired mainly by Slovenian poetry and incorporating elements of jazz and theatrical expression. The trio have won various prizes at prestigious music competitions, such as the Ethnos Generazioni 2025 competition in Naples (second prize), Festival slovenskega šansona (Slovenian Chanson Festival) 2023 in Ljubljana, Suns Europe 2022 in Udine, Premio Alberto Cesa 2020 at the Folkest Festival in Splilimberg (second prize), and the Miela Music Miela Contest 2021 in Trieste.

One of Violoncelli Itineranti's major projects is the book and music album Besede ne ubogajo več/Parole indomite (Recalcitrant Words), a captivating bilingual volume dedicated to poetry and music with which the ensemble's artistic director, Andrejka Možina, seeks to promote Slovenian poetry in Italy through music. The project consists of a music CD with ten original compositions performed by Violoncelli Itineranti and a book – a bilingual collection of poems by Slovenian female poets in Italy.

Renowned cellist and composer Giovanni Sollima describes the project as “an important, powerful, nostalgic, intimate, and deeply inspired album. Languages, sounds, and roots meet on a magical border. An enlightened perspective in a world that often fails to understand how cultures, distant or neighbouring, can and wish to connect.”

For the Cankarjevi Torki Series, the trio will expand their line-up, intertwining the classical timbre of the three cellos and vocals with the distinctive sound of the jazz guitar played by internationally renowned Slovenian musician and educator Marko Čepak. Čepak has worked with an impressive roster of internationally celebrated musicians, including John Stowell, Nelson Veras, Doug Webb, Jure Pukl, Romain Pilon, as well as the RTV Slovenia Big Band, Artbeaters, and Big Band Gverillaz.