Improvisation and Magic in Leonardo’s Italy
Contemporaneity of early music cycle
Bor Zuljan, lute
Bor Zuljan is active in different musical genres playing many kinds of early, modern, and traditional plucked-strings instruments. Called the "Revolutionary of the lute" (Le Soir), he's been specializing particularly in the music of the Renaissance, rediscovering forgotten improvisation and playing techniques, instruments and sounds.
He is performing regularly as soloist and with ensembles, such as Tasto Solo, Graindelavoix, L'Achéron, Vox Luminis, Il Giardino Armonico, in duo with Dušan Bogdanović, with Romain Bockler (Dulces Exuviae) as well as with his ensemble La Lyra.
He has recorded several awarded CDs for the legendary label Ricercar (Outhere Music). His debut solo recording "Dowland - A Fancy" was awarded the prestigious Diapason d'Or de l'année 2020, CHOC de Classica, Gramophone's Editor's Choice and has been nominated as the best instrumental album of the year at the Gramophone awards. His second solo album "Gesualdo - Il liuto del Principe" has just been published, with a similar destiny as his debut record, recently receiving the Diapason d’Or.
After graduating in jazz and classical programmes at the Ljubljana Conservatory of Music, he continued his studies with Aniello Desiderio in Koblenz, Germany. In 2007 he started studying at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève where he then obtained a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Guitar and Lute performance (Dušan Bogdanović), continued with a specialization in Medieval music and finished an MA in lute pedagogy. Since 2011 he has been working as research assistant at the same school on a project on Fantasia improvisation on lute in the 16th Century, a topic he is developing for his doctoral thesis at the CESR in Tours.
He has been teaching lute at the CPMDT in Geneva, and has given numerous conferences and master classes at institutions, such as the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice, HEM de Genève, and CNSMD Lyon.