Uroš Rojko (1954, Slovenia), composer and clarinettist. Rojko studied the clarinet and composition (with Uroš Krek) at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana and then pursued further education in Poland and Germany (in Freiburg and Hamburg). Rojko has worked as a clarinettist at the Slovene Philharmonic, teacher of subjects in music theory, clarinet, and chamber music in primary and secondary schools of music, and, since 1995, as a professor of composition at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana. He has been a visiting professor at many universities, leader of courses in contemporary music, and jury member at numerous competitions. Rojko has won many awards, including the Alban Berg Award in Vienna, the Premio Europa in Rome, the Gaudeamus Prize in Amsterdam, as well as top prizes in Slovenia.

Works by Rojko have been performed at many prestigious festivals of contemporary music (at Darmstadt in 1984, 1986, and 1988, Milan in 1986, Stuttgart in 1987, Zagreb in 1987 and 2001, Donaueschingen in 1998, Paris in 1987 and 1989, Graz in 1987 and 2003, Vienna in 1991 and 2001, Moscow in 1992, Saarbrücken in 1994 and 1995, Yamaguchi in 1996 and 1997, Berlin in 1997, Hong Kong in 1988, Stockholm in 1994, Bucharest in 1999, and Ljubljana in 2003).

Rojko has composed a number of orchestral works (Invenzione pastorale for violin and orchestra, 8–80 for string orchestra and percussion, Music for orchestra, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Tongenesis for a large orchestra, Internal Voices for flute and chamber orchestra, Music for Strings for guitar and 18 strings, Mo/tention for a large orchestra and groups in space, Evocation for orchestra, and Pressure for a big band), as well as chamber, solo, stage, electro-acoustic music, and didactic pieces.

The trio Chasing the Wind for clarinet, guitar, and accordion is a cycle of seven miniatures commissioned by Domen Marinčič for the 2010 Radovljica Festival.

The attractive combination of a wind, string, keyed, and bellow instrument inspired me to rework fragments from the chamber opera Kralj David, lirom i mačem (King David, by Lyre and Sword), written for eight vocals, a narrator, and five instruments. Mark Günther’s text in the opera’s final, seventh’s scene was borrowed from Ecclesiastes and concerns, among other things, the absurdity of desiring the material, for everything, in its transience, is but ‘chasing the wind’ (as the phrase stands in the Slovene version of the Old Testament). In their sonic reflection, these meanings are mirrored in movements 1–5, especially in the fifth movement, whereas the sixth movement exceeds the dimensions of a miniature and is sonically sort of monolithic, constantly ebbing and flowing, because it is the only one that does not come from King David, but instead sneaks up on us, still warm and fresh, from the wind quintet DIAPENTO (wall – anger). This segment’s tonic material comprises diatonics (DIA) and altered pentatonics (PENTO) and that essential basis refers to the seriousness of the fact that using global technology is hazardous, because its conception does not allow for the possibility of error. Right at the time when both of these pieces, Chasing the Wind and Diapento (the wall – rage), were being written, the incorrigible Earthling Homo sapiens, in his recklessness, inflicted a terrible wound on his planet, which is still literally bleeding…

As a sensitive companion of the present moment, I feel as though I were standing before an impenetrable wall, utterly powerless and useless in a hopeless situation and therefore the world’s anger overwhelms me. Only the sixth movement (in the wind quintet, this is the third movement) is maybe the one whose structure (wall) points to a trace of permeability and thus a glimmer of hope in the possibility of crossing (out)?…