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Ivo Petrić was born in Ljubljana (Slovenija) on June 16, 1931. There he finished elementary and secondary schooling, and began taking piano lessons, though without professional ambitions. Nevertheless, he was very interested in classical music, visiting many concerts and Operas, as well as listening to the radio. As a teenager he was very active in sport - in basketball and athletics. After seriously breaking his knee at an athletic contest, he switched to chess, playing at his club's tournaments and youth championships.
After graduating from high school, the idea of studying music suddenly came to the fore: in fact, after having been an assistant at the Chess Olympics in Dubrovnik (1950). At the Academy of Music he then studied composition, conducting and oboe. Soon he became a member of the new Radio Symphony Orchestra as an oboe and cor anglais player. In 1955 he was awarded the Student Prešeren Prize for his "Goga" Symphony. At his master's degree concert with the Slovenian Philharmonic, in 1958, he conducted his Second Symphony and Brahms's Fourth.
With his colleagues he founded a composer's group, "Pro Musica Viva", which was very active in organising concerts of their own music as well as that of other avant-garde composers. During his studies he wrote several symphonic, chamber and solo works which were performed and recorded for radio. His first compositions were also published. In 1961 he conducted Osterc's Nonet, which meant the commencement of Petrić's leadership of the important "Slavko Osterc" Chamber Ensemble with which, in the years 1962-82 he toured throughout Europe, premiering 130 new works written for the ensemble. Petrić himself also wrote numerous pieces for his ensemble, and has published them on a special CD.
He has won many other awards and prizes in the former Yugoslavia and abroad.
The list of his compositions includes chamber works, solo pieces for piano, violin, guitar, harp, and various woodwind instruments, as well as symphonic works and concertos. At first, his music was influenced by neoclassicism (sonatas for various woodwind instruments and piano, three symphonies, several concertos…). By the use of aleatoric techniques he began to write in a more avant-garde style, which reached its climax with Quatuor 1969 for string quartet and the Violin Concerto (Trois images) of 1973. After many aleatoric compositions he returned to more traditional writing, and created some "nationally-inspired" works: Gallus Metamorphoses (1992), The Song of Life (1995) on texts by Slovenian poets, Four Seasons after Grohar's Paintings (1995) and Grohar's Impressions (1998).
In recent years, he visited Scotland many times, so that reflections on these sojourns can be found in two McPhadraig's Scottish Diaries for piano, as well in Scottish Impressions and Three Places in Scotland for orchestra.
Petrić has been intensely active in the musical life of his country - for many years he was secretary of the Composers' Society and Editor-in-Chief of their Publishing House. From 1979 to 1995 he was Artistic Director of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra. He has written many articles, commentaries and essays on contemporary music. His music has been published by various publishing houses: larger symphonic and chamber scores by Edicije DSS (Slovenian Composers' Society), solo pieces and chamber music by Pizzicato Edizioni Musicali Udine (Italy) and Switzerland, and some scores by Peters Edition/Leipzig (a frequently performed Sonata for clarinet and piano, Sonatina for trumpet and piano, Fanfares and Nocturnes for Brass Quintet, Jeux concertants for Flute and Orchestra, Fresque symphonique).
After retiring from the post of Artistic Director of the Slovenian Philharmonic he has concentrated on publishing Compact Discs - up to now already 12 CDs with his chamber and symphonic music have been produced. His compositions have also been issued on various other CDs with prominent orchestras, chamber groups and soloists.
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Site: http://www.ivopetric.com/biography.php
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