25/12/2025
Discover more about the winner of the Grand Prix Chamber Music✨Opifex String Quartet (Slovenia)✨
The Opifex string quartet is composed of violinists Nikola Pajanović and Laura de Wolff, violist Rebeka Skok and cellist Sara Čano. Until last year, members were studying with prof. Emile Cantor at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana, and are currently being refined independently at prestigious universities such as the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, and the University of Music and Operating Arts (MDW) in Vienna.
The quartet performed their first concert in the Hall of Radovljica Manor, and the first feature appearance in the Portorož Auditorium. In addition to performing in the standard quartet, they also collaborate as a piano quintet with pianist Peter Bubola, with which they performed a piano quintet in E-flat major by Robert Schumann as part of the Ljubljana Youth Music. At the Ribnica Festival, they performed with prof. Tadej Kenig and besides the American Quartet by Antonín Dvořák presented the works of Carl Maria von Weber and Nina Šenk. The quartet has performed at numerous reputable festivals, including at the Lent Festival, Imago Sloveniae, Spectrum, Ribnica Festival and Ljubljana Festival.
They collaborated with top musicians such as clarinetist and professor Tadej Kenig, pianists Peter Bubola and Diego Caetano, and flutist Lana Kuščer. In 2023, at the national TEMSIG competition, they won the first prize and special recognition for the interpretation of String quartet no. 3 by Krzysztof Penderecki. At the Città di Treviso international competition, they scored the maximum of 100 points the same year.
In the 2023/2024 season, two high profile concerts were performed: at Amadeus Hall in London at the invitation of the Slovenian Embassy and violinist Lana Trotovšek, and the second concert in the Radovljica mansion as part of the Slovenska Mlada Klasika cycle under the auspices of the Slovenski Mladi Abonma (SMA). In April 2024, they performed at the closing concert of the Mladi Virtuozi cycle at the Ljubljana Festival, and in July that year in London, where they were invited by Lana Trotovšek and the Slovenian Embassy, a full length concert together with flutist Lana Kuščer and pianist Diego Caetan. In August 2024 they performed in the Radovljica mansion as part of the Slovenska Mlada Klasika cycle, organized by the Odeon association. In January 2025 they performed J. Brahm’s String quartet no. 1 alongside a world premiere of a quartet of a renowned slovenian composer, Jani Golob, who wrote his fifth string quartet for Opifex quartet and dedicated it to them.
The members of the quartet have improved with renowned musicians such as Vlatka Peljhan, Denis Shapovalov and others. Nikola Pajanović, the first violinist, is currently continuing his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Cellist Sara Čano graduated from the University of Music and Theater in Munich, and continues her studies at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana. Violist Rebeka Skok studies at the same academy, and is currently exchanging at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Violinist Laura de Wolff is completing her studies at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana and at the same time performing a preparatory program at the Royal Conservatory of Hague with prof. Lisa Jacobs.
