Ema Grcman, born in Ljubljana in 1996, began playing the cello at the age of six. She continued her studies at the Conservatory for Music and Ballet in Ljubljana with Prof. Milan Vrsajkov and Karmen Pecar Koritnik. From 2014 to 2016 she studied with Prof. Walter Dešpalj at the Music Academy in Zagreb and since 2016 at the Art University Graz with Prof. Julian Arp.
She received further musical impulses from Martin Ostertag, Christoph Richter, Marko Ylönen, Monika Leskovar, Giovanni Gnocchi, Rudolf Leopold, Marc Coppey and Claudio Bohorquez, among others. She is a scholarship holder of the International Music Academy in Liechtenstein and takes part in the intensive weeks there.
Ema took part in various national and international competitions for young musicians and won the following prizes: “Antonio Janigro” (Croatia, 2012), “Hrvatsko Društvo Glasbenih i Plesnih Pedagoga” (Croatia 2015), “Petar Konjovic” (Serbia, 2013), “TEMSIG National Competition” (Slovenia 2006, 2014, 2017, 2018), “Antonio Salieri” (Italy, 2014) and “Grand Prize Virtuoso” (Austria 2017). In 2018 she won third prize at the “Ursula Grill Scholarship Competition for Cellists” at the University of Art in Graz. A year later she won first prize at the “Martha Debelli Competition” with her Laibach piano trio. In February 2020 she won second place at the “Gustav Mahler International Institute”.
In addition to a position at the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss am Rhein, Ema is successful in chamber music with the string duo, the Laibach piano trio and other formations. She was also able to gain a lot of experience from participating in festivals such as the Styrian Chamber Music Festival (Austria), the Stift Festival (Holland), the Ljubljana Festival (Slovenia), the Tartini Festival (Slovenia) and the Lent Festival (Slovenia). In summer 2018 she was selected for the Young Artist in Concert Camerata near Davos (Switzerland). In 2018 she made her debut in Ljubljana with the Orchestra of the Slovenian Philharmonic with the famous double concerto Op. 102 in A minor by Johannes Brahms.
Ema plays an instrument made by Paulus Pilat in 1927.
Photo: Valerie Maltseva