Bojan Emeršič’s first-ever solo standup performance!
Plus the latest finest offerings from comedians Vid Valič, Tin Vodopivec and Sašo Stare.  

A grand show featuring two hours of life’s profoundest truths.
 

In Slovenian without translation.

aja monet is a multidisciplinary artist in the finest sense of the word – a poet, writer, spoken-word virtuosa, cultural worker and activist based in Brooklyn. Her writings address the themes of injustice, persecution, resistance and systemic violence from East New York to Palestine, but also belonging, motherhood and notions of community. At age 19, she was the youngest ever Nuyorican Poets Café Grand Slam champion.

Her debut album, when the poems do what they do, (recorded in collaboration with a roster of esteemed musicians, most notably Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah, and also Samora Pinderhughes, Marcus Gilmore ...) is a mind-altering spoken-word cry, encapsulating the vibrant essence of jazz. “These aren’t poems for poets, but poems for everyone.” Last year, it was nominated for a Grammy Best Spoken Word Poetry Album.
 

An exclusive coming together between a doyen of avant-garde jazz, saxophonist David Murray, and one of our era’s foremost post-bop trios, Tarbaby. 

When it comes to the sheer breath of this man’s creative output and his longevity on the jazz scene, Murray is practically without equal. A brilliant composer and a totally unique improviser, Murray is also a founding member of the groundbreaking World Saxophone Quartet, and has released over 160 albums in his own right over the last five decades. His most recent – Francesca (2024) – was chosen as No. 2 Best Jazz Album of 2024 by The New York Times. It was Tarbaby who topped this chart with You Think This America, an album of impeccable delivery and unrelenting creativity.
 

Directed by: Tugo Štiglic 
Written by: Vitan Mal, Tugo Štiglic
Cinematography: Rado Likon 
Music: Jani Golob 
Editing: Jaka Judnič 
Cast: David Sluga (Tomaž), Kaja Štiglic (Milena), Boris Kralj (Luka), Marjana Karner (Mother), Dare Valič (Father), Majda Potokar (Doctor)
Production: Filmski studio Viba film, Kulturna skupnost Slovenije 

A 1980s Slovenian blockbuster and a groundbreaking youth film thatreinvigorated the national cinema, with the seaside towns of Piran, Portorož and the local salt marshes providing a beautiful setting for this coming-of-age story.

It is the summer when the main protagonist, Tomaž, bids farewell to his boyhood. Playing on the seashore, he forgets the quarrels between his parents who are separated and, as it is usual with many parents, have no time to notice that their son is growing up. Apart from elderly Luka, a former mariner, there is no one in the world of adults who understands Tomaž’s problems. Luka gives him a shell that will help Tomaž keep his memories of the summer: his first love, first romantic touch, and his summertime friends will come back to him whenever he listens to the murmur of the sea in the shell. It is a summer of coming-of-age, of taking important decisions and shouldering responsibilities.

The film won the Audience Award at the 1986 Celje National Film Week and the Grand Prix for Best Film at the 16th Giffoni Film Festival.

We live in a mediatized world of wild conspiracy theories, impending ecological crises, pernicious narrations, where ironic + nihilistic viral #influenza pictures are concurrently cropping up on innumerable devices. A toxic cloud of digital images is drifting from the monitors in parallel to the degradation of the physical environment.

?How does pixelated information get caught in the network of an organic body? What kind of stage (a)effects does a work generate with incompatible Internet content? What in the web of images is actually t r U E?

In response to the oculocentric organisation of the world, the hybrid stage production adds materiality to pasty digital images and processes them —\_( physically )_/—. It combines movement, video, the production with objects and sound, translating *through irony* the logic of the Internet into a physical space……………… The relationship between the body and images spreads open the virtual spaces of intermediacy; /between the organic /imaginary and digital /among memetic trash /between the atmosphere /affect and sensation //at the intersection of experience, apparition, premonition, and fact. Between the past, the manifold presents and – not virtual, but tangible – > future.
 

Jan Rozman (1991) is a dancer, performer and improviser working between Ljubljana and Berlin. He is active in the independent dance scene, where he collaborates with established dancers and choreographers and develops his own work, which is characterised by the interplay of different elements (dance, theatre, scenography, music) and humour. His artistic practice deals with an expanded notion of corporeality, material semiotics, textures, gaps, mistakes and confusion, ecology, imagination, (science) fiction and humour. His work focuses on the exploration and articulation of relevant performance expressions for the post-internet/anthropocene era.

The versatile Palestinian musician Ahmed Eid blends traditional Arabic rhythms with global musical influences, underscoring a strong social commitment through his lyrics. 

A classically trained musician, Ahmed Eid’s education included jazz at the Cologne Conservatory of Music alongside classical music at the Lübeck Conservatory of Music. As a founding member of the internationally acclaimed band Bukahara, Eid seamlessly transcends roles as bassist, guitarist, percussionist and singer-songwriter, having evolved a signature style grounded in Arabic melodies but also incorporating other music genres. 

With ten albums under his belt, he now embarks on a solo journey with his latest release, Aghani Akhira أغاني اخيرة(Last Songs), reaching deeper into pressing personal and global issues such as patriarchal violence, colonialism and the refugee experience. Born to parents in political exile, Ahmed Eid grew up in Ramallah and moved to Berlin at the age of 27. Since then, he has divided his life and work between the two cities. This division also informs his genre-varied music, which creates a new, “in-between” space. At Cankarjev dom, Ahmed will present his latest album, Aghani Akhira, accompanied by a Berlin-based band, ILYF. 

Beyond the spotlight, the artist shows unwavering commitment to nurturing emerging talent and alternative music scenes, reflected in the launch of the “Palestine Music Space” Foundation and Centre in Ramallah. Providing free music education and recording space, the initiative stands as a beacon of hope for young musicians in Palestine. Ahmed Eid is one of its principal financial benefactors.

ILYF is a Berlin-based band consisting of the founding members of Bukahara, violinist Daniel Avi Schneider and bassist Ahmed Eid, drummer Kuba, aka Badkuzu, and keyboardist Allysa Grace Martinez. Their concerts constitute an eclectic mixture of psychedelic groove, traditionally infused Arabic songs as well as improvised adventures, organic funk, soft progressions and sounds sourced from Berlin’s contemporary scene.

We regret to inform you that due to the escalating military conflict in Gaza, Palestinian singer Terez Sliman has been prevented from visiting Ljubljana and performing within the context of the Music of the World Season Series. The Terez Sliman concert scheduled for 26 June has been cancelled. Standing in for Terez Sliman is Palestinian musician Ahmed Eid who will perform on 14 June. No ticket exchange is required for the substitute concert, and the same allocated seating applies.
Terez Sliman will be one of our featured artists in next year’s Music of the World Season Series (June 2026).

Ticketholders unable to attend the concert on the new date are entitled to a refund (a proportionate part of the subscription fee) or credit note.
Furter info: vstopnice@cd-cc.si 

Primož Grašič, guitar; Vid Jamnik, vibraphone; Mario Mavrin, bass guitar; David Gazarov, piano; Emil Spanyi, klavir; Christophe Bras, drums

Boško Petrović (1935–2011), a Croatian jazz legend and a world-renowned vibraphonist, was closely connected with Slovenia, spending part of his youth here, attending and graduating from the Poljane Grammar School – and playing football for Ljubljana’s Odred club (today's NK Olimpija).

Jazz Continuo and Two Pianos – Music for Boško Petrović received its widely-heralded premiere on 15 January 2025 at the Vatroslav Lisinski Cultural Centre in Zagreb. Given than Boško, a regular guest on Slovenian stages and a mentor to our musicians, played his last concert in Slovenia with the RTV Slovenija Big Band on 18 December 2010, it is only fitting that – on the 90th anniversary of his birth – Boško's music be again heard in our country, in Cankarjev dom’s Linhart Hall. 

Jazz Continuo was formed in 2012 with the idea of keeping Boško Petrović's music alive and performed even after his passing. The project was initiated by Boško's closest collaborators and friends – Mario Mavrin, Primož Grašič, and Vid Jamnik, who organize an annual concert in his honour, performing in the original format of his trio: vibraphone, guitar, and bass.
 
For this special occasion, celebrating the 90th anniversary of Boško Petrović's birth, Jamnik, Mavrin and Grašič will be joined on stage by additional friends and collaborators: brilliant pianists David Gazarov and Emil Spanyi, as well as drummer Christophe Bras. Together, they will present Boško's original compositions and jazz standards he loved to play with his many line-ups. 

The concert will also present the album Shut Up!...Thank You! (Croatia Records, 2025), a compilation of carefully selected tracks from Boško's rich discography. 

Davor Hrvoj

The programme is a double bill consisting of two dance and music performances, created in collaboration between the music duo Silence and the dance duo MN Dance.

MN Dance Company: DE-SET

DE-SET is a performance celebrating the 10th anniversary of the creative journey of dancers Nastja Bremec Rynia and Michal Rynia. The interlacing of dance, live music and captivating visuals integrates various motifs from the artistic couple’s body of work, which, in addition to a lively interest in humankind’s intimate and social essence, thematise archetypal questions defining the relationship between her and him, and the energy that feeds that relationship. This energy is love, it is art, it is the electricity flowing between them. In their signature dance style, marked by exceptional consistency, perfection of movement and powerful expression, they have combined their memories and past stories into a new conceptual form, co-created with duo Silence, vocalist Boris Benko and pianist Primož Hladnik, who celebrated an anniversary of their own in 2019 – 20 years of making music together. 

duo Silence: PROCES{i}

The public is invited to attend a public trial.
K. is a composer who finds herself in the dock.
She’s become a defendant after being found guilty.
Don't ask when or why. Nobody, including K., remembers that anymore.
All that matters is that her guilty verdict brings her the highest punishment: a lifelong trial. 
A lifelong dissection of her actions. A lifelong criminalisation of her goals. 
Without the possibility of pardon.
The tribunal that is prosecuting K. strictly sanctions all forms of innocence. 
Luckily, it approves of music and dance performances.

We are thrilled to announce Procesi, Duo Silence's playwriting and directorial debut. A rather unique theatrical event based on Silence’s original script and inspired by Franz Kafka’s novel The Trial, this cocktail of live music and monodrama marks the centenary of the death of Franz Kafka, the most famous insect among writers. The duo will be joined on stage by actress Katarina Stegnar. 

Tomaž Gajšt has been a member of the Big Band RTV Slovenija for thirteen years. During this time, he has asserted himself as a key player in the trumpet section and an excellent soloist, as evidenced by the numerous live recordings and the many albums released over the recent years – as a soloist, he features on almost every album recorded by the Big Band RTV Slovenija. Gajšt has not only made his mark in the band, but also more broadly in jazz music, and is considered to be one of Slovenia’s best trumpeters of recent times, known for his exceptional musicianship and delivery. Having already garnered recognition as a composer, arranger and conductor, he is now premiering his new project with the Big Band and under the baton of Lojze Krajnčan. His body of work is imbued with the experience he has gained from numerous collaborations and from playing the compositions of his closest musical friends. While drawing on jazz traditions, his original compositions nevertheless sound extremely fresh and modern, reflecting vivid contrasts and a variety of musical elements. Gajšt's musical ideas are underscored by various lyricists (in some compositions) and enhanced by Lojze Krajnčan’s masterly orchestral arrangements.

Celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, the Big Band RTV Slovenija has gained renown as a preeminent institution in Slovenian jazz and popular music. Throughout its time-honoured existence, the Big Band has collaborated with world-class musicians from all over the world and built an extensive discography that bears witness to the development of jazz tradition in Slovenia. Over the decades, the orchestra has been setting new standards of excellence in the big-band format, being synonymous with a large ensemble of high professional standing that combines experience, innovation and dedication to music.
 

As part of its theoretical-humanist focus, the Fabula Festival is hosting Francis Fukuyama, one of the most influential contemporary political thinkers. Fukuyama, author of the groundbreaking work The End of History and the Last Man, proposing his controversial thesis on the ideological culmination of liberal democracy at the end of the Cold War, continues to be a seminal voice in debates on the future of global politics, democracy and its challenges.

The event is dedicated to his latest book, Liberalism and Its Discontents (2022), on this occasion published in Slovenian translation. In the book, Fukuyama argues in favour of classical liberalism as a system that enables pluralism, respects basic human dignity and boosts economic progress, while analysing the threats from the left and the right. He is critical of neoliberalism and stresses the need for regulation with a view to limiting the power of corporations and improving social welfare. At the same time, he touches on the negative effects of the digital age, in which online platforms manipulate public opinion, spread misinformation and undermine democratic debate.

In Ljubljana, Fukuyama will address current political and social issues, including the challenges of liberalism at a time of rising populism, identity politics and the technological changes shaping the modern world. His theses will provide insights into the crucial issues of our time: Which direction is liberal democracy taking, and Can it survive a host of internal and external pressures?

Francis Fukuyama (1952), US political scientist, writer and professor at Stanford University, received his PhD from Harvard University. He is known for his influential thesis on the end of history, which has impacted global debates on politics, identity and the future of democratic systems. Among his most important works are Liberalism and Its Discontents, Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution and Trust: Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment. His influence goes beyond academia, as his analyses form an important part of the wider discourse on the future of political and social systems.

The talk will be hosted by Rudi Rizman.

The event will be held in English, with simultaneous translation into Slovenian.