Eurovision Song Contest: SLOVENIA ESC 2009 - Quartissimo

Quartissimo are the string quartet made of Ziga Cerar (1st violin), Matjaz Bogataj (2nd violin), Luke Dukaric (viola) and Samo Dervisic (cello). They are young, but anyway established musicians, having experience as soloists or members of different chamber orchestras, performing at home and abroad. All of them graduated from Violin Music School, and some - from Slovenian Philharmonic.Composer and lyricist of the song is Andrej Babic, whose songs have represented 4 different countries at Eurovision: Croatia 2003, Bosnia-Herzegovina 2005, Slovenia 2007 and Portugal 2008. Arrangements were contrbuted by Aleksandar Valencic. Stage presentation is designed by Miha Alujevic.Originally the crossover song "Love Symphony" was written as instrumental, however, Eurovision rules prescribe all entries to have lyrics, thus a guest female vocal has been added to the song, performed by Martina Majerle, who was backing vocalist for Croatia 2003, Slovenia 2007 and Montenegro 2008.
"I feel like this song could make Slovenia be noticed among all the others; since there is a jury back again, I think this is something they could recognise more than average voters", says Andrej Babic.
The band's vocalist Martina Majerle was born on the 2nd of May, 1980, Rijeka, Croatia. She is a student of Economics.She made her first serious steps into the world of music as the lead singer of the Rijeka band Putokazi. She continued her musical career as a soloist in the ambient-electro-pop band Atmospheric.As a back vocalist, Martina performed at many concerts at home and abroad. She accompanied many famous musicians from the former Yugoslav region, amongst them were Tereza Kesovija in Olympia (Paris), Zdravko Colic, the band Novi Fosili, Severina, Massimo Savic, Nina Badric, Vanna, Toni Cetinski, Vesna Pisarovic, Radojka Sverko, Maja Blagda, etc.Martina has recently become a member of the Croatian RTV orchestra and is involved in all the big projects regarding the Croatian national broadcaster.Ziga Cerar was born on April 27th, 1978, Ljubljana, Slovenia. He started to learn the violin at the age of eight, at the Franc Sturm Musical School in Ljubljana. He continued his musical studies at a secondary musical school in Ljubljana. After graduating from secondary school, he was accepted to the Mozarteum University of Salzburg, Austria. After receiving his college degree, Ziga enrolled in a master's course and became an MA.Ziga won numerous awards at national and international competitions. During his studies, he regularly attended various summer schools and seminars with numerous distinguished professors.Between 2002 and 2004, Ziga was a member of the Cologne Chamber Orchestra and toured several European cities.Ziga Cerar is a member of a few chamber orchestras. He was the founder of the Octissimo String Octet, which had many successful concerts in Slovenia and abroad.Since 2004, Ziga is employed in the Slovene Philharmonic Orchestra and is a member of the Slovene Philharmonics chamber string orchestra for the last two years.Matjaz Bogataj (born in 1987) is a student at the Univesitat Fur Musik Und Darstellende Kunst Graz. So far, he has performed at more than 200 concerts, either as a soloist or as a member of chamber groups and orchestras.He has improved his knowledge in different master classes with various famous names from the world of classical music.Matjaz won awards at seven international and two national musical competitions. He achieved his latest success at the First World Violin Competition for Young Violinists Stefan Milenkovich, where he was the runner-up.In June and July of 2008, he was one of the scholarship holders at the International Santanader Music Festival (Spain), where he performed soloist recitals and toured Spain and Paris with chamber groups and orchestras. At the end of the summer, Matjaz was invited for a second consecutive master class with the Vienna Philharmonic, which takes place every summer in Trenta, Slovenia. After finishing the course, Matjaz was chosen as one of the soloists who showcased his musical abilities at the famous Musikverein in Vienna.Samo Dervisic was born on the 12th of December, 1981, Ljubljana, Slovenia. He started playing violoncello at the age of five, at the Franc Sturm Musical School. He continued his musical education at the Secondary Musical and Ballet School in Ljubljana. After graduating, he successfully passed his entrance examination to the Ljubljana Academy of Music.From 2002 to 2007, Samo Dervisic was teaching violoncello at various musical schools in Slovenia.His desire to broaden his musical knowledge and to try his hand at other musical genres, led Samo to join the Aperion band. With this band, he won several musical tenders and competitions in Slovenia and abroad. The band made a successful musical video in 2007.Apart from this, Samo is a cellist in La Vie D'Un Quatuor String Quartet. The members of this classical string quartet perform world music, accompanied by photographic projections.Luka Dukaric was born on the 9th of September, 1986, Ljubljana, Slovenia. He started his musical education at the age of eight, at Ljubljana's Moste-Polje Musical School. After finishing this school, he continued studying, firstly at the Secondary Musical and Ballet School in Ljubljana and later at the Academy of Music.During his studies, Luka won a gold medal in 2000 and 2003 at the regional competitions, a bronze plaque in 2000 and a gold plaque in 2003, when he was also the runner-up at the national violin competition. At the international competition for young violinists in Gorica, Slovenia, in 2001, he won an award. At the Vladimir Lovec-Ivan Scek chamber group competition, Luka won a third placement award and two special awards.For three years, he was a member of the Young Musicians International Symphony Orchestra and performed in many European countries. In 2006, he became a member of the international orchestra Animato Academy. Luka performed at the 51st Summer Festival held at Ljubljana's Castle in 2003.