Four musicians
Three composers and one accordionist who also composes. The line-up settled at the end of 1995 and has not changed since.
Ľubomír Burgr
Violinist, composer, performer, director. Born in Prešov, he played in the theatre orchestra in Košice and moved to Bratislava in 1990 to join the Stoka theatre as musician, composer and actor. Author of the cult album Ali ibn Rachid (1992). Founder and head of the SkRAT theatre. In Požoň he is the violinist who “plays a single pitch” (Suite in the Manner of Požoň, VI), author of It’s Snowing, the Unisono Suite, Hopak and the song There is one problem, you know, about Philadelphia not being in Slovakia.
Boris Lenko
An accordionist who plays everything from baroque to tango and new music; professor at the Academy of Performing Arts. From Ružomberok via the Žilina conservatory to Bratislava; with Požoň since 1996 (Peter Celec and Robo Jurčo sat at the accordion before him). In Požoň he “holds the drone, plays the rhythm and makes noise” (Storm, Suite in the Manner of Požoň) and, as the ensemble’s only non-composer, wrote its most performed piece, Saturday Afternoon.
Marek Piaček
Composer, flautist, artistic director and initiator of Požoň. A second-generation Bratislavan, pupil of Ilja Zeljenka. Author of Urban Songs (with Egon Bondy), the opera The Last Flight, the symphony Nuntium Magnum, Kindermusikverein, Rich and Happy from Engerau and Apolloopera. Founder of the Small-Town Educational Agency. In his own words he makes “café-house avant-garde of the late 20th century, decadent post-minimalism and new simplicity”.
Peter Zagar
Composer and pianist, born in Bratislava with Slovenian roots, pianist of the VENI ensemble. He coined the epithet “Middle-class Chamber Orchestra” and dug the word “Požoň” out of the forgotten transliterations of the city’s name. Author of I Waited for You at the Carlton, The Heritage Land, December Suite, Mata Hari, Bratislava Kyrie and Farewell Waltz; translator of all Požoň texts into English. “What we do with Požoň is, for me, experimenting and play.”
Soloists, guests, voices
Soloists
- Egon Bondy – voice (Urban Songs)
- Marian Lapšanský – piano
- Eugen Indjić – piano
- Magdaléna Hajóssyová – soprano
- Jiří Bárta – cello
- Peter Mikuláš – bass
- Stanislav Beňačka – bass
- Ilja Zeljenka – drum
- Mikuláš Škuta, Nora Škutová, Tomáš Boroš – piano
- Daniel Matej, Ján Boleslav Kladivo – voice
- Howard Skempton – composer
Extended line-up
- Ronald Šebesta – clarinet, bass clarinet
- Petr Michoněk, Eugen Prochác – cello
- Martin Čorej – guitar
- Peter Šesták, Mária Babinská – viola
- Petra Csaplárová, Martin Heriban, Michal Majerský, Karin Kováčová, Melánia Lipková – violin
- Rastislav Kašuba – bassoon
- Martin Burlas – bass guitar, narrator
- Anton Pažický – accordion
- Adrian Rajter, Marián Lejava, Martin Majkút, Anton Popovič – conductors
Voice and acting
- Inge Hrubaničová
- Jozef Chmel – rap (The Daughter of Glory)
- Laco Kerata
- Jozef Pavlovič – lecture on the hexameter
- Lucia Piussi
- Zuzana Piussi
- Blaho Uhlár
- František Kovár – narrator
- Richard Stanke – narrator
- Jozef Piaček – narrator