ROK ZALOKAR TRIO

Rok Zalokar, piano
Jošt Lampret, double bass
Žiga Smrdel, drums

The Rok Zalokar Trio was founded in 2011, and a year later, the musicians were already selected by the Radio Študent’s Club Marathon, where they presented themselves to the Slovenian audience for the first time. Their original compositions include elements of jazz, rock and classical music, which in improvised creation intertwines in a hypnotic experience.

Rok Zalokar is a pianist and a composer living between Ljubljana and Rotterdam. After basic music education in piano and accordion, he enrolled in the Conservatory of Music and Ballet Ljubljana, majoring in jazz piano, and continued his education at Codarts University in Rotterdam. Rok Zalokar is one of the main representatives of the young generation of the Ljubljana’s jazz scene. In addition to solo music activities and leading his groups, he also curates a series of open jam session evenings named Impronedeljek at urban culture center Kino Šiška. His main focus is with the piano trio, but he also explores different formats of ensembles that challenge conventional genre parameters. Among them, the avant-garde pop trio Kukushai, the vocal-piano duo Dvojina and the hip-hop-noise-jazz group Million Ear stand out the most. Since 2013, Rok Zalokar, as the (co)leader of bands, has released eleven albums with original music with publishers RTV ZKP, Celinka, ZARŠ, Kamizdat, and Modigo. His work has not gone unnoticed, in addition to regular performances at domestic and foreign festivals, he is the recipient of Jazzon prize for best composition and performance, and the international Erasmus Jazz Prize.

After completing his education at the Conservatory of Music and Ballet Ljubljana, Jošt Lampret continued his double bass studies at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana, where he is still studying in the class of prof. Zoran Markovič. He is a three-time recipient of the first prize at the TEMSIG competition, and the International String Competition in Niš. He has performed as a soloist with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber String Orchestra of the Academy of Music, and the Symphony Orchestra of the Conservatory of Music and Ballet Ljubljana. As an orchestral musician, he collaborated with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra, and performed as a substitute in the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, and the Slovenian National Opera and Ballet Theatre of Ljubljana. He has also participated in various ensembles with renowned domestic and foreign musicians such as Irena Grafenauer, Daniel Rowland, Zoran Marković, Mate Bekavac, and Vlatko Stefanovski. In addition to classical music, he also appears in various ensembles in other musical genres. He regularly plays in the music groups Pijammies, Teo Collori and Momento cigano, Batista Cadillac, and in many occasional projects.

Žiga Smrdel is a young drummer from Ilirska Bistrica. His musical path began in his early teens with performances in various rock, funk, and jazz ensembles, such as Kage, Postojna Jazz Ensemble, and Big Band ŠCPO. He is currently a 4th-year student at the Regional Conservatory of Music in Klagenfurt with prof. Klemens Marktl, and a student of renowned New York drummer Gregory Hutchinson. He has collaborated with prominent names of the Slovenian popular music scene, such as Mia Žnidarič, Alenka Godec, Oto Pestner and renowned jazz musicians such as Tonč Feinig, Robert Jukič, Matjaž Mikuletič, and Marko Črnčec. He has also performed extensively abroad, especially in Italy and Austria, as a member of the trio of Italian guitarist Nazzaren Zacconi, and in the trio of saxophonist Michael Erian. He and his brother Peter also run their projects such as Wicked Nation, and a jazz quartet. In 2017, he won a gold plaque in the jazz-solo category at the Temsig Young Musicians Competition, and in 2019 in the chamber group-jazz category.

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