Members

Mira Omerzel – Mirit, Ph.D

Glasbeno-terapevtsko poslanstvo Mirit pursues her musical-therapeutic mission also together with the musicians of the Vedun Ensemble.

Tine Omerzel Terlep

Tine Omerzel Terlep (Mirit’s son), is an engineering graduate (IWE). He is a brass player and percussionist. Both of his parents being musicians, he joined the Ensemble’s concerts for young children in his pre-school years (in 1986, at the age of 5), as a singer of children’s folk songs and a player of children’s instruments and sound-makers. His musical education took place outside official institutions. Only in this way was he able to preserve a feeling for what is natural and spontaneous. His spiritual path began at the age of ten. Today he continues to eagerly develop and expand his consciousness at the workshops and initiations of the Veduna School. In 1996 (after his voice broke) he rejoined the Trutamora Slovenica Ensemble, and later the Vedun Ensemble, this time as a trumpeter, singer and percussionist. He was the youngest member of both ensembles for many years. Tine is also a sound-energy therapist of the Veduna Mystery School, Mirit’s assistant and successor in the cosmic sound surgery. He enriches the Ensemble’s performances with exceptional shamanic throat aliquot singing and shamanic drumming, with horns, flutes, with the duduk and fujara, dafs, darbukas, drums of different cultures, as well as with his energy abilities as a medium.

Igor Meglič

Igor Meglič, an academic musician and teacher of classical guitar, joined the Ensemble in 2014. He develops his sound-therapeutic and spiritual abilities in Mirit’s Veduna Mystery School. He principally revives forgotten plucked stringed instruments of different musical traditions, such as igil, bouzouki, gimbri, Arabic lute, saz, charango, darbukas and shamanic drums. He also contributes to the multi-part singing of folk songs.

Robert Pečenko

At the beginning of 2022, Robert Pečenko, Ph.D. in technical sciences, joined the ensemble, who with his remarkable musical talent and rhythm section, complements the soundscapes of the ensemble.

Mojka Žagar

Mojka Žagar is a mathematics teacher, musician and sound therapist. She joined the Omerzel-Terlep duo in its tenth year of concert activity, reviving archival recordings of folk songs and hymns. As a teacher of vocal care and natural singing, she focuses on awakening, developing and preserving the unique natural vocal qualities of individuals. She is the first of her kind in Slovenia to teach natural voice training, which is the foundation for self-healing with the voice. In the ensemble (of which she has been a member since 1988) she is engaged in the revival of folk songs and various types of folk singing, with which the ensemble presents old and forgotten singing techniques, and she also plays various folk instruments.

Matjaž Doljak

Matjaž Doljak MSc (Economics) and a musician, joined the Ensemble in spring 2017. His sonic fields are plonarca, or concertina (the forerunner of the modern accordion), Indian flutes and percussion.

Mirit:

»My ex-husband and I – Tine’s parents – are musicians. Matija is a flautist, I am a guitarist (at the age of 18, I was the youngest guitar teacher in Slovenia). Tine had trained his ear before starting school; he was always listening to our Ensemble’s rehearsals. I would often play to him field recordings from across the world. In this way he absorbed many musical languages, including those that are very different from what we are used to in Europe. Tine actually joined my husband and me when we, as guests of his kindergarten, presented folk songs to the kindergarten children.

He simply grabbed what was to hand there and started playing along with us. Yes, we do need to start with the children. Tine was only a few years old, and it was possibly because he was so young that he would spend hours on end creating spontaneous sounds. He sat on the stairs, singing and singing. Although originally a brass player, after discovering the most exquisite instrument – his vocal cords – he became a singer with a very sensitive ear.” In elementary school, his dream was to own a mixing desk for music and video production. Today he is an audio-visual engineer, who edits Vedun’s audio and video recordings. A child’s wishes are brilliant guide and should not be ignored.«

Tine says:

»Making spontaneous sounds and microtonal sounds is a special delight for me. Only then do I feel truly alive. When I have the feeling that everything is going well in my life, I start to spontaneously sing or whistle. And I know everything will turn out fine. But when for example I am sad or worried, I sing within myself with inaudible sound to dispel the darkness of feeling bad, or I whistle out loud. That is when I touch worlds beyond and my soul sings in elation. First of all, I am grateful to my mother Mirit for the many spiritual and musical insights I have realised. I am grateful to her for introducing me to the Slovene musical heritage, to folk music, and to the true identity of Slovenes – who we are, what we are. I believe all of that is her big parting gift to me. I feel privileged, because my peers don’t have these insights. But if you lack such insights, you don’t know who you are, your identity, where you come from. Knowing all this is a big gift. I am thankful to her and to my fellow musical travellers for our shared music making, for the creativity and the search for harmonies that caress your soul while you perform them, when you are part of those created harmonies. When creating, you get a special feeling: a fullness that fulfils you, giving you a special harmonising and healing power. This is in fact what you then pass on to people. You enjoy doing it to the max and people can get great benefits from it, too. Provided that they open up to it. This is the magic of our musical performance and our giving. Once again, I give thanks to my mother Mirit for everything. For being who I am today.«

Mojka

Mojka also comes from a musical family. This is how she describes her ancestors: »One of my uncles (my father’s brother) was an esteemed organist and choral conductor, and another uncle played and taught accordion. My father’s sister (who was a nun ordained as Sister Sekunda) was an organist and she also conducted church choirs. If needed, she stepped in with her voice to replace a missing voice (from soprano to bass). My father played piano and studied solo singing under maestro Julij Betetto. Being a promising baritone, he held recitals accompanied by Marijan Lipovšek and Blaž Arnič. Between 1930 and 1933, in Vienna, together with the tenor Mirko Jelačin, he released records made from bakelite, featuring Slovene folk songs. His singing career was interrupted by the Second World War and was later cut short by health problems. He was a spiritual seeker, even practising yoga on a daily basis back in the 1950s and drawing inspiration from the life philosophy and wisdom of the East.

When my uncles and aunts gathered at the family home, there was always harmonious multi-part singing. Our family chronicles show that my great grandfather received a special lesson from his father, which he in turn taught his sons. This is what was said: ‘Boy, you are a Žagar. Make sure you bring honour to the family. This family has always been honest and benevolent and its sons have never got into fights, got drunk, wasted money. Instead, they have used singing to disarm the hot-tempered neighbourhood boys, who liked to try it on at church fairs. The stick the Žagar boys used was always song and cheerfulness and that calmed everyone down.’ My great grandfather Jernej (born 1825), an illegitimate child, was subject to the neglect and troubles common at that time. He would ease his troubles by making sonic toys, musical instruments out of maize or rye straw and he would then elicit wonderful melodies out of them. My mother was a nurse who was devoted to fulfilling her mission and wholeheartedly helping others. She was very intuitive and would often fairly accurately tell the fortunes of her friends«

Mojka, Mirit, and Matija trained their voices in a natural way, at the school of Jelka Stergar. Mojka continues: “Folk songs, and later the healing sounds that the Vedun Ensemble offered to listeners, truly require a natural voice and a free flow. It is actually not you singing, you simply let the divine voice emerge from within you, allowing whatever is needed in the moment – for you or for the audience. My collaboration with the Ensemble has not been merely a musical education and an expansion of knowledge, it has been pure personal learning, a school for life. Yes, we do need to dig deep into ourselves and I am grateful for having been guided, directed to this. I would probably not have done it without Mirit. Let me also emphasise just how valuable it is to know your own culture. Today, people wander around the world in search of spirituality and peace, as if our own Slovene spirituality didn’t exist. Why? Because they are not familiar with it. It is only in foreign mantras that they find peace, because they have never had the opportunity, or because there are fewer and fewer possibilities and opportunities, to feel the Slovene spiritual heritage. This is truly one of the privileges of my collaboration with the Trutamora Slovenica and Vedun Ensembles. Perhaps I should also mention unpredictability and surrendering to the moment. This is what the Ensemble’s musicians have been fighting with: the ability to feel and achieve this surrender, and then to pass it on to people; to be able to sufficiently surrender so that divine sound, things that are needed for the current moment, can flow through us. That’s when it gets truly magical. It happens when you let go of everything, when you remove everything, all your control, and even all the things you learned in school.«

Mirit: »Cosmic Intelligence whispers through us. I wondered for a long time how come I knew what is happening to a person, what is in their karma. Then I realised that there is an extraordinary (invisible, inaudible) Intelligence that whispers through us.

The Vedas call it shabd, in Slovenia we call it šepetanje (whispering), the ancient Greeks called it logos. It is something that makes the world as it is. We veduns channel the inaudible into the audible, the barely perceptible into perceptible, high frequencies of life energy into physical frequencies«

Igor

Igor family come from the foothills of the sacred mountain Storžič. His grandfather was an organist. Beneath these high mountains, Igor absorbed musical genes and the beauties of nature. Playing in the Vedun style is a part of his post-academic education. He has become an excellent interpreter and follower of the harmonies of the moment. Together with Mirit, Igor revives primarily the unusual stringed instruments of various cultures. This is what Igor says: »There was an occasion when Mirit and I were rehearsing, singing and creating spontaneous sounds on Greek bouzoukis, at a time when I was working through some sorrow and desperation around a situation. I suddenly felt that I could no longer keep up with the sounds, whereas Mirit was letting the sounds through herself with such ease. All of a sudden, something unusual happened. Very unusual throat sounds started emanating from the depths of my stomach. I had to stand up.

I sensed that a higher force was working through me. This experience changed my understanding of sound and I grasped the mission of Vedun – surrendering to the current moment. When I am able to calm my mind and fully surrender, the right stuff, often unexpected stuff, starts flowing through me like an electric current. My understanding changes with each expansion of my consciousness. This state and understanding in turn deepen the quality of the sound. I have the feeling that I am finally bringing back dignity to my soul. Once I had to say something whilst on the stage. I was deeply in a trance. My mind was silenced, so I froze. Not a single word came out of my mind. That is how it goes – you are either in the mind or in the silence of the soul. My wish is for us younger veduns to build on Mirit’s 50 years of endeavours in ethnology as purely as possible.«

Matjaž

Matjaž is an accordion player who also presents its historical variants. He is a fast learning musician and has been quick to learn various other instruments – particularly old flutes and throat singing. All the musicians of the Vedun Ensemble have had to learn numerous musical instruments, as well as multi-part singing in different musical styles. Matjaž explains: »Mirit’s teaching – both musical and spiritual – strongly upgrades a basic musical education and everything we know. It is uncompromising. It can sometimes be difficult, yet it is worthwhile. Working in the Ensemble is often very tiring, what with Mirit being an uncompromising leader.

But that’s how it is – when things get difficult, they simply are difficult. But when we manage to gnaw our way through our illusions and the limitations we have set ourselves and which Mirit inevitably tears down, that is when we feel profound mercy and gratitude for being able to have made all those steps. That is when we open ourselves up to higher worlds which guide us in our music making. While playing, we merge into a single organism with a common will. We are guided by a divine force and we pass this on to our listeners. Each quantum leap in our consciousness is reflected in our music, which becomes brighter. And this light calms me and brings joy.«

Robert:

»For me playing in the Vedun Ensemble is mainly a means to surrender to the current moment and connect not only with the other members of the Ensemble, but also with the inaudible that is around us. To achieve this, a big dose of serenity and openness of spirit is needed.

You need to let go of the musical knowledge you’ve acquired, as it can hinder you. You need courage to penetrate into the unknown. Only by doing this will you be able to create harmonies and connectedness. In this state I feel the silence of inner peace.«

Mojka is fond of mountains and hiking trials. She walked the longest Slovene mountain trail (from Maribor to Ankaran) as well as the Camino pilgrimage route from the French Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostella in the north-west of Spain. In grammar school, when Slovenia was a part of Yugoslavia, she took part in youth work brigades, getting to know the pulses of the regions of that former country.

Mirit’s son Tine likes best to explore sea expanses on his father’s Slovene-built sailing boat, Igor likes to hike in hills and mountains, and Matjaž and Robert are enthusiastic climbers. They are all familiar with Slovenia, its neighbouring Balkan (Slavic) countries, and the world. During their concert tours, the Ensemble got to know Europe, Greece, Belarus, Egypt and the USA; while on their annual exploration adventures, they got to know many other countries across the globe.

Former members and their contribution

Former members have made substantial contributions to the performances of the Trutamora Slovenica, Vedun and Truta Ensembles (the latter being an ensemble for the revival of Slovene and European art and folk musical heritages of past centuries, from the Middle ages and Renaissance to the present). They will be remembered through their contributions on numerous recordings, made for radio, TV and film.

Matija Terlep (a flautist by training) sang Slovene folk songs and played various types of wooden flutes žvegle, clay ocarinas, shurla and double flutes, musical saw, a prehistoric bear mandible, tamburitza bisernica, earthenware pot bass, etc. Matija and Mira were the first in Slovenia to revive and showcase old Slovene folk instruments and continued to do so for almost three decades.

Katja Stare (flautist) played different types of Slovene and European flutes – žvegle, postranice, dude, and Renaissance flutes. Her high soprano voice added to the singing of Slovene, European, and Balkan songs.

Polona Kuret (violinist) played violin in the Slovene (the Resia region) and Balkan melos. She also contributed with the Chinese er-hu, Siberian morin khuur, Indian esraj, Balkan gusle, and Celtic harp.

Mojca Golež (choral singer) and Beti Jenko (choral conductor) sang mainly in the Trutamora Slovenica Ensemble (but before the Ensemble had been given its name). They joined in the multi-part singing of Slovene folk songs.

During the Ensemble’s early years, Bogdana Herman (self-taught singer) sang mainly Slovene ballads.

INTO THE KNAPSACK OF THE VEDUN, TRUTAMORA SLOVENICA, AND TRUTA ENSEMBLES, EACH MEMBER, BE THEY CURRENT OR FORMER, GAVE A LITTLE PART OF THEMSELVES, THEIR TALENT, AND EFFORTS IN ORDER TO RAISE CULTURAL AWARENESS, EXPAND AWARENESS FOR A BETTER TOMORROW, TO HARMONISE EVERYDAY LIFE, THEMSELVES, AND AUDIENCES.