At the Assembly of the Slovenian Chamber Music Theater on March 27, 2008, we adopted the Rules for awarding our theater's professional award for the artistic achievements of Slovenian opera singers, especially in the field of chamber opera, and named it after the baritone Sam Smerkolj, who was among the Slovenian opera champions not only a great singer, but an equally good and intelligent actor.

 

He won the Prešeren Prize twice and was one of the few excellent soloists of the Ljubljana Opera who remained loyal to his home stage.

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By establishing and awarding the Samo Smerkolj Award, we at the Slovenian Chamber Music Theater want to give recognition to a versatile opera artist, singer and actor every year, and to maintain awareness among opera artists in Slovenia of the values of our past and present Slovenian opera music culture.