About the 2022 laureate

The retired soloist of the SNG Maribor Opera, baritone Emil Baronik, is one of the most deserving and active artists, who has been presenting himself to the Slovenian and international audience for more than five decades as a profound interpreter of a wide variety of singing roles. He is distinguished by his great breadth of knowledge, creative intelligence and technical fitness, complemented by thoughtful acting and an extraordinary sense of melodic delivery. His artistic creation is marked by an exceptional dedication to technically and interpretatively demanding and character-differentiated roles, with which he has achieved creative maturity and a recognizable stage presence.

He began his musical career at the Secondary Music School in Maribor, where he studied singing with Professor Miloš Brišnik. He perfected his skills in Vienna with Professor Elizabeth Kreiča. He has been working at the Maribor Opera since 1962. Emil Baronik has also confirmed his singing endurance and acting potential with an exceptional number of performances, exceeding 4,000, and it is worth emphasizing that in recent opera seasons (despite his retirement) he has repeatedly tried his hand at more demanding roles, most recently in the role of the Marquis de la Force in Poulenc's tragic opera The Conversations of the Carmelites and as Cesar Altoum in Puccini's opera Turandot. Since his operatic debut, he has recreated more than 120 roles from the iron opera repertoire, including the title roles from Gioacchino Rossini's The Barber of Seville, Gaetano Donizetti's Don Pasquale, George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, Jakov Gotovec's Ero from the Other World, as well as roles from Mozart's operas The Marriage of Figaro and Così fan tutte, Donizetti's comic opera L'Amore, and Puccini's operas La Bohème and Gianni Schicchi.

Baritone Emil Baronik was the first to consistently try his hand at newer musical theatre genres at the Maribor Opera House, especially operetta and musical, and he received excellent reviews for his stage performances. As a leading performer in musicals, he established himself in Mitch Leigh's Man of La Mancha, Frederick Loewe's cult musical My Fair Lady, and Jerry Bock's Fiddler on the Roof. He also excelled in operetta roles, such as Johann Strauss the Younger's Die Fledermaus.

He passed on his rich musical knowledge to younger generations as a lecturer in vocal technique at the Faculty of Education in Maribor and as a choirmaster of the DPD Pekre Men's Choir, the Maribor Mountain Octet and the Marles Octet. He also participated in various concerts, among which performances of Mozart, Bach and Schubert masses stand out, as well as participation in twenty concerts of contemporary church music in Germany. In 1972, he performed at the Zagreb Biennial with a cantata by the Croatian composer Silvio Foretić. The singer's important achievements also include a series of successful solo recitals and concerts with the Pro musica Tibicini ensemble, and he also performed and recorded extensively with RTV Slovenia.

He has received numerous awards for his artistic achievements, including the Prešeren Fund Award, the Glazer Certificate, the Glazer Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the title of Ambassador of the Slovenian National Theatre Maribor. The extraordinary scope of his repertoire and artistic engagement, as well as the praiseworthy reviews, indisputably prove that Emil Baronik is one of the most recognizable opera voices, comprehensive stage personalities, and still very active opera singers in Slovenia today.

The expert committee consisting of: Simon Dvoršak (chairman), Vlatka Oršanić, Dr. Henrik Neubauer, Andrej Debevec and Simon Robinson therefore decided to receive the Sam Smerkolj Award for 2022.

The award ceremony will take place on Sunday, January 29, 2023 at 5:00 PM in the Red Hall of the Ljubljana City Hall. Admission to the event is free.