VILLAGE FETES

Lojze Slak began his musical career as a teenager with the accordion at numerous village fetes, celebrations and holidays, where he with the Slak brothers first entertained the inhabitants of his hometown in the vicinity of Mirna Peč and the wider Dolenjska region. Soon after leaving for Ljubljana and the establishment of the Lojze Slak Ensemble, the ensemble began performing throughout Slovenia, especially at parties organized by voluntary firefighters in the summer. From spring to late autumn, the ensemble of Lojze Slak has been occupied all Sundays and national holidays by performing at firefighter's parties and other events.

It often happened that the ensemble had two performances in one day, in the afternoon and in the evening, in different places, because Slak's ensemble were so popular that people wanted to listen to them all over Slovenia. There was almost no fire brigade association in our country that did not want to host Slak's ensemble at one of its parties.

Performing at jollifications and local celebrations, which took place in open-air venues, also offered Lojze Slak and his boys the best opportunity for genuine personal contact with their audience and friends of local music. At these performances, friendly and business ties were forged between Lojze Slak and many municipal organizers and associates, as well as among important representatives of society. Therefore, we can reasonably say that performances of Lojze Slak's ensemble at village fetes paved the way for his universal musical recognition and the incredible popularity that he has achieved over the years.

CONCERTS

With the concert performances, the ensemble of Lojze Slak has continued their summer performances at the festivities, as their concerts took place from autumn to spring in all parts of Slovenia. The have been performed either as an independent group, or as a co-group to other guest ensembles and musicians. The biggest music concerts were held on the anniversaries of the ensemble, then the largest Tivoli Hall in Ljubljana, which hosted many world sporting events and foreign music stars, was too small for all fans of Slak's music, so they had to repeat individual concerts twice.

ANNIVERSARY CONCERTS:

• 10th anniversary 1975 Tivoli Hall
• 15th anniversary 1979 Tivoli Hall
• 20th anniversary 1984 Tivoli Hall
• 30th anniversary 1994 KD Ivan Cankar
• 35th anniversary 1999 Tivoli Hall
• 40th anniversary 2004 Tivoli Hall

THEMED CONCERTS »You'll see what Dolen'c is doing!«

For a long time, Lojze Slak came up with the idea of bringing his music even closer to people and reviving traditional customs and habits that enriched his childhood and the places in Dolenjska where he grew up.

He wanted to combine all these in a unique concert performance, the content of which was completely different from comparable national entertainment events in Slovenia. Together with colleagues and friends, he organized a series of concerts of folk music with various thematic themes, under the title "You will see what Dolen'c is doing!", which showed folk customs, work, habits and holidays. The concerts were also filmed and broadcasted on TV Slovenia, and were organized in Dolenjska in Otočec and in Novo mesto.

TOURS

Shortly after its founding, the Lojze Slak Ensemble began touring abroad. The first music tours were organized by the Slovenian Emigrant Association. They have traveled thousands of miles and were warmly received everywhere. They had sold-out concerts and full halls allways awaited them. The meeting between Slak's boys and compatriots around the world - in the USA, Canada and Australia - was especially cordial. The first concert tour of North America triggered an avalanche of enthusiasm for Slak's music and the diatonic accordion or »Button Box«, as it was called there. They quickly began to form new folk-entertainment ensembles and Button Box clubs. Slak's melodies even began to be performed in churches, at special "polka masses". Domestic songs brought a piece of a very distant homeland to the Slovenes, and they often brought tears of happiness to the faces of the listeners. Slak ensemble was an ambassador of Slovenian folk songs and culture and the boys were representatives of our country, and took the expatriates back to their native Slovenia with music.

TELEVISION SHOWS

With its growing popularity both at home in Slovenia and in the then wider homeland of Yugoslavia, and of course on tours abroad in the USA, Canada and Australia, the Lojze Slak Ensemble has performed in numerous TV shows and entertainment programs.

When Television Ljubljana organized its first color TV live broadcasting at the Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Center as part of the Electronics Fair in the summer of 1966, Slak ensemble has also performed and people could watched it in color at all shops where TVs were set up.

In 1967, Lojze Slak's ensemble recorded their first television show, which took place on Trška gora and the surrounding towns in Dolenjska, and two years later Slak's musicians were one of the main groups in Ljubljana's Tivoli Hall filming the TV series Polkas and waltzs.

In 1969, the Lojze Slak Ensemble also recorded the first color television recordings, participated in the large tourist folklore and music event Kmečka ohcet (Peasant wedding), which was watched by over 70,000 people, and television recordings of the event were broadcast in 30 European and non-European countries.

When the Lojze Slak Ensemble released its first German-language album in 1982, it was also invited to perform on the Austrian entertainment music TV show Musikantenstadl, hosted by the famous Karl Moick. The ensemble has performed there on two tours of Austria. Slak ensemble has also appeared in the same TV show later in 2001 in Switzerland.

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Lojze Slak ensemble, in 1984 Slak's boys recorded a show for TV Ljubljana entitled »20 years of the Slak Ensemble«. The following year, Lojze Slak's ensemble went on tour again in the USA and Canada, where they had numerous radio and television recordings.

In 1989, Television Ljubljana (now TV Slovenia) joined the celebration of the ensemble's 25th anniversary with a show recorded in the most beautiful corners of the Slovenian Alps, in the Triglav National Park, all the way from Trenta walley to the Dolenjska hills.

In 1990, Lojze Slak's ensemble embarked on the most resounding tour of the United States to date, and with a one-hour program they also performed in Nashville, in the very heart of country music. A part of all the events was also recorded by the Ljubljana television team, which prepared two shows for the Videomeh series from the ensemble's guest appearances in the United States and Canada.

The turbulent year of 1991, which brought Slovenia freedom and independence, was concluded by the Lojze Slak Ensemble at the New Year's Videomeh on Vinska gora, where they premiered one of their greatest hits, the song Srečno, mlada Slovenija (Good Luck, Young Slovenia).

In December 2010, the Lojze Slak ensemble performed on the twentieth anniversary of the television show New Year's Videomeh under the direction of Boris Kopitar.

In 2007, TV Slovenia made a documentary about Lojze Slak and his ensemble entitled V dolini tihi (In the Silent Valley).