About us | Cantica Collegium musicum Martin - mixed chamber choir

It was founded in February 1991 by a group of enthusiastic singers from the Martin Choir. Its first conductor was Božidar Vongrej.

In 1994 Štefan Sedlický became conductor and took artistic leadership, consequently in the year 1995 the choir came first at the national chamber choir competition in Vranov nad Topľou. They defended this great success in Dunajská Streda in 1996. The choir has successfully represented the City of Martin and Slovakia abroad. In 1997 and 1998 they took part in a series of concerts in Germany and Austria.

In April 2002, they gave a performance in Hoogeveen (the Netherlands) even in the presence of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. In October 2005, during a tour once again in the Netherlands, they completed a series of extremely successful concerts. In 2007, in addition to many performances at home, they were especially invited to Rome and the Vatican, where the choir performed in St. Peter’s Basilica and to its audience, Pope Benedict XVI. In December 2008 Cantica performed at the opening ceremony of the renovated National house in Martin.

The year 2009 was marked by concerts of Marc Antoine Charpentier’s work Missa Assumpta est Maria- in cooperation with the Trnava Chamber Orchestra (TKO) – in Trnava and Martin. The end of the year included the famous staged works - the Messiah by G.F.Händel in cooperation with the State Chamber Orchestra in Žilina and a series of very successful concerts in Žilina, Martin, and Nové Mesto nad Váhom conducted by P. Breiner.

In cooperation with the State Chamber Orchestra Žilina and other orchestras (TKO, Solamente Naturali ...) the choir rehearsed a number of serious vocal-instrumental works, for example X Mass in D major (Antonín Dvořák), Requiem (W.A. Mozart), Missa Assumpta est Maria (M.A.Charpentier), Easter Oratorio (J.S.Bach), Messiah (G.F.Händel) and others.The resounding success of Cantica includes awards received at the following international competitions:

• in Banska Bystrica in the international competition of Viliam Figuš-Bystrý- it won gold medal; in 2001 Cantica won second place in the international chamber choir competition in Jihlava (Czech Republic);
• In October 2008 the choir won the main prize at the International Choral Festival of musical Romanticism in Vlachovo Březí (Czech Republic);
• the summer of 2010 brought Cantica valuable success - a gold medal at the World Grand Prix Festival Pattaya in Thailand . Cantica has previously released a three CDs (1998, 2002, 2011) ) in 2011, participated in an audio recording of choral compositors of master Ján Cikker on the anniversary of his birth (1911).

in October 2012 the church received three top honors at the World Festival in Prague Praga Cantat

in 2013 a very successful concert tour with his own program sung in Old Slavonic on the occasion of the 1150th anniversary of the arrival of Cyril and Method
June 2013 - Participation in the XII Polish Sea Songs Festival of Vyšegrade in the Polish town of Wejherowo at the Baltic Sea
September 2013 - 2nd place at the Liviu Borlan competition in Baia Mare, Romania
June 2014 - Participation at the Cantate Adriatica World Festival in San Marino
August 2015 - Successful representation in Serbian Bácsky Petrovec
September 2016 - Two golds at the Canco Mediterrania World Festival in Lloret de Mar and Barcelona
August 2017 - successful participation in the Paris Music Choir Festival
July 2018 - Gold Medal of the World Choir Games in South Africa city Tshwane in the category sacred music a capella

August 2019 - two gold medals and TOP LEVEL category at the 4th European Choir games in Gothenburg, Sweden

April 2023 - 1st place in the sacred music category and the main Grand Prix prize at the 7th Vietnam International Championships in Hôi A;

Cantica has released four profile CDs (1998, 2002, 2011, 2016) and in 2011 she also participated in the recording of choral compositions by Ján Cikker for his birth anniversary (1911).

Štefan Sedlický (*1963)

He studied piano at the Conservatory in Žilina and at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (VŠMU) in Bratislava (1985 - 1990 by Prof. M. Starosta), where he also began studying choral conducting in 1989, graduating in class of professor Hradil in 1994. He acts as a docent of conducting at the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica and partly at the Department of Musical Culture of Pedagogic Faculty at Matej Bel University. Besides Cantica he is the conductor of several choirs (the Žilina Mixed Choir and the Choir of Slovak Teachers), with which he achieved significant success in international competitions at home and abroad (Spittal 1992 – the 1st prize in the main competition, Llangollen 1997 – the 2nd prize in the main competition, the 2nd prize at the Palestrin competition in Rome, the 2nd and 3rd prize of Grand Prix Slovakia - 1999, he received first prize and the award for “outstanding performance as conductor” at the Prague Choir Days 2000, Grand Prix 2008 in Bielsko Biala and others). Between 1998 and 2008 he conducted the Academic Choir of J. Cikker at Faculty of Humanities, at Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica (the 1st and 2nd prize at IFAS Pardubice 2000, the 1st prize in the chamber choir category at the international competition ABB /Academic Banská Bystrica/ 2005, first-prize winner of the ABB 2001 and 2007, and others). He has been the conductor and art director of the Choir of Slovak Teachers since 2002 (after his professor P.Hradil). With this ensemble he received in Gorizia in the year 2007 a “premium” and special jury prize in the Swiss Neuchatell (2010). Since 2009 at the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica he has conducted the choir Canzona Neosolium. With his choirs, he has recorded several CDs and has made recordings for Slovak Radio.

As choirmaster he regularly collaborates with the State Chamber Orchestra in Žilina in order to introduce large vocal-instrumental works. He is a regular member of expert juries at national and international competitions at home and abroad.