Paolo Calligaris

Paolo Calligaris was born in Palmanova, Italy, where he grew up and got his first experience in music. In 1993, he attended the class of G. Grassi at the Udine Music Conservatory for three years before continuing his bassoon studies first in Turin with Vincenzo Menghini and then in Castelfranco Veneto with Stefano Canuti; he has also attended other important italian teachers as Ovidio Danzi and Marco Costantini. Paolo came to Slovenia as solo bassoonist in the Slovenian Radio Symphony Orchestra. He collaborates with some other orchestras such as : L’ Orchestra da camera di Mantova, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, Camerata Bern, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne.
As a member of the Slowind quintet, he won the Župančič Award and one of the most prestigious Slovenian national awards, the award of the Prešeren Fund. In 1997, he was named the first bassoonist of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra. Paolo taught bassoon and chamber music at the Klagenfurt Music Conservatorium and still teaches at numerous summer workshops and music schools abroad. Now he teaches the youngest bassoonist at the GCEW music school in Ljubljana.
He founded the Ensemble 1781, a wind ensemble with original instruments from the Classical period.