Sašo Vollmaier
my work
Born in 1982 in Slovenia, Sašo Vollmaier graduated from the Academy of Music in Ljubljana in 2008. Sašo works internationally as a voice teacher and performer, notably in France, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Switzerland, Slovenia, and Russia.
A guest teacher and resident of the Centre Artistique International Roy Hart in France and a member of teaching faculty at the Accademia dell’Arte in Italy since 2014, Sašo encourages his students - through music - to invent their own languages, working with presence, voice, and movement.
Sašo also collaborates with performance artist and Alexander Technique teacher Susanne Weins, leading workshops and creating theatre productions under the direction of by Sabine Seume.
In 2005 an encounter with theatre company Pantheater in Paris would form the genesis of Sašo’s insatiable exploration of new possibilities in voice work. Pursuing this path as an accompanist for singers, Sašo has worked with the opera of the Slovenian National Theatre in Maribor, teaching in several musical institutions, and performing in myriad musical formations.
Sašo played keyboard with Slovenian avant-garde music group Laibach from 2007 to 2013, when he moved to France to pursue creative collaboration with actor and singer Viviane Gay, further developing his presence on stage through voice, movement, and music.
It was his passion for voice work that led Sašo to the Centre Artistique International Roy Hart, where - as Musical Director of the performance Generation, working with founding members of the Roy Hart Theatre - Sašo gained a profound appreciation of the power of presence, fragility, expression, authenticity, and curiosity. These are the core tenets of his teaching today.
“Listening. This is where I feel at home and where my personal research and work starts from. ‘How do I hear myself/others?’ or ‘How do I listen to myself/others?’: many different qualities change how we listen, and consequently affect the voice in the working process. I include the piano in my work, understanding this instrument as a second voice which can create not only the atmosphere and give the right pitch, but can touch the timbre of each voice and both can go together to the depth of the human soul.”
Sašo enjoys ongoing creative adventures such as "VOZK", an electro-acoustic project in collaboration with Izidor Leitinger and Luka Jamnik.
Other accomplishments include composition for theatre and cartoon scores, choral arrangements, marching orchestras, big bands, and studio recording with Laibach, Bratko Bibič, Silence, Funtango, and others.
He is musical director in the current production Zauber, directed by Ian Magilton and inspired by Mozart’s The Magic Flute.
Sašo speaks Slovenian, English, and French.