glasbila






















 
 
 

Mira Omerzel-Mirit, Ph.D. (b. 1956) graduated in ethnology and got a Ph.D. in musicology. Along with ethno-musicological fieldwork and the research into the historical development of Slovene folk instruments and sound-producing implements, she has also undertaken a research into the sound qualities of the instruments and the archival reconstruction of our musical tradition. Artistic interpretations of the ensembles are based on her ethno-musicological fieldwork and archival research work. Since 1982, when she resigned her classical guitar teaching, she has been working as a travelling teacher, and a free-lance artist and researcher. Her scholarly ethno-musicological papers (about pre-classical folk instruments, particularly about the dulcimer, cimbalom, zithers, pan-pipes, hurdy-gurdy, pre-historical sound-producing implements and instruments made of bone and stone, about the philosophy of the original sound, the sound identity of Slovene regions, and the beginning of Slovene and world musical history), her ethnological books (e.g. Konji naše pravljice – Horses of Our Tale), her lectures, seminars, workshops, together with the ensemble's performances of musical tradition according to a unique concert practice of its revitalization accompanied by her own and her co-performers' expert explanations, contribute to the ethno-musicological knowledge of Slovene and world cultural heritage and identity. In addition to investigating folk instruments and vocal techniques of folk singing in the past centuries, Omerzel also focuses her attention on the research into and the collecting of instruments of the ancient world and the Middle Ages, and instruments of various peoples of the world. More than a quarter of a century, she, together with Matija Terlep who was a member of the ensemble for gross two decades (until 2000) as a singer and an instrument player (skilled in playing various pipes/flutes), collected folk instruments from all over the world (which resulted in more than 200 items), and presented them at concerts. Her doctoral thesis on “pre-classical” folk instruments on the Slovene ethnic territory from the Paleolitic until the present is a result of her more than a quarter-of-a-century-long ethno-musicological fieldwork and research into the archives of folk instruments of the world.

Her recentmost activities are focused on the research into the influence of sound and musical tradition on human beings and their consciousness (workshops Transcendence of Consciousness and Sound), and on the research into the forming capacities of sound (why is this so and so in the musical tradition of the world?), voice and instruments. Since 2000, Omerzel-Mirit has managed a school of spiritual realization and spiritual self-healing with sound (physical, inner and transcendental sound) – Veduna.

Organized within the scope of this school are courses, workshops, lectures, etc., and with them a circle is rounded off and the connection of spiritual wisdoms of the world – of the sound world as well.


 

 
Mira Omerzel-Mirit, Ph.D.
(photo: Studio Potrč)