BIOGRAPHY

Barbara Mohorko, originally from Slovenia began her music journey at the age of 6 at the Music school Fran Korun Kozeljski in her hometown Velenje. Her love to the instrument and music grew quickly and in 2009 she decided to continue her studies. She became a student of Sanja Repse who prepared her for various competitions (Ars Nova Trieste, Concours Flame Paris, Svirel Competiton), masterclasses with some of the great cellists and professors (Igor Gavris, Nicholas Jones, Enrico Bronzi) and concert tours across Portugal, France and Slovenia.

In 2012 Barbara successfully passed the auditions at various music academies and colleges in Austria and the UK and decided to continue her music education at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in the class of Natalia Pavlutskaya. Under her mentorship Barbara successfully participated in various competitions  and played at well-known venues like Royal Festival Hall, Cadoghan Hall, Wigmore Hall and Tate Modern. 

Barbara is participating frequently in different concerts at home and across Europe as a member of different orchestras, chamber groups and as a soloist. In January 2017 she was appointed as principal cellist at ERSO, Ernest Read Symphony Orchestra with which she regularly performs and works towards encouraging and teaching young players of benefits that orchestral playing brings to the overall improvement. As well as her classical music performances Barbara collaborates regularly with different living composers of modern, pop and film music.

Through completion of her masters degree at Royal College of London she specialised in Performance Education, with the main purpose of joining the academic research with classroom practice. Her special interest lies in the area of neuroplasticity and positive psychology training. Since 2015 she has been designing teaching programmes which incorporate resilience training, cognitive training and positive attitude towards problem solving. Her belief that music education can be highly benefitial in everyday life motivates the creation of the instrumental lessons where enjoyment is joined with overall development. 

She is a strong believer that a high level of playing is achieved by hard work and determination and that everyone has the possibility to improve, which shows in her work with her students, who are getting top marks and attend competitions on a regular basis. 

Barbara's studies were generously supported by various scholarships and grants (The Music Students Hostel Trust Fund, Trinity Laban Hardship Fund, City Municipality of Velenje scholarship, Zois Scholarship). She is playing on the old English cello by Jubb made in 1927, which purchase was generously supported by Wolfson Foundation in 2015.