Biography

Ula Mlakar, currently based in France, was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She began to play the harp at the age of six and has since then taken part in numerous competitions and played many concerts. She gave her debut recital at the age of 13; four years after she was awarded Škrjančeva nagrada (Škrjanec’s prize for special achievements) given by National Conservatory of Ljubljana. Among others, she as well received 3rd Prize on International competition of young musicians “Petar Konjević” (Serbia, 2013), 2nd prize on Concours Français de la Harpe (France, 2015) and Golden award on 44th Competition for Young Musicians of Republic (Slovenia, 2015).

She is regularly invited to play in orchestras such as deFilharmonie – Antwerp Symphony Orchestra (Belgium), National Orchestra of Lille (France), Slovenian National Radio Orchestra and National Theater Opera and Ballet (Slovenia). In 2017 she won an audition for a place in Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra (Switzerland). She played under the batons of Matthias Pintscher, Heinz Holliger, Uroš Lajovic, Alexandre Bloch and others.

Ula began to learn harp at the primary level of Conservatory for music and ballet Ljubljana under Professor Bronislava Prinčič and in 2007 continued her education at Music High School of Conservatory for music and ballet Ljubljana under Professor Mojca Zlobko Vajgl. In year 2011 she was accepted on Academy of Music in Ljubljana in the class of Ruda Ravnik Kosi. Last year of her Bachelor studies she spent with Jana Bouškova at Academy of Performing Arts in Prague as an Erasmus student. She continued studying under her mentorship on Royal Conservatorium in Brussels. Last year of her master studies she perfected herself in the class of Fabrice Pierre at the CNSMDL (Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Lyon). She graduated magna cum laude in 2017 and was congratulated by the jury for her master thesis about stage fright.