Branimir Slokar

The trombone has found a most eloquent spokesman in Branimir Slokar. His strong personality expresses itself with rare elegance, thanks to his sensitive musicality and accomplished virtuosity.

Brani, as he is known to his many friends, was born on 7th June 1946 in Maribor, in Yugoslavia, close to the Austrian border. For the Slokar family, as for others, the post-war years were hard. Perhaps that is where Branimir acquired the grim determination that was to push him to make a success of his life!

As he reached the end of compulsory schooling, he was preparing to study psychology. He still had little contact with music. For the muses to catch his attention fate had to take a hand — in the guise of his brother-in-law Alfonz, solo oboe at the Radio Zagreb Orchestra, to be precise. When the family met for Christmas (1961), they discussed the serious problem posed by the duration and cost of Brani’s studies. Alfonz advised Brani to learn the trombone so as to have a second source of income. A few weeks later he sent a postcard (which has since become a mascot!) on which was written,

You’re blowing like mad and nothing’s happening!

On the 3rd floor of the block of flats where the Slokars lived there was a bassoon teacher who also taught trombone at the Maribor school of music. Naturally they turned to him to start things off but he was categorical: “Bassoon or nothing!”. Brani, who had ideas about Dixieland, used his summer holidays to find a solution. He got hold of an old second-hand Czech trombone cheaply. A bandsman taught him the rudiments and his brother-in-law gave him some further advice.

The start

A few months later the bassoon teacher heard him playing and invited him to the Maribor music school. By the age of eighteen Brani was playing at local dances. Soon he was into orchestral playing, playing 3rd trombone in the Radio Ljubljana Orchestra. Eventually he gave all this up to study psychology in Zagreb, where he was to stay for two semesters.

Dragisa Miskovic, his trombone teacher at the Ljubljana Academy of Music, persuaded him to study seriously. Brani did so, intensively, for three years. Endurance, technique and musicality developed rapidly. Finally he gave up everything else to devote all his time to this instrument which he liked more and more. He won 1st prize at a national competition and obtained his diploma at Ljubljana. The Yugoslav government gave him a grant to continue his studies in Paris.