vocalist, performer and pedagogue
Tea Vidmar is self-employed in culture as a performer, pedagogue and singer. She works in the fields of street, musical and puppet theatre, music (mainly contemporary improvised and experimental music and folk music) and vocal performances, but also creates music for storytelling, puppet and dance theatre and lends her voice to some animation. She collaborates with many renowned artists and performs on the stages of both the independent scene and national institutions – in Slovenia and abroad.
As one of the most established Slovenian vocal performers, Tea travels from theatre to music, between puppets and animation, on the streets and stages, animals and people, and in establishing a dialogue with all of these, she also tries to surprise herself, to exist in a given moment. Her presence, playfulness and authenticity make her much more exciting to experience live. In her musical creation, she relies on the sonority of the voice and its various forms. She is interested in the repetitiveness of voicing and how to transform the sound of her voice into associative, different sounds, yet free to interpret. She mostly uses only her organic voice and explores the limits of its capabilities. Her experience of improvisation in street theatre, enriched with inspiration from the environment, is transferred to the field of musical improvisation, which is why she also relies on the surroundings and the sounds that surround her in her musical creation. These sounds become inspirational material with which she creates a new soundscape. During her solo performances, she occasionally uses a concertina, bags, waste materials, small sound instruments, and toys, all of which serve as a basis for her ongoing creations.
“As an improvising vocalist, she is known for her broad mastery of various vocal techniques, from classical solo singing, blues reminiscences, Inuit snoring and wheezing, throat singing and more. This “more” is the ability to seamlessly, “naturally” transition from one sound world to another and beyond. We never know when, from the familiar, the placeable, we will find ourselves in a unique universe for which we have no clue. It could be a bear or a mosquito or a hand clapping on it!” (Andrej Fon)
Discography
· Kačis – Nedognano / Unfathomed (self-published, 2021)
· The Balkan Experience of Song and Ritual – Initiation (KUD Center 21, 2020)
· Vidmar / Jenko / Furlan – Forbidden Arts (Klopotec, 2020)
· Žiga Stanič – Slovenska abeceda/ Slovenian alphabet (self-published, 2019)
Current Projects
· Solo: Tea Vidmar – voice, concertina, bags, toys
· Kačis: Ana Kravanja – voice; Samo Kutin – lute, brač, single-string bass, four-string harp, acoustic resonator, voice; Tea Vidmar – voice
· The Balkan Experience of Song and Ritual: Jelena Soro – oboe, voice; Brigita Marko – tambourine, voice; Dejan Jovanov – percussion
Past projects
· Skarabej (2016): Boris Magdalenc – hang; Matija Krečič – violin / Luka Ropret – guitar; Tea Vidmar – voice
· Positive illusion – AAI (2014-2016): Guillermo Escalante – guitar, stuffed horn, bells, flute; Vid Polončič Ruparčič – guitar, percussion; Peter Ciuha – stuffed keyboards; Tea Vidmar – voice; Sebastian Čopko Fraboulet – cello, mandolin
· Tekorovi (2010): Rok Kovač / Kantriman – guitar, electronics; Tea Vidmar – voice
Ad-hoc projects
So far, she has performed or collaborated with various musicians from Slovenia (Tomaž Grom, Irena Z. Tomažin, Ana Kravanja, Samo Kutin, Andrej Fon, Bratko Bibič, Eduardo Raon, Vid Drašler, Jošt Drašler, Sašo Vollmaier, Iztok Koren, Gal Furlan, Žiga Jenko, Samo Šalamon, Ina Puntar, Vesna Godler, Tisa Neža Herlec, Nina Prešiček, Rok Zalokar, DJ Borka, Tilen Kravos, Zlatko Kaučič, Tao G. Vrhovec Sambolec, Boris Janje, Alja Petric, Andrej Kobal, Jure Boršič, Urban Kušar, Matija Krivec, Nino Mureškič, Zvezdana Novaković, Žiga Ipavec, Brane Zorman, etc.)
from abroad (Yutaka Ban (JPN), Tristan Honsinger (USA), David Rothenberg (USA), Harri Sjöström (FIN), Annette Giesriegl (AUT), Josef Klammer (AUT), Denovaire (AUT), Franz Shmuck (AUT), Irina Karamarković (AUT), Oskar Mörth (AUT), Marko Arich (AUT), Maria Gstättner (AUT), Aernoudt Jacobs (BEL), Apeiron – Zagreb collective for free improvised music, Henry Marić (CRO), Dóra Attila (HUN), Casey Louise Moir (AUS/SWE), Emily Stewart (GBR/AUT) etc.)
and from the animal world (great tits (Parus major), blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus), blackbirds (Turdus merula), nuthatches (Sitta europaea), blackbirds (Sylvia atricapilla), sparrows (Passer domesticus), chaffinchs (Fringilla coelebs), crows (Corvus corone), cuckoos (Cuculidae), cows and their bells, mountain frog (Bombina variegata), thick-headed frogs (Rana (Pelophylax) ridibunda) etc.)
Performing arts – author’s projects
· Jumpers (2024)
· Theatre Choir: Happy to work (2023)
· Mrs. Vidmar (2021)
· Alphabet Day (2020)
· Theatre Choir: OOPS! (2019)
· Vindauga: Beseglase (2017)
· Baabure: Lasugrlu (2016)
· What rests in your mind? (2012)
Performing arts – collaborations (as a composer or/and vocal and/or theatre performer)
Whale’s belly button (2025), Big pot, small mouse (2024), Little circle and circle (2024), Cover yourself, table! or Tales from Veneto (2024), #Streamwalkers (2024), Sex Education II. (2022/2023), Nataša Živković – De mortuis nihil nisi bonum (2023), Mama’s Dragon (2022), Circus Korona (2021), Bajkomat (2020), Three Hundred Brothers (2020), Black Box (2019), Nepridipav (2019), Medusa (2017), Ličkarji (2016), Beatiful Vida (2015), Telling Lebanese Stories (2015), Alone Among the crowd (2014), Parodos (2013), Mother Courage (2013), Ljubljana Stories (2013), AllaTea – Memories and Memories of Summer (2013), Sleepwalk (2012), Agency for the Liberation of the Spirit (2012), Three Heavyweights – Captivity and Potion (2011/2012), Trio Milena (2011), Trio Moljke (2011), A Ghost Among People (2010), Kansky Circus – The Tale of Zlatorog (2010), On the way home, stop by the river (2009).
Pedagogical experience
She is the pedagogical leader of ŠUGLA (School for Contemporary Performative Street Art), which operates within the Ana Monro Theatre. There she leads the Presence of Voice module.
Since 2013, she has led voice training and voice theatricality workshops for various groups. She also works as a voice consultant for (street) theatre productions.
In 2025, she led voice training for dancers of the En-knap dance group and a cast of actors from City theatre Ljubljana (MGL).
In 2021, she spoke about her method of teaching voice and performance development at the international conference SAWA#5: Contemporary Performative Street Arts: Development of a Teaching Method.
Awards
· Inclusion in the competition program of the 13th Biennial of Puppet Artists of Slovenia – Big Pot, Little Mouse (2025)
· Borštnik Award of the 59th Borštnik’s Meeting Festival of the jury’s assessment for the entire creative cast – Sexual Education II. (2024)
· DGKTS (Association of Theatre Critics and Theatrologists of Slovenia ) Award for the best performance in the previous season – Sex Education II. (2024)
· Award for the best performance chosen by the audience at the 54th Slovenian Drama Week – Sex Education II. (2024)
· Special award of the 54th Slovenian Drama Week by the jury for an innovative performative approach to a sensitive topic – Sex Education II. (2024)
· International URBana LJUBLJana Award 2020 for the best street theatre performance chosen by the expert committee – Theatre Choir: OOPS! (2020)
We Point Out
Kačis
Tea Vidmar – voice
Ana Kravanja – voice
Samo Kutin – voice, single-string bass, lute, double bass, acoustic resonators, percussion
Kačis is an acoustic minimalism of unique recurring landscapes, where voices multiply, separate and merge into one, but not the only river that takes you into the infinity of wire prairies. Tea Vidmar, Ana Kravanja and Samo Kutin have been dedicating themselves to musical improvisation and acoustic experimental music for over a decade and are active in various groups, from Širom to The Balkan Experience of Song and Ritual. After several meetings at improvisational music gatherings, Ana and Tea began to explore their voices and found a passion in a cappella singing in a duet, using various vocal techniques and repetitive patterns. Some of these patterns carry the potential to create the phenomenon of a “third voice”. Samo joined them with a host of handmade and traditional instruments, and the Kačis trio was born. Their music captivates with a vast landscape of repeating voices and sounds, in which it is easy to lose track of time and space.
Their debut album Nedognano / Unfathomed was self-released in 2021.
(Vincent Moon, A take away show in Slovenia #1)
Reviews
“With their methods, Kačis simply breaks down barriers and offers their own story, a different film and concept. Their approach in this way is very serious, original, intriguing, somewhat mysterious, but also very convincing.” (Time Machine Music)
»The most original and outsider concert… it´s a mistical experience.« (Jakub Knera, The Quietus)
»Very quickly, I liked something in these shadowy Balkan atmospheres where voices and strings predominate. There is such a sense of honesty in this music that it would be pointless to want to assign it a stylistic category.« (Jazz Mania)
Link to Tea
(Tea’s first public performance of free improvised music)