Jan Čibej and Luka Poljanec, two young students of percussion, established DENDROCOPOS DUO in April 2017.

Both talented musicians are studying percussion under the mentorship of Prof. Alexej Gerassimez, in High school for Music and theatre in Munich (HMT), Luka as regular student and Jan in ERASMUS+ exchange program.

Following up on Prof. Simon Klavžar’s words of encouragement during study on the Ljubljana music academy, they started to work together for the International Percussion Competition in Luxembourg  for Percussion Duos (IPCL 2018), which took place in February 2018.

Their success at the competition was remarkable. They have become the Percussion Duo Laureates by winning the 1^st Prize and the special “JEAN GIERES” audience prize.

In March 2018, they participated in Svirél International Music Competition and they won the golden award in the category of chamber groups. As winners of category chamber percussion they performed at the final concert “Ten of the best” as well.

They both started playing percussion at an early age and since then they have achieved a lot of success as soloists in many competitions. During their studies, they actively participated in the summer academies, such as Nebojša Jovan Živković Summer Academy (ZISAMP), International Katarzyna Myćka Marimba Academy (IKMMA) in Hannover, KALIMA and Amsterdam marimba Weekend. They have also attended many masterclasses where they worked with the world renown percussionists Katarzyna Myćka, Svet Stoyanov, Keiko Abe, Nebojša Jovan Živković, Nicolas Sutter, Jacques Hostettler, Ludwig Albert, Beverley Johnston, Andreas Boettger, Conrado Moya, Rainer Römer, Matthew Coley, Wolfram Winkel, Andrea Centazzo.

They perform regularly ever since the IPCL competition. Among other concerts they performed in October 2018 in Pleven Bulgaria at the “Katya Popova laureate days” festival. In December they gave concert in the Radford university in Virginia USA. In January 2019 they gave four concerts under the auspices of Glasbena mladina Slovenije in Braslovče, Slovenian Philharmonie in Ljubljana, in Celje and in Murska Sobota. Beside the concerts they gave also recitals in Ljubljana under the auspices of “Glasbena mladina Ljubljanska” in cycle “Mladi mladim”, “Ljubljana Festival” in cycle “Mladi virtuozi”. In December they performed together with Drumartica percussion duo in Luxemburg Philharmonie, celebrating 30^th anniversary of the IPCL competition.

In December 2019 they have been awarded with “Prešernova award” given to outstanding students of Academy of music in Ljubljana.

Jan and Luka wish to continue their exceptional work. Their aim is to have as many concerts and appearances worldwide as possible in order to expand their knowledge and share experiences with the best world percussionists.