Anton Nanut — Slovenian conductor and educator

Career and positions

Nanut served as chief conductor of the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra from 1981 until 1999. During that period he strengthened the orchestra’s profile through broadcast performances, studio recordings, and tours. As a guest conductor he led ensembles across Europe and beyond, building a broad discography that reflects both mainstream repertoire and works by regional composers.

Teaching and influence

Alongside his conducting work, Nanut held a professorship in conducting at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana, part of the University of Ljubljana. In this role he trained young conductors, offering practical instruction in score preparation, rehearsal technique, and orchestral leadership. His students have continued to contribute to musical life in Slovenia and internationally.

Repertoire, collaborations, and recordings

Nanut’s repertoire spanned symphonic, operatic and contemporary works, and he is remembered for balancing canonical Western European pieces with music from the former Yugoslav region. He collaborated with soloists such as clarinetist Milenko Stefanovic and worked with numerous labels to preserve performances in studio and live recordings. These recordings helped introduce Slovenian orchestral performance to a wider audience and document interpretive approaches from his era.

Style and legacy

Colleagues and critics often described Nanut’s conducting as clear, attentive to the score, and communicative in rehearsal. His long tenure with a national broadcasting orchestra made him a central figure in Slovenia’s postwar cultural development, and his dual career as performer and educator amplified his impact. As a teacher and as a conductor, he helped shape the postwar generation of Slovenian musical professionals.

Final years

Anton Nanut died on 13 January 2017 in Šempeter pri Gorici after a long illness at the age of 84. His passing was noted across the musical community, and retrospectives of his recordings and broadcasts have preserved his contribution to classical music in Slovenia and beyond.