ASTRUM Music Publications is sad to announce the death of composer


TROŠT Jože (1940 – 2023)


TROŠT Jože, Slovenian Roman Catholic priest, composer and choirmaster (May 12, 1940, Col (above Ajdovščina, Slovenia) - November 22, 2023).




Trošt attended a four-year elementary school in Col, Slovenia, then a junior high school in Vipava and a high school in Ajdovščina. Early in his childhood, he acquired the joy of music - the local priest introduced him to playing the harmonium, on which he practiced daily and with pleasure. He also participated in the student mixed choir at the high school and cultivated his love for music and singing there. After military service in Karlovac, Croatia, he decided to study theology in Ljubljana, where he led the theological men's choir. He was ordained a priest in 1966, and a year later Bishop Janez Jenko, who recognized his musical talent, suggested that he study church music in Rome, Italy (Pontificum Institutum Musicæ Sacraæ). When he returned from Rome in 1970, he immediately took up the position of director of the cathedral choir, i.e. regens chori in the Ljubljana Cathedral, and in addition to his priestly work, he also studied conducting and composition at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana between 1973 and 1977. He was a professor of church music at the Faculty of Theology in Ljubljana.


His musical works are mostly of a sacred nature: masses, requiem, cantatas, oratorios; his secular music includes works for organ, choirs and many arrangements of folk songs.


Jože Trošt is very responsible for the revival and restoration of the Organ School in Ljubljana, he took over its reins in 1971 and led the school for 41 years, until 2012. Between 1976 and 2001, he was the editor-in-chief of the magazine Cerkveni glasbenik and contributed many professional articles to the magazine . He was also the conductor of the men's octet "Zvon" and the chamber choir "Anton Foerster".


In 1992, he contributed the organ composition "Fanfara za Tržič" (1993: AS 8.002/92) to the ASTRUM publishing house - with this composition, the ASTRUM publishing house began its publishing journey in November 1993. In connection with the later editor of the label, he wrote several other compositions, the orchestral (and organ version) composition "Intrada" (1986), folk arrangements for mixed choir and piano "Tržiški venček", arrangements for mixed choir "Čeprav Tržič je luknja taka" and "V Tržiču je tako", a Christmas carol "Glej, zvezde na nebu / Look, stars in the sky" for solo, mixed choir and orchestra (also version with organ) and cantata for the 500th anniversary of Tržič city rights for men's quartet, mixed choir and brass quartet.


In 2022, the President of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, awarded him with the Order of Merit for his life's work and the mark he left on Slovenian choral music.