Two qualities are immediately evident in the music of Urška Pompe: introspection and communicativeness. The dynamic evoked in the high register of the mind by collisions of aliquot fields is a kind of search for equilibrium in the subtle play of colored shadows; there is nothing barbaric, nothing sensational, nothing intellectually speculative in this music – the vibrations tap on the membrane of the listener’s intuition and establish contact in a place where one would perhaps not even expect. (Gregor Pirš, Slovenian Radio)

Urška Pompe (born 6 September 1969 in Jesenice) completed her studies of composition with Dane Škerl at the Ljubljana Academy of Music in 1993. She commenced further studies the same year at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, where she studied composition (Emil Petrovics, 1993 - 1995), chamber music (Márta Gulyás) and solfeggio (Erzsébet Hegyi, 1995–1997). She went on to conclude her formal studies of composition at the Basel Academy of Music with Roland Moser (1995–1997), after which she attended an array of masterclasses: Royaumont (J. Dillon, B. Ferneyhough), Acanthes (G. Kurtag, I. Fedele, H. Lachenmann), The Bartok Festival in Szombathely (J. Harvey, piano: Pierre-Laurent Aimard), The Kodály Institute in Kecskemet, The Salzburg Mozarteum (Sofija Gubaidulina), Luxembourg (K. Huber, T. Jennefelt, B. Holten).

The creative efforts of Urška Pompe have not gone unnoticed, as is testified to by the Student Prešeren Prize (1993), the prize of the international competition Alpe-Adria Giovanni (1994), selection in the international call for the project Young Composers in Leipzig (1995), selection for ISCM Zagreb 2006, and the Prešeren Fund Prize (2007). The depth of her work is also testified to by a series of scholarships abroad, as well as by positive responses to her work and invitations to various festivals of contemporary music outside Slovenia, which increase from year to year: Mouvement – Musik im 21. Jahrhundert (Saarbrücken, 2004), Musik unserer Zeit (Münster, 2004), Rostrum (Paris, 2004), Freiburger Klang-Sequenzen (Freiburg, 2005, 2009), Chamber Music Festival (Gödölo, 2005), EXPAN (Spittal an der Drau, 2006), Carinthische Sommer (Ossiah, 2007), the Zagreb Music Biennale (2009), Taipei (2009), Dimension Festival (Seoul, 2010) and Rostrum (Lisbon, 2010).

Since 2000 she has held the position of senior lecturer in music theory at the Ljubljana Academy of Music.

“Each composition has its own purpose, or is evoked by an event, a sound, that surrounds me, by silence, relationships, nature; each has the purpose of solving a basic compositional idea as economically as possible, solving a technical problem, a technical challenge, while taking into account the personality of the performer (his or her musicality, technical ability, character), it is a curiosity about discovering colours. The sonic material is made up of notes that communicate with one another through well considered paths, sometimes more and sometimes less determined, sometimes captured in a narrow framework, sometimes trying to break free on all sides.”