Jože Kotar (1970, Trbovlje) is a full professor at the Academy of Music, University of Ljubljana and, since 2007, principal clarinetist of the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra. Prior to that, he served for twelve years as principal clarinetist of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra. After completing elementary music school with the distinguished pedagogue Ervin Plevnik, he continued his studies at the Secondary Music School in Ljubljana with Prof. Alojz Zupan, with whom he also completed both his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana.

As a soloist, chamber musician, and member of various chamber ensembles, he performs in Slovenia and abroad (Italy, Hungary, Austria, Germany, France, the Czech Republic, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Spain, Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Israel, Malta, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, North Macedonia, the USA, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, South Korea, Australia). He gives clarinet and chamber music masterclasses (Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Hungary, Belgium, Israel, Ireland, the USA, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Australia) and serves on juries of international competitions.

He has performed at numerous festivals, including the Ljubljana Summer Festival, Kogoj Days, the Radenci Festival of Contemporary Music, the Bled Festival, Unicum, Musica Danubiana, Festine, Predihano, the Slowind Festival, Concert Studio DSS, Valvasor Days, Open Music Meetings, World Music Days, the Music Biennale Zagreb, the International Music Tribune in Pula, Baščaršija Nights, NOMUS, Skopje Summer, Nei Suoni dei Luoghi, Mitte Europa, Dublin Sunday at Noon, Musica no Forum (Rio de Janeiro), the Seoul Festival, Two Days and Two Nights (Odesa), Săptămâna Internațională a Muzicii Noi (Bucharest), Summartónar (Faroe Islands), Tasmanian Composers Festival, Semanas Musicales Frutillar (Chile), and the Victoria International Arts Festival (Malta), among others.

He has performed as a soloist and recorded with various orchestras under the baton of conductors such as Marko Letonja, Uroš Lajovic, Marko Munih, Anton Kolar, Milivoj Šurbek, Simon Krečič, En Shao, George Pehlivanian, Roger Boutry, Tetsuji Honna, David Itkin, Pavel Dešpalj, Ivo Lipanović, Tomislav Fačini, and others.

As a member of the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra and the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, he has performed with many world-renowned conductors, including Carlos Kleiber, Riccardo Muti, Serge Baudo, Yuri Simonov, Hartmut Haenchen, Milan Horvat, Pavel Kogan, Zoltán Kocsis, Leopold Hager, En Shao, and Cristian Mandeal. During this period, he performed most of the standard symphonic repertoire. Since 2018, among others, he has performed and recorded works such as Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 2 and Symphony No. 4; Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Symphony No. 1; Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 101; Richard Strauss: Aus Italien and Der Rosenkavalier; Richard Wagner: Overtures to Tannhäuser and Lohengrin; Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphonies No. 5 and No. 7; Ottorino Respighi: The Birds; Maurice Ravel: Ma mère l’Oye; and Paul Hindemith: Mathis der Maler.

He has recorded numerous CDs: Solo Solo with the String Quartet of the Slovenian Philharmonic (ZKP RTV Slovenia, 1998); Kolaž with harpist Nicoletta Sanzin Fabbri (ZKP RTV Slovenia, 2002); Solo featuring works exclusively for solo clarinet (Sound-tech, 2005); recordings with the Slovenian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra (2006) and the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra (ZKP, 2015); and three albums with pianist Luca Ferrini: Kristali (DSS, 2017), Glazba s otoka Vol. 1 (TUTL, 2017), Vol. 2 (TUTL, 2018), and Vol. 3 (TUTL, 2021). Other chamber recordings include three albums with the Ariart Wind Quintet (Ariart, 1997; Cocktail, 2004; Episodi Concertante, 2005), Klarinetovanje (2003) and Prostranost (DSS, 2016), a recording with the Slovenian Clarinet Quartet (Ljubljana, 1999), Obitelj with the Slovenian Clarinet Sextet, and three recordings with the Contemporary Music Ensemble MD7, including Glazba novog vremena (ZKP RTV Slovenia, 2005).