Favourite European Composers (Non UK/IT/FR/DE/AT/SP/GR)
No ranking, just sorted First Name / Family Name.
Personal favourites are Emir Kustirica, Maurice Jarre, Walter Baumgartner and Wojciech Kilar.
Thanks for checking, enjoy.
Personal favourites are Emir Kustirica, Maurice Jarre, Walter Baumgartner and Wojciech Kilar.
Thanks for checking, enjoy.
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Andrzej Markowski was born on 22 August 1924 in Lublin, Lubelskie, Poland. He was a composer, known for Wild at Heart (1990), First Spaceship on Venus (1960) and The Hours of Hope (1955). He died on 30 October 1986 in Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland.- Composer
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Arsen Dedic was born on 28 July 1938 in Sibenik, Croatia, Yugoslavia. He was a composer and actor, known for Last Waltz in Sarajevo (1990), Crni sneg (1966) and The Way to Paradise (1970). He was married to Gabi Novak. He died on 17 August 2015 in Zagreb, Croatia.- Composer
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Arthur Honegger was born on 10 March 1892 in Le Havre, Seine-Inférieure [now Seine-Maritime], France. He was a composer and writer, known for Street of Shadows (1937), The Kidnapping (1934) and Joan of Arc at the Stake (1954). He was married to Andrée Vaurabourg. He died on 27 November 1955 in Paris, France.- Composer
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Attila Zoller was born on 13 June 1927 in Visegrad, Hungary. He was a composer, known for The Bread of Those Early Years (1962), Tamara (1968) and The Naked Wytche (1970). He died on 25 January 1998 in Townshend, Vermont, USA.- Composer
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Bent Fabricius-Bjerre was born on 7 December 1924 in Frederiksberg, Denmark. He was a composer and producer, known for Flickering Lights (2000), While We Live (2017) and Slingrevalsen (1981). He was married to Camilla Padilla Arndt, Anne Fabricius-Bjerre and Harriet Frederikke Dessau. He died on 28 July 2020 in Denmark.- Composer
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Bo Nilsson was born on 1 May 1937 in Skellefteå, Västerbottens län, Sweden. He was a composer and director, known for To Love (1964), Träfracken (1966) and Här börjar äventyret (1965). He died on 25 June 2018 in Stockholm, Sweden.- Composer
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Slovenian composer, musician, conductor. Adamic was in Ribnica in the Duchy of Carniola in Slovenia on August 9, 1912. He attended Poljane Grammar School, attended the National Piano Conservatory at 13, and received his degree in piano from Ljubljana Music Academy in 1941, having already completed courses in organ, trumpet, and composition. Somehow he managed to graduate from a course in law at the same time. He played accordion and saxophone in a jazz band up until the opening of the Second World War. During the war, he served with the Slovenian partisans and was wounded in a German attack. Following the war, he maintained a frantic and widespread career, conducting the RTV Slovenia Big Band, scoring hundreds of films and stage plays, and creating music for the Slovenian song festival. He also wrote many pop songs, chamber pieces, children's songs, operas, and music for radio plays. He carried on just as busy a performing career, playing concerts as pianist for a variety of orchestras around Europe and North America. He was given scores of awards and honors in his native country and throughout Europe, and he served as head of numerous musical organizations including the Slovenian Composers Association. One major event colored his personal life badly. On August 31, 1950, he shot Zdravko Rus, a friend of Adamic's underage mistress Breda Kruh, in the back. That same year, he was tried for the killing and sentenced to a suspended sentence of one year in prison for manslaughter. His career did not seem to suffer, and his work continued without respite for much of the rest of his life. He received the coveted Preseren Award, Slovenia's highest cultural honor, in 1979, for his body of work. He was also a noted photographer and was the subject of several major exhibitions. He retired from RTV Ljubljana, where he was director of music production and head of the music department, in 1981. He died November 3, 1995, in Ljubljana, survived by his wife Barbara and their daughter Alenka. Since 1999, The Association of Slovenian Bands has awarded annually the Bojan Adamic Award. A memorial plaque was dedicated to his memory in 2000, at his birthplace in Ribnica.- Music Department
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Born: February 5, 1902 in Warsaw, Poland Died: April 25, 1983 in Los Angeles, California, USA Kaper displayed musical talent as early as the age of seven when his family acquired a piano. His inclination to music led him to study both piano and composition, while also taking courses in law to satisfy his father. At twenty-one he graduated from The Chopin Music School. To continue his musical education he went to Berlin. In order to support himself during this period he began writing songs for a cabaret. Later he worked as an arranger and a composer for both stage and film productions. In 1933, as the Nazis rose to power in Germany, Kaper moved to Paris and worked in the French film industry. This phase of his career lasted only two years, for in 1935 MGM executive Louis B. Mayer was on vacation in Europe and happened to hear one of Kaper's songs. Mayer offered the composer a contract, and Kaper soon found himself working in Hollywood. One of his first efforts for MGM was the title tune for the film San Francisco (1936), a song which was so appealing to the American public that it became a standard. During his early years at MGM, the studio kept Kaper busy as a songwriter. But the composer looked for opportunities to write complete background scores. In the forties he did provide music for dramatic films such as Gaslight (1944), Green Dolphin Street (1947) and Act of Violence (1949). This last film, a disturbing thriller directed by Fred Zinneman, shows how sophisticated and daring Kaper's music could be. Drawing on his knowledge of modern composition, he was surprisingly successful at incorporating dissonant, abstract sounds into his film scores considering the conservative tastes that prevailed in Hollywood. But it is important to note that the composer always depended on others to orchestrate his work. Kaper wrote his scores at the piano. Then he would give what he'd written to an orchestrator and they would discuss how to expand on the piano reduction. In the fifties Kaper was given more opportunities to show his range. He created edgy, modern scores for films like Them! (1954) and rich, romantic scores for films like The Brothers Karamazov (1958), while still turning out catchy melodies for musicals like Lili (1953). By the end of the decade, though, it was clear that the Hollywood studios were in decline and that the days of in-house music departments were over. When the ax fell at MGM, Kaper went on working as a freelance film composer. One of his last major film assignments was Lord Jim (1965), an adaptation of the Conrad novel. To complement the epic scope of the film, Kaper used not only a large symphony orchestra but also many instruments indigenous to the story's Asian setting. Like most Hollywood composers of the studio era, Kaper found himself working on fewer movies during the sixties. His last credit on a theatrical release was A Flea in Her Ear (1968). Though he was later hired to work on The Salzburg Connection (1972), his score was discarded. Kaper died at his home in Los Angeles in 1983. by Casey Maddren Bibliography The Film Music of Bronislaw Kaper, notes by Tony Thomas, Delos Records, 1975 Variety, obituary, May 4, 1983 Interview with Pete Rugolo conducted by the author, 1998- Bruno Spoerri was born on 16 August 1935 in Zürich, Switzerland. He is a composer, known for Fluchtgefahr (1974), Der Würger vom Tower (1966) and Tauwetter (1977).
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Casimir Oberfeld was born on 16 November 1903 in Lodz, Poland. He was a composer, known for Street of Shadows (1937), Rigolboche (1936) and Monsieur Hector (1940). He died on 24 January 1945 in Prelouc, Czech Republic.- Composer
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Carlos D'Alessio was born on 20 December 1935 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was a composer, known for Delicatessen (1991), India Song (1975) and Maîtresse (1976). He died on 14 June 1992 in Paris, France.- Composer
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Carlos Perón was born in Zurich, Switzerland. He is known for Olley: By the river (2014), Yello: Lost Again (1984) and The Black Spider (1983).- Composer
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Darko Kraljic was born in 1920 in Zagreb, Croatia. He was a composer and actor, known for Love and Fashion (1960), Murder Commited in a Sly and Cruel Manner and from Low Motives (1969) and Zvizduk u osam (1962). He died on 16 July 1998 in Belgrade, Serbia.- Composer
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Dov Seltzer was born on 26 January 1932 in Iasi, Romania. He is a composer and actor, known for Kazablan (1973), Mack the Knife (1989) and The Uranium Conspiracy (1978).- Composer
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Dusan Radic was born on 10 April 1929 in Sombor, Vojvodina, Serbia, Yugoslavia. He was a composer and actor, known for Siberian Lady Macbeth (1962), Hot Years (1966) and Ne diraj u srecu (1961). He died on 3 April 2010 in Belgrade, Serbia.- Director
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A Serbian film director. Born in 1954 in Sarajevo. Graduated in film directing at the prestigious Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) in Prague in 1978. During his studies, he was awarded several times for his short movies including Guernica (1978), which took first prize at the Student's Film Festival in Karlovy Vary. After graduation, he directed several TV movies in his hometown, Sarajevo. In collaboration with the screenwriter Abdulah Sidran in 1981, he made the successful feature debut Do You Remember Dolly Bell? (1981) which won the Silver Lion for best first feature at the Venice Film Festival. Their subsequent work, human political drama When Father Was Away on Business (1985) unanimously won top prize at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival as well as FIPRESCI prize and was nominated for the Best Foreign Language film Oscar. In 1989 he won the Best Director award at Cannes for Time of the Gypsies (1988), a film about the life of a gypsy family in Yugoslavia scripted by Gordan Mihic. His first English language movie, Arizona Dream (1993) starring Johnny Depp, Jerry Lewis and Faye Dunaway and scripted by his USA student, David Atkins was awarded the Silver Bear at the 1993 Berlin Film Festival. Underground (1995), a bitter surrealistic comedy about the Balkans, scripted by Dusan Kovacevic, won him a second Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1995.- Composer
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Fernando de Carvalho is known for Ver e Amar! (1930), Madragoa (1952) and Ladrão, Precisa-se!... (1946).- Composer
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Frédéric Devreese was born on 2 June 1929 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands. He was a composer and actor, known for The Chess Game (1994), Pauline & Paulette (2001) and The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short (1965). He was married to Annie de Clerck. He died on 28 September 2020 in Belgium.- Composer
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1941-43 he began his study of composition under Ferenc Farkas; 1945-49 he continued at the Budapest Music Academy under the same teacher and Sándor Veress. 1950-56 he was lecturer in Harmony and Counterpoint at the Academy at Budapest. Left Hungary toward the end of 1956. 1957-59 freelance work at the Studio for electronic music of the West German Radio (WDR) in Cologne. Since 1959, residence in Vienna, becoming an Austrian Citizen in 1967. In the 60s he was an annual lecturer at the Darmstadt Music Courses and also visiting professor at the Stockholm Music Academy. 1969-70 fellow of the German academic exchange organization in Berlin; 1972 Composer in residence at Stanford University, California. Since 1973 professor of Composition at the Hamburg Music Academy.- Composer
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Although he had already made a solo album using a pseudonym, Henny Vrienten started to become really popular when he entered the Dutch band Doe Maar. He and Ernst Jansz, looking younger than their actual 32 years, became teen idols. The popularity, resulting in fainting girls during sold-out mega-concerts, became too much for the band, and when publicity stopped and with diminishing number of concerts, the band members decided to split up in 1984. Vrienten now works more as a producer and a maker of film music. He still makes solo-albums, but keeps publicity down.- Composer
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Henrik Otto Donner was born on 16 November 1939 in Tampere, Finland. He was a composer and actor, known for Vihreä leski (1968), Räpsy & Dolly eli Pariisi odottaa (1990) and Windy Day (1962). He was married to Irina Martina Lillas and Christina Margaretha Schulman. He died on 26 June 2013 in Pietarsaari, Finland.- Actor
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Herman Brood was born on 5 November 1946 in Zwolle, Overijssel, Netherlands. He was an actor and composer, known for The American (2010), Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) and Cha-Cha (1979). He was married to Xandra Jansen. He died on 11 July 2001 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands.- Composer
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Isaak Shvarts was a prominent Soviet and Russian composer of Jewish descent. Born in Ukraine (Soviet Union), his family soon moved to Leningrad (present day St. Petersburg) in 1930. By the age of 12 young Isaac has already given his major concert performance at Leningrad Philharmonic Hall. In 1936, during Stalin repressions, his father was arrested (later executed in 1938) and the family was sent in exile to Frunze (present day Bishkek), Kyrgyzstan. He got married in 1943 and had a daughter Galina. He remained in exile until 1945 and upon his return to St. Petersburg began his studies at the city's Conservatory. Graduating in 1951, he began his life-long career of a composer for stage plays and motion pictures. He composed music for over 35 various plays for theaters of Leningrad and Moscow and for over 110 motion pictures, working with well-known directors. He was Akira Kurosawa's choice in composing music for award winning Dersu Uzala (1975). His other notable works on motion pictures include White Sun of the Desert (1970), One Hundred Days After Childhood (1975), Young Catherine (1991), Luna Park (1992), Muzhchina dlya molodoy zhenshchiny (1996). He received several international and local awards and nominations at various festivals and was an Acedemician of the National Academy of Cinematographic Arts, Russia.- Composer
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Composer Jerry van Rooyen was born on December 31, 1928 in The Hague, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands. Jerry took his first music lessons at age eight and immediately joined a brass band in his hometown as a trumpet player (the trumpet was his favorite instrument). van Rooyen studied for several years with the lead trumpet player of the Netherlands Symphonic Orchestra and further studied music at the Dutch conservatory in Den Haag, where he eventually graduated as a music teacher. In 1944 van Rooyen joined a Dutch revue show as first trumpet player. He toured Indonesia, America, and Scandinavia with such famous Dutch musicians as Ernst Van't Hoff, Boyd Bachman, Bengt Hallberg, Ake Persson, and Lars Gullin. In 1955 Jerry signed on as first trumpet player and arranger for the Dutch radio orchestra The Ramblers and performed with his own jazz combo in numerous Amsterdam nightclubs. van Rooyen went to Paris, France in 1959, where he was a conductor and arranger for Fantana-Records and worked with such artists as Michele Legrand, Claude Bolling, and Gilbert Becaud.
In 1965 Jerry moved to Berlin, Germany and became the arranger for the S.F.B. Dance Orchestra. van Rooyen composed the wonderfully groovy and offbeat experimental jazz scores for the Jess Franco pictures "Succubus," "Red Lips," and "Kiss Me, Monster." Moreover, he also supplied the funky music for the films "The Vampire Happening," "Castle of the Creeping Flesh," "Death on a Rainy Day," and "How Short is the Time for Love." His marvelously hip composition "The Great Train Robbery" was used as the opening credits theme for the hilarious cult indie comedy "Free Enterprise." Jerry did the opening theme of the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972. He then returned to the Netherlands, where he worked as both a producer and program director for the AVRO radio station as well as continued producing and arranging for various jazz orchestras all over the world. In 1985 van Rooyen became the director of the WDR radio big band and toured all over Asia. He resided in both the small village of Laren and Cologne, where he lived in an apartment in Europe's biggest skyscraper. His hobbies included yoga and adding to his enormous collection of CDs and EPs. He's the brother of renowned trumpet player Aik van Rooyen. Jerry died at age 80 on September 14, 2009.- Composer
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Joseph Kosma was born in Budapest. He took an interest in music at a very young age, writing an opera called "Noel dans les Tranchées" as a teenager. One of his greatest loves in Budapest was the music of Bela Bartok. Finding the political atmosphere to be more and more oppressive in Budapest, Kosma moved to Berlin where he joined Bertolt Brecht's traveling theater troupe (Kosma was a friend of a friend of Brecht's wife). Once fascism was clearly on the rise in Berlin, Kosma headed for Paris, without knowing a word of French.
In Paris, Kosma eventually met Jacques Prévert. The pair went on to create around 80 songs, with Kosma setting Prévert's poems to music (and in a few instances, the other way around). Prévert introduced Kosma to Renoir (Prévert had written The Crime of Monsieur Lange (1936)), and one of Kosma's songs ended up in the film. Next, Kosma wrote the score for _Une partie de campagne (1936)_), which was not released until after the Second World War.
Kosma then met Marcel Carné through Prévert. Kosma went on to work for Carné through the Occupation - while hiding in the South of France, because he was a Jew. While in hiding, Kosma ended up writing uncredited scores for Les Visiteurs du Soir (1942)) and Children of Paradise (1945))- though Kosma actually ended up with his name in the credits for this latter film, because the fall of the Nazis was imminent as the film was nearing completion.
Kosma is perhaps most famous for his song "Les Feuilles Mortes" ("Autumn Leaves"), which has been covered by many jazz musicians in many different countries. The piece was originally written for an opera called "Le Rendez-vous", which Prévert and Kosma then convinced Carné to turn into a film. The film changed its name to Gates of the Night (1946), after a Prévert lyric from another song, to avoid confusion with another film that had recently been released. The film was the most costly film to date in the French film industry (Les Enfants du Paradis had been before this), but failed at the box office, though critics praised the music.
In the postwar years, Kosma wrote numerous notable scores, particularly the score for the haunting and disturbing film, Blood of the Beasts (1949). Kosma continued to work on film scores until his death, though in his last years he focused on his first love, music for theater, composing the operas "Les Hussards" and "Les Canuts". The Kosma/Carné/Prévert team gradually drifted apart, and Kosma remarks in his journals that his two old friends did not come to one of his opera premieres. Kosma continued to work for Renoir until the very end, however, composing the music for later works.- Composer
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Kai Normann Andersen was born on 11 April 1900 in Denmark. He was a composer, known for Nyhavn 17 (1933), Naar bønder elsker (1942) and 7-9-13 (1934). He died on 24 June 1967 in Denmark.- Composer
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Karel Svoboda was born on 19 December 1938 in Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]. He was a composer and actor, known for Three Wishes for Cinderella (1973), Tomorrow I'll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea (1977) and How About a Plate of Spinach? (1977). He was married to Vendula Pizingerová and Hana Bohatová. He died on 28 January 2007 in Jevany, Czech Republic.- Composer
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Krzysztof Komeda was born on 27 April 1931 in Poznan, Wielkopolskie, Poland. He was a composer and actor, known for Rosemary's Baby (1968), The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) and Knife in the Water (1962). He was married to Zofia von Tittenbrun. He died on 23 April 1969 in Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland.- Composer
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Ladislav Staidl was born on 10 March 1945 in Stribrna Skalice, Protektorát Cechy a Morava [now Czech Republic]. He was a composer and actor, known for Romance za korunu (1975), Requiem for a Maiden (1992) and 30 panen a Pythagoras (1977). He was married to Ána Staidlová. He died on 31 January 2021 in Prague, Czech Republic.- Composer
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Lars Färnlöf was born on 22 July 1942 in Alingsås, Sweden. He was a composer, known for Att angöra en brygga (1965), The Wedding (1973) and Kameleonterna (1969). He died on 13 February 1994 in Västerås, Sweden.- Composer
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Lubos Fiser was born on 30 September 1935 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. He was a composer, known for Král Ubu (1996), The Golet in the Valley (1995) and Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970). He died on 22 June 1999 in Prague, Czech Republic.- Composer
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Manuel Jorge Veloso was born on 21 May 1937 in Lisbon, Portugal. He was a composer, known for Pedro Só (1972), Uma Abelha na Chuva (1972) and Belarmino (1964). He died on 13 November 2019 in Lisbon, Portugal.- Composer
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Unlike many musicians who started to learn music while still in their childhood, Maurice Jarre was already late in his teens when he discovered music and decided to make a career in that field. Against his father's will, he enrolled at Conservatoire de Paris where he studied percussions, composition and harmonies. He also met and studied under Joseph Martenot, inventor of the Martenot Waves, an electronic keyboard that prefigured the modern synthesizer.
After leaving the Conservatoire, Jarre played percussion and Martenot Waves for a while at Jean-Louis Barrault's theater. In 1950, another actor-director, Jean Vilar , asked Jarre to score his production of Kleist's 'The Princess of Homburg', the first score Jarre wrote. Shortly after, Vilar created the 'Théâtre National Populaire' and hired Jarre as permanent composer, an association that lasted 12 years.
In 1951, filmmaker Georges Franju asked him to write the music of his 23 minutes documentary Hôtel des Invalides (1952), Jarre's first composition for the movie screen. His first full-length feature, again directed by Georges Franju, was Head Against the Wall (1959) followed by Franju's best known film, Eyes Without a Face (1960).
Jarre's career took a spectacular turn in 1961 when producer Sam Spiegel asked him to work on David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Initially, three composers were supposed to write the score, but for various reasons, Jarre ended up writing all the music himself and won his first Oscar. His second collaboration with David Lean on Doctor Zhivago (1965) earned him another Oscar and obtained a level of success rarely achieved by a film score. He collaborated with Lean again on Ryan's Daughter (1970) and A Passage to India (1984) for which he received a third Academy Award. He was set to score Lean's next movie, 'Nostromo', but the director became ill and died before the film could ever get made.
He also worked for directors as diverse as William Wyler (The Collector (1965)); John Huston (three films); Franco Zeffirelli (Jesus of Nazareth (1977)); Volker Schlöndorff (The Tin Drum (1979) [The Tin Drum] and Circle of Deceit (1981) [Circle of Deceit]); Peter Weir (four films); Michael Apted (Gorillas in the Mist (1988)) and Alfonso Arau (A Walk in the Clouds (1995)).
Mainly perceived as a symphonist and known for his prominent use of percussions, Jarre often integrated ethnic instruments in his orchestrations like cithara on 'Lawrence of Arabia' or fujara (an old Slovak flute) on 'The Tin Drum'. During the eighties, he incorporated synthetic sounds in his music, writing his first entirely electronic score for The Year of Living Dangerously (1982). His son Jean-Michel Jarre is a well-known popular musician.- Composer
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Michal Lorenc is one of the most eminent, contemporary composers of film scores. He was born in 1955 in Warsaw. Since his debut in 1979, he has made music for more than 150 feature films, documentaries, tv-serials and theatre performances. He has worked with best Polish, Czech, British and American film directors.
The American magazine "Variety" compared Michal Lorenc to an eminent American composer - Aaron Copland.- Composer
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Mischa Spoliansky, the distinguished composer who was born on December 28, 1898 in Bialystok, Russia, was forced forced to flee his native Russia after the Revolution of 1905 and then his adopted Germaany after the Hitler's rise to power. His family emigrated to Germany in 1905. The product of a musical family - he was the son of an opera singer - young Mischa was a prodigy, giving his first concert at the age of 10.
After studying music, Spoliansky joined the booming theatrical and cabaret life of Weimar Berlin, writing popular musical revues and establishing a reputation as a more upbeat version of Kurt Weill. Among the notable people of the theater he worked with were the director Max Reinhardt and the actress Marlene Dietrich. Spoliansky's musical "Zwei Krawatten" was filmed in 1930. He ven appeared as the Piano Man in a film, "Nie wieder Liebe" (1931).
In 1933, he moved his family to England, where he was commissioned by film-maker Alexander Korda of London Films to write the scores of "Sanders of the River" (1935), which won the prize for Best Music at the Venice Film Fesitval, and "The Ghost Goes West" (1935). He scored over 50 movies in his 40 years as a composer in England, including the original scores for "King Solomon's Mines" (1937) and Otto Preminger's "Saint Joan" (1957).
Known for writing music that well-suited the film, Spoliansky probably wasn't more famous because he did most of his composing for comedies, whereas better-known British composers such as Benjamim Britten and William Walton typically scored more prestigious dramatic pictures. His last score was for the somber "Hitler: The Last Ten Days" (1973).
Mischa Spoliansky died on June 28, 1985 in London, England of natural causes.
Interest in the late composer is on the rise: Spoliansky's 1931 musical comedy "Send for Mr Plim" was revived at Lodon's Battersea Arts Centre in 1999, where it received critical kudos and has since been re-staged across Europe, including a production at the Covent Garden Festival in 2000 and a 2001 radio broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Spoliansky's autobiography, edited by his daughter Irmgard, was slated to be published in Germany in 2004, with an English translation set to follow.- Composer
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Moisey Vaynberg was born on 8 December 1919 in Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland. He was a composer, known for Assassination Attempt (1981), Po tonkomu ldu (1966) and The Cranes Are Flying (1957). He died on 2 February 1996 in Moscow, Russia.- Music Department
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Van Cleave was born on 8 May 1910 in Bayfield, Wisconsin, USA. Van Cleave was a composer, known for White Christmas (1954), Funny Face (1957) and Easter Parade (1948). Van Cleave was married to Doris. Van Cleave died on 2 July 1970 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Nathan Van Cleave- Composer
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Nikica Kalodjera was born on 19 May 1930 in Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia. He was a composer and actor, known for The Parade (2011), Crno-bijeli svijet (2015) and Lito vilovito (1964). He was married to Ljupka Dimitrovska and Ljiljana Simovic. He died on 27 January 2006 in Zagreb, Croatia.- Composer
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Ole Høyer was born on 15 June 1927 in Denmark. He was a composer and actor, known for Warriors of the Apocalypse (1984). He died on 22 May 2002 in Denmark.- Music Department
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Palle Mikkelborg was born on 6 March 1941 in Copenhagen, Denmark. He is a composer and actor, known for Det drejer sig om - (1967), The Flight of the Eagle (1982) and The Parallel Corpse (1982).- Composer
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Patrick Juvet was born on 21 August 1950 in Montreux, Switzerland. He was a composer, known for Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1 (2008), R.A.I.D. Special Unit (2016) and Graduate First (1978). He died on 1 April 2021 in Barcelona, Spain.- Actor
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Patrick Moraz was born on 24 June 1948 in Morges, Switzerland. He is an actor and composer, known for The Stepfather (1987), The Middle of the World (1974) and The Salamander (1971). He is married to Phyllis. He was previously married to Marion.- Composer
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Petr Skoumal was born on 7 March 1938 in Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]. He was a composer and actor, known for Trhák (1981), Srdecný pozdrav ze zemekoule (1983) and Indiánské léto (1995). He was married to Ilona Svobodová. He died on 28 September 2014 in Prague, Czech Republic.- Composer
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Pierre Cavalli is known for L'ogre de Barbarie (1981), La clé des champs (1958) and Voyage chez les vivants (1970).- Composer
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Although a number of references believe Robert Mellin to have been born in Surrey, England in 1902, his obituary notices finally clarified that he was born in Kiev, Ukraine, and brought to England as a baby, albeit for a short stay. His father, 39-year-old tailor Joseph Melnikoff together with wife Anna (28) and one-year-old Robert were en route to America, eventually settling in Chicago. Robert began his career in the music business as a songplugger for Remick Music in Chicago, eventually being promoted to manager. After becoming an American citizen in 1938 (changing his name from Melnikoff to Mellin), he moved to New York and became an executive at Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) shortly after it was formed in 1940. In 1947 he launched his own company Robert Mellin Inc. which operated in both America and Europe. The success of the Mellin companies can be judged by the fact that when the group was sold in 1968, the asking price was $1.6 million.
Robert Mellin's other successful career was as songwriter in which he proved equally adept at composing the melody or lyrics or both. His first major hit was "My One and Only Love" in 1952, co-written with Guy Wood. In 1962 he supplied the lyrics to Acker Bilk's "Stranger on the Shore" which sold over a million copies. The prolific scale of Mellin's composing is reflected by his BMI account which runs to 608 titles, some written under the pseudonyms Robert Milton and Joe Hart. From 1952 he worked extensively in Europe, founding Robert Mellin Ltd in England. He also joined several performing right societies in Europe, becoming a member of SDRM (France) in March 1973, SABAM (Belgium) in April 1973 and SACEM (also France) from February 1979. He also joined SGAE (Spain) before renewing his membership of BMI in 1993. Mellin made London his permanent home from the mid-1970s and married his songwriting colleague Patricia Rossiter in 1980 at Westminster.
In 1968 Mellin's publishing group acquired exclusive rights to all film scores coming out of Czechoslovakia and Rumania, as well as many from Italy. Mellin himself scored a number of Italian westerns, but his own best-loved scoring work was for cult tv-series The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1964) which he co-composed with Gian Piero Reverberi. The theme music became a hit single and the score was released on CD in 1990 and expanded in 1997 with Mellin credited as a guest advisor. In order to present the full score Mellin succeeded in locating the original tapes that he had stored in Rome. Sadly, it was on one of his business trips to Rome on 9 July 1994 that 91-year-old Mellin suffered a fatal heart attack, bringing to an end over 60 years service to music and movies.- Composer
Roger Mores is known for L'etreinte (1969), Louisa, een woord van liefde (1972) and Cash? Cash! (1967).- Composer
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Rogier van Otterloo was born on 11 December 1941 in Bilthoven, Utrecht, Netherlands. He was a composer, known for Soldier of Orange (1977), Turkish Delight (1973) and De vloek van Woestewolf (1974). He was married to Willy van Otterloo. He died on 29 January 1988 in Tienhoven, Utrecht, Netherlands.- Composer
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Roman Vlad was born on 29 December 1919 in Cernauti, Bukovina, Romania [now Chernivtsi, Ukraine]. He was a composer, known for The Walls of Malapaga (1949), Sunday in August (1950) and Beauty and the Devil (1950). He died on 21 September 2013 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Music Department
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Composer, songwriter ("Donkey Serenade", "Song of the Vagabonds") and pianist, educated at the Prague Conservatory and a music student of Anton Dvorak and Jiranek. He toured Europe as a concert pianist with violinist Jan Kubelik, and then toured America in 1901 and 1906. In 1912 he replaced Victor Herbert as the composer of the score for the Broadway musical "The Firefly". His other Broadway sage scores include "High Jinks", "The Peasant Girl", "Katinka", "You're In Love", "Sometime", "Glorianna", "Tumble In", "The Little Whopper", "June Love", "The Blue Kitten", "Rose-Marie", "The Vagabond King", "No Foolin'", "The Wild Rose", and "The Three Musketeers". He came to Hollywood in 1934. Joining ASCAP as a charter member in 1914, his chief musical collaborators included Otto Harbach, P.G. Wodehouse, Rida Johnson Young, Oscar Hammerstein II, Brian Hooker, Clifford Grey, Harold Atteridge, and Dailey Paskman. His other popular-song compositions include "Giannina Mia", "Love is Like a Firefly", "When a Maid Comes Knocking at Your Door", "Sympathy", "Something Seems a Tingle-ing-eling", "Love's Own Kiss", "Katinka", "Not Now But Later", "'Tis the End, So Farewell", "Allah's Holiday", "Rackety Coo", "L'Amour, Toujours, L'Amour", "On the Blue Lagoon", "In Love With Love", "Somewhere in My Heart", "You're In Love", "Cutie", "The Door of Her Dreams", "Rose-Marie", "The Mounties", "Pretty Things", "Totem Tom-Tom", "Some Day", "Tomorrow", "Only a Rose", "Huguette Waltz", "Love Me Tonight", "Nocturne", "Wild Rose", "One Golden Hour", "Give Me One Hour", "March of the Musketeers", "Ma Belle", "Your Eyes", and "I Have the Love"- Composer
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Ruud Bos was born on 8 February 1936 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands. He was a composer and actor, known for Mensen zoals jij en ik (1981), De zeemeerman (1996) and Dagboek van een herdershond (1978). He was married to Marjan Berk. He died on 30 June 2023 in Netherlands.- Composer
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Stefan Nilsson was born on 27 July 1955 in Kukasjärvi, Övertorneå, Norrbottens län, Sweden. He was a composer and actor, known for As It Is in Heaven (2004), Body Switch (1995) and Slagskämpen (1984). He died on 25 May 2023 in Saltsjöbaden, Nacka, Stockholms län, Sweden.- Stepán Lucký was born on 20 January 1919 in Zilina, Czechoslovakia [now Slovakia]. He was a composer, known for Nahá pastýrka (1966), 105 % alibi (1959) and O vecech nadprirozených (1959). He died on 5 May 2006 in Prague, Czech Republic.
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Stig Anderson was born on 25 January 1931 in Hova, Västra Götalands län, Sweden. He was an actor and composer, known for Mamma Mia! (2008), Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018) and The Martian (2015). He died on 12 September 1997 in Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden.- Composer
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Sven Gyldmark was born on 21 April 1904 in Søllerød, Denmark. He was a composer and actor, known for Sin Alley (1957), Reptilicus (1961) and Ved Kongelunden... (1953). He was married to Aase Tove Jacobsen. He died on 5 October 1981 in Denmark.- Composer
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Temistocle Popa was born on 27 June 1921 in Galati, Romania. He was a composer and actor, known for Cîntecele marii (1971), Nemesis's secret (1987) and La vîrsta dragostei (1963). He was married to Cornelia Teodosiu. He died on 26 November 2013 in Bucharest, Romania.- Composer
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Thor G. Norås was born on 6 April 1935 in Stavanger, Norway. He was a composer and actor, known for Equilibrium - Det er meg du skal elske (1965), Broder Gabrielsen (1966) and Nostalgia (2009). He died on 13 January 2015 in Norway.- Composer
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Tonny Eyk was born on 4 July 1940 in The Hague, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands. He is a composer and actor, known for Vrijdag (1980), Maria (1986) and Martijn en de magiër (1979).- Tõnu Naissoo was born on 18 March 1951 in Tallinn, Estonia. He is a composer, known for The Last Relic (1969), Perekonnapildid (1989) and Suletud ring (1983).
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Torbjörn Lundquist was born on 30 September 1920 in Stockholm, Sweden. He was a composer, known for Synnöve Solbakken (1957), Damen i svart (1958) and Moln över Hellesta (1956). He died on 1 June 2000 in Grillby, Uppsala län, Sweden.- Composer
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Urban Koder was born on 4 March 1928 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. He was a composer, known for Maja in vesoljcek (1988), Blossoms in Autumn (1973) and Mrtva ladja (1971). He was married to Helena Kordas. He died on 9 January 2019 in Ljubljana, Slovenia.- Composer
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Vasili Kojucharov is known for The Big Blackout (1966), Killer's Gold (1979) and Churchill's Leopards (1970).- Music Department
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Every professional recording artist today owes their livelihood to some degree to Victor Herbert. Working closely with John Philip Sousa, Irving Berlin and others, he was the driving force in founding the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) on February 13, 1914. He became its vice-president and director until his death in 1924. The organization has historically worked to protect the rights of creative musicians and continues to do this work today. In 1917, Herbert won a landmark lawsuit before the United States Supreme Court that gave composers, through ASCAP, a right to charge performance fees for the public performance of their music. Herbert was born in Dublin, Ireland to Protestants Edward Herbert (d. 1861) and Fanny Herbert (née Lover). At age three and a half, shortly after the death of his father, young Herbert and his mother moved to live with his maternal grandparents in London, England, where he received encouragement in his creative endeavours. His grandfather was the Irish novelist, playwright, poet and composer Samuel Lover. The Lovers welcomed a steady flow of musicians, writers and artists to their home. Herbert joined his mother in Stuttgart, Germany in 1867, a year after she had married a German physician, Carl Schmidt of Langenargen. In Stuttgart, he received a strong liberal education at the Eberhard-Ludwigs-Gymnasium, which included musical training. Herbert had ambitions to become a physician himself, but medical education in Germany was prohibitively expensive and he fell back on his first real interest as a child, music. Initially studying the piano, flute and piccolo, he ultimately settled on the cello, beginning studies on that instrument with Bernhard Cossmann from age 15 to 18. Herbert then attended the Stuttgart Conservatory. After studying cello, music theory and composition under Max Seifritz, Herbert graduated with a diploma in 1879. He was engaged professionally as a player in concerts in Stuttgart. His first orchestra position was as a flute and piccolo player, but he soon turned solely to the cello. By the time he was 19, Herbert had received engagements as a soloist with several major German orchestras. He played in the orchestra of the wealthy Russian Baron Paul von Derwies for a few years and, in 1880, was a soloist for a year in the orchestra of Eduard Strauss in Vienna. Herbert joined the court orchestra in Stuttgart in 1881, where he remained for the next five years. There he composed his first pieces of instrumental music, playing the solos in the premieres of his first two large-scale works, the Suite for cello and orchestra, Op. 3 (1893) and the Cello Concerto No. 1, Op. 8. In 1883, Herbert was selected by Johannes Brahms to play in a chamber orchestra for the celebration of the life of Franz Liszt, then 72 years old, near Zurich. In 1885 Herbert became romantically involved with Therese Förster (1861-1927), a soprano who had recently joined the court opera for which the court orchestra played. Förster sang several leading roles at the Stuttgart Opera in 1885 through the summer of 1886. After a year of courtship, the couple married on August 14, 1886. On October 24, 1886, they moved to the United States, as they both had been hired by Walter Damrosch and Anton Seidl to join the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Herbert was engaged as the opera orchestra's principal cellist, and Förster was engaged to sing principal roles with the Met. During the voyage to America, Herbert and his wife became friends with their fellow passenger and future conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, Anton Seidl, and other singers joining the Met.
Herbert was a prolific composer, producing two operas, one cantata, 43 operettas, incidental music to 10 stage productions, 31 compositions for orchestra, nine band compositions, nine cello compositions, five violin compositions with piano or orchestra, 22 piano compositions, one flute and clarinet duet with orchestra, numerous songs, including many for the Ziegfeld Follies, and other works, 12 choral compositions, and numerous orchestrations of works by other composers, among other compositions. Some of his best-known works were created for Broadway working with the even more prolific librettist Harry B. Smith. Many of his Broadway productions, such as The Red Mill (1906), Sweethearts (1913), Sally (1920) and Orange Blossoms (1921) were major hits, while others, such as When Sweet Sixteen (1911) were financial disasters. Herbert also composed The Fall of a Nation (1916), one of the first original orchestral scores for a full-length film (a credit often erroneously given to Max Steiner while working for Radio Pictures in the 1930's). The score was thought to be lost, but it turned up in the film-music collection of the Library of Congress. It was given a recording in 1987. During the last years of his career, was frequently asked to compose ballet music for the elaborate production numbers in Broadway revues and the shows of Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern, among others. Throughout his career he was regarded as extremely unpretentious and supportive of his peers. He was also a contributor to the Ziegfeld Follies every year from 1917 to 1924 (see 'Other Works').
As a composer, Herbert is chiefly remembered for his operettas. Of his instrumental works, only a few remained consistently within the concert repertoire after Herbert's death in 1924. However, some of his forgotten works have enjoyed a resurgence of popularity within the last few decades. A statue of him commissioned by ASCAP, by sculptor Edmund Thomas Quinn (1868-1929) was dedicated in 1927 still stands in New York City's Central Park.- Composer
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Vítezslav Hádl was born on 5 May 1945 in Prague, Protektorát Cechy a Morava [now Czech Republic]. He is a composer, known for The Great Movie Robbery (1986), Trhák (1981) and Arabela se vrací (1993).- Composer
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Vladimir Kraus-Rajteric was born on 14 December 1924 in Zagreb, Croatia, Yugoslavia [now Croatia]. He was a composer and editor, known for Atomic War Bride (1960), Medaljon sa tri srca (1962) and Nights and Days (1959). He died on 29 July 1996.- Composer
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Composer, conductor, jazz musician (he played both piano and trombone), and arranger Walter Ernst Baumgartner was born on November 16, 1904 in Sevelen, Kanton St. Gallen, Switzerland. Walter founded the swing band the Magnolians in 1934. Baumgartner worked for a while as an arranger and was the conductor of an orchestra prior to composing the score for his first film in 1952. A furiously prolific composer in the late 1960's and throughout the 1970's, Walter frequently worked for producer/director Erwin C. Dietrich and provided some especially groovy scores for a handful of exploitation movies made by legendary Spanish maverick Jesús Franco. Baumgartner was married to actress and singer Helen Vita. Walter died at age 92 on October 3, 1997. He was survived by his wife and two sons.- Composer
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Wojciech Kilar was born on 17 July 1932 in Lwów, Lwowskie, Poland [now Lviv, Ukraine]. He was a composer, known for Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), The Ninth Gate (1999) and The Pianist (2002). He was married to Barbara Pomianowska. He died on 29 December 2013 in Katowice, Slaskie, Poland.- Composer
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Yan Frenkel was born on 21 November 1920 in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR [now Kyiv, Ukraine]. He was a composer and actor, known for Protiv techeniya (1981), Novye priklyucheniya neulovimykh (1968) and Begushchaya po volnam (1967). He died on 25 August 1989 in Riga, Latvian SSR, USSR [now Latvia].- Music Department
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Evgeniy Doga was born on 1 March 1937 in Mokra, Rybnitsa raion, Moldavian ASSR, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Mocra, Rabnitsa District, Moldova or the unrecognized Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (Transnistria)]. He is a composer, known for Ryabinovyy vals (2010), The Road Within (2014) and Lautarii (1972).- Composer
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Born in Poland in 1955, Zbigniew Preisner studied philosophy and history in the university of Cracow. In his twenties he started to study music in a autodidactical way: buying records and learning to write by taking the music in parts. He started to write his own compositions. His style has always been very romantic, influenced by romantic polish composers from the XIX century and others like Paganini or Sibelius. He has always emphasized the importance of melody in music. He doesn't like experimental modern music.
In 1981 he began his collaboration with filmmakers. While he was working with Antoni Krauze's movie "Weather Report" he met director Krzystof Kieslowski who invited him to work in his new movie "No End" about Poland under the martial law at the beginning of the 80s.
With that movie he began a very close collaboration with Kieslowski and his screenwriter Krzystof Piesiewicz. He works while the script for the movie is still being written but he usually also takes part in the editing of the movie.
Their next collaboration became a success worldwide. "Decalogue" won the European film award for best film and also awards in Cannes and other festivals. Kieslowski became one of the most importants directors in Europe and Preisner the leading film music composer of his generation.
At the same time he continued his collaboration with Kieslowski in such films like "La double vie de Veronique" and the trilogy of colours ("Blue", "White" and "Red") he also wrote soundtracks for others important directors like Louis Malle, Agniezka Holland or Héctor Babenco.
His collaboration with Kieslowski ended with his death in 1996. In the last years Preisner not only has continued his collaboration in others movies but he also has been involved in others musical projects like the writing of an opera to be performed in London and features for the Varsovia Simphony orchestra.- Composer
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Zdenek Liska was born on 16 March 1922 in Smecno by Kladno, Bohemia, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]. He was a composer, known for Das Haus in der Karpfengasse (1965), The Cremator (1969) and Prague Nights (1969). He died on 13 August 1983 in Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic].- Composer
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Zoran Simjanoviæ was born in Beograd in May, 1946. At the age of six he first begun to play piano, then he attended the music school "Mokranjac" and finally the Music Academy in Beograd.
Since 1961 he founded and played in some of the most recognized rock bands in Yugoslavia and abroad. He also wrote pop songs for his friends singers who were winning prizes at festivals, although he has not much interest in pop music.
Since 1975, he deals with scenic music and cooperates with TV, film and theatre productions in Yugoslavia and abroad. As a scenic composer he uses all music styles although most of his work is electronic-based. So far he has written music scores for 55 feature films, a large number of TV films, TV series, theatre plays as well as cartoons and advertising films and clips.
He has been awarded the Gold Arena for music twice at the film festival in Pula ("The fragrance of wild flower" -1978 and "Balkan Express" -1983). At the unofficial festival of film music, costume and scenography in Mladenovac he has won the first prize for "When father was away on business" soundtrack in 1985.
At the directors'festival in Herceg Novi he has been awarded for the music score for "Tito and me" in 1992. After splitting of Yugoslav republics it has remained the greatest award. At this year's festival of short film he was honored for the music in the film about Malyevich, and at the first annual Yugoslav Film Academy Award he won a Crystal Prysm for the music in "Tango argentino".
In 1993, he also won at festival of short film with music for several cartoons. At the JRT festival of audio and video clips in Budva in 1988, he won the first prize for music in JAT audio/video campaign.
He also finds theatre interesting for his work. He composed scores for over 20 theatre plays in all Beograd theatres as well as the musicals "Joys of Beograd" and "The fish in the sea" and several cabarets.With Paolo Magelli he worked on the Paris version of "Mandragora" and after its success he was engaged in another play "The Straitjacket"
He is one of three Yugoslav members of the European Film Academy.Also he is member of ASIFA(International animated film association. He is a Citizen of Honor of Valencia. Presently he is a professor at the Faculty of Scenic Arts and Faculty of Music Art in Beograd where he shares his experiences with the future film artists and musicians.