Berislav ŠIPUŠ

BERISLAV ŠIPUŠ (Croatia, 1958) graduated composition from the Academy of Music in Zagreb in the class of S. Horvat, where he is now a full professor at the Department of Composition and Music Theory. He studied composition with G.  Bosco in Udine, and F. B. Mache and I. Xenakis in Paris.

He worked as a producer in the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall and producer of the Zagreb Music Biennale (1987 and 1989), becoming its artistic director (1997-2011). He was also the director of the Zagreb Philharmonic from 2001 to 2005. In 2001, he founded the only Croatian ensemble for New Music, Cantus Ensemble, with which he traveled throughout the world, performing more than 400 works, and premiering more than 60 new compositions by Croatian and international authors. In 2012, he became its honorary artistic director. He also worked as the artistic director of the national Osor music evening festival (2009-2011) and as the volunteer president of the Croatian Musical Youth. From 2011 to 2015, he served as Deputy Minister of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, and then as Minister of Culture for one year.

From 1989 to 2001, he cooperated with Teatro alla Scala in Milan as a pianist-accompanist in the Ballet, conductor of the orchestra in Ballet productions, pianist-accompanist and assistant conductor in the Opera. As a conductor, he performed in Croatia and abroad (China, Italy, Germany, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, Austria, Canada, Mexico, France) working with top orchestras and soloists.

Šipuš is the author of a large composer oeuvre, which includes over 50 compositions, from solo to vocal-instrumental and musical-scenic works, which have been performed in Croatia and abroad. For his work as a composer, he received numerous awards, of which the Medal of the Order of the Knight of Arts and Letters of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of France (2004), the Medal of the Order of Danica Hrvatska with the image of Marko Marulić (2009), the Vladimir Nazor Award (2009), the Medal President of the Republic of Italy, Order of the Star of Italy and the title Commendatore (2014) stand out.