Mladen Tarbuk is a Croatian composer, conductor, writer, educator, and broadcaster. He was a guest conductor at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf – Duisburg during several seasons and has been performing regularly with renowned orchestras and opera houses around the world, such as Hungarian State Opera, Haifa Symphony Orchestra, Opera Lyra Ottawa, Orquesta Sinfonica de Estado Mexico, Sinfonietta Cracovia, Wiener Concert-Verein, Nordic Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana Palermo, Teatro Verdi Trieste, State Opera Prague, Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra and many other.

Tarbuk was the Intendant of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, the region’s leading opera, ballet, and dramatic plays house, Music Programme Director and subsequently the Artistic Director of the renowned Dubrovnik Festival. His prolific career has been significantly enriching the musical life in Croatia through conducting concerts and operas at the national opera houses, teaching composition, orchestral conducting, orchestra, and music theory at the Music Academy of Zagreb and presenting, hosting, and conducting concerts for youth and children that were broadcast by Croatian Radio. In addition, his long-term collaboration with many home festivals and institutions, especially with the Croatian Radiotelevision Symphony Orchestra, resulted in Tarbuk arranging, revising, editing, performing, conducting, and recording thousands of pages of Croatian music.

Mladen Tarbuk wrote over 90 works, from solo and chamber music to large symphonic and theatrical forms. His pieces have been performed in major contemporary music festivals, including Enescu Festival Bucharest, The World Music Days, Europamusicale Munich, Musicora Paris, Le Temps de soufflé Paris, Trieste Prima, World Saxophone Congress Glasgow, Musikprotokoll Graz, Moscow Autumn, and Music Biennale Zagreb. As a composer, Tarbuk came to international fame in 1990, when the International Gaudeamus Festival in Amsterdam has premiered his piece Martyr d’un jongleur. Then, the first International Composers Competition in Vienna in 1991, chaired by Claudio Abbado, gave his composition Medida del Tiempo a recommendation. Tarbuk also won two first prizes in international competitions Ernst Vogel and Tolosa, as well as numerous Croatian awards for the highest achievements as a composer: Šulek, Slavenski, Papandopulo, and the Academy Award of Lisinski Concert Hall. His ballet Streetcar Named Desire opened The World Days of Music 2005 in Zagreb. Tarbuk appears in many recordings on labels such as HoneyRock, Orpheus and Cantus.