Watch Mladen conduct and listen to his compositions
Watch Mladen conduct and listen to his compositions
Biography
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.
News
Concerts
Opera
Festivals
Recordings
Workshops
National Music Festival, Chestertown, Maryland USA | June 8, 2019
Festival Symphony Orchestra & the Chester River Chorale, Decker Theatre, Washington College | Mladen Tarbuk, conductor | Rossini: Overture: La Cenerentola Tarbuk: Concerto for Flute (Jennifer Parker-Harley, soloist) Beethoven: Mass in C
Nordic Chamber Orchestra, Tonhallen, Sundsvall Sweden | February 28, 2019
Mladen Tarbuk, conductor | M. Tarbuk: Sinfonia da camera, Respigh: ll tramonto, for mezzosoprano and strings, Cherubini: Symphony in D, Wagner: Siegfried-Idyll
Theater Biel, Théâtre Bienne Switzerland
DES KNABEN WUNDERHORN (Mahler) College of Arts Bern HKB Ensemble | Musical direction and editing ~ Direction musicale et arrangement ~ Mladen Tarbuk | Staging ~ Mise en scène ~ Mathias Behrends | Sunday, June 3, 2018 Dimanche 3 juin 2018
London: St Martin In The Fields
Pianist Diana Brekalo performs Mladen Tarbuk: Selection from 12 Inventions: No 1 'a una voce' 02:31 No 2 'Aria' 05:16 No 5 'Lullaby' 08:08 No 7 'Sequence' 09:24 No 10 'Cannon' | 16/10/2018
Sinfonietta Cracovia, Cracow, Poland
Mladen Tarbuk conducted pieces by contemporary Polish and Croatian composers. | 08/10/2017
reviews
About
Mladen
PUCCINI: MADAM BUTTERFLY
Le Droit, Jean Jacques Van Vlasselaer
… the musical flow and the penetrating interpretation made by an excellent conductor from Croatia, Mladen Tarbuk. … Tarbuk conducts in an articulate, intense manner, delivering his interpretation without precipitation, not only of the lyrical matter with a pathos that is penetrating yet not heavy, but also of the unprecedented, post-Wagnerian harmonisations that come with the lyrical matter. He also has the gift of knowing how to both push and carry a voice at the same time …
STRAVINSKY: LE SACRE DU PRINTEMPS
Orchestra of G. Verdi Teatro Lirico Trieste, Italy
Cronache di Trieste, April 2014, Maria Luisa Runti
On the podium, Mladen Tarbuk conducted the Orchestra of Giuseppe Verdi Teatro Lirico with interpretative rigor and harmonic colouring, underlining the dialogue between music and dance. The overture in which the sound of the bassoon and the ostinati appeared, followed by strings and horns was magnificent and it empowered the stage action with great intensity.
STRAVINSKY: LE SACRE DU PRINTEMPS
Orchestra of G. Verdi Teatro Lirico Trieste, Italy
Bravo to the conductor, Mladen Tarbuk from Croatia, who, even with an orchestra much smaller compared to what is written in score, succeeded in making the vivid music of the Sacre credible and effective.
M. TARBUK: SEBASTIAN SLEEPING
Mladen Tarbuk, in an expression of his fatherly feelings, combines comforting sonority in the low strings with a soft, high sound and pizzicato in the violins, sets high and low registers apart and lets his music inspired by Georg Trakl turn into a joyful dance with bells and an intense double bass solo: an atmospheric piece with all sorts of emotions and associations.
Repertoire
Beethoven
- Fidelio
Bellini
- Norma
Bizet
- Carmen (both the original and Giraud version)
Catalani
- La Wally
Giordano
- Andrea Chenier
Gluck
- Orfeo ed Euridice
Händel
- Giulio Cesare
Janaček
- Cunning Little Vixen
- Jenufa
- Katya Kabanova
Leoncavallo
- Pagliacci
Mascagni
- Cavalleria rusticana
Massenet
- Werther
Mozart
- Entführung aus dem Serail
- Le nozze di Figaro
- Don Giovanni
- Così fan tutte
- Die Zauberflöte
Puccini
- La Bohème
- Tosca
- Madame Butterfly
- Il Trittico
Rossini
- Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Strauss R.
- Salome
- Elektra
Strauss J.
- Zigeunerbaron
Verdi
- Nabucco
- Macbeth
- Simone Boccanegra
- Don Carlos
- Un ballo di maschera
- La traviata
- Trovatore
- Otello
- Aida
Wagner
- Der Fliegende Holländer
- Tannhäuser
- Tristan und Isolde
- The Ring (whole)
- Parsifal
Zimmermann
- Die weisse Rose
Adam
- Giselle
Hérold
- La fille mal gardée
Minkus
- Don Quixotte
Prokofjev
- Romeo and Juliet
Ravel
- Daphnis et Chloe
- Boléro
- La Valse
Stravinsky
- The Firebird
- Petrouchka
- The Rite of Spring
- Pulcinella
- The Fairy’s Kiss
Tchaikovsky
- The Swann Lake
- The Nutcracker
- Sleeping Beauty
Bach
- Johannespassion
- Matthäuspassion
- Cantatas
Beethoven
- Missa solemnis
Berlioz
- Les nuits d’été
Brahms
- Ein Deutsches Requiem
Bruckner
- Mass in e minor
Haydn
- Missa In tempore belli
- The Seven Last Words of Christ
Händel
- Messiah
Leo
- Oratorio di Natale
Ligeti
- Aventures
- Nouvelles Aventures
Liszt
- 13th Psalm
Mahler
- All song cycles
Mendelssohn
- Walpurgis Nacht
- Midsummer Night’s Dream – whole incidental music
Mozart
- Missa brevis KV 275
- Requiem
- Concert Arias
Mussorgsky
- Songs and Dances of Death
Ravel
- Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé
Respighi
- Il tramonto
Stravinsky
- Symphony of Psalms
Szymanovski
- Requiem
Verdi
- Messa da Requiem
- Quatro pezzi sacri
- Weill The Seven Deadly Sins
Bach
- 2. and 3. Orchestral Suite,
- Concerti for violin, 2 violins and violin and oboe,
- Brandenburg concertos
Bartok
- Kossuth
- Suite No 1
- Dance Suite
- Divertimento for Strings
- Music for Strings, Harp, Percussion and Celesta
- Concerto for Orchestra
- 1. Violin Concerto
- 3. Piano Concerto
Beethoven
- All symphonies
- All piano concertos
- Coriolan
- Egmont
- Leonore 2.-3.
- Violin Concerto
Berg
- Suite from Lulu
Berlioz
- Symphonie fantastique
- Waverley
Bernstein
- West Side Story (Suite)
- Candide (Overture)
- Slava! A Political Overture
Borodin
- In the Steppes of Central Asia
Brahms
- Symphonies 1., 3. and 4.
- 1. Serenade in D major
- Academic and Tragic Overture
- Concerto for violin, both piano concertos
Britten
- Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge
- The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra
- Simple Symphony
- Sinfonietta
Bruckner
- Symphonies 3.-8., 9. with original 4th mov., version Carrigan
Chopin
- Both Piano concertos
- Andante spianato et grande polonaise brillante
Copland
- El Salón México
- Music for the Theater
- 3. Symphony
- An Outdoor Overture
Debussy
- Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
- Nocturnes
- La Mer
Dvořak
- Symphonies 7.-9.
- Slavonic Dances II
- In Nature’s Realm, The Carnival, Otello
- The Noon Witch
- Cello Concerto
- Violin Concerto
- String and Wind Serenade
Franck
- Symphony in d minor
- Symphonic Variations
Grieg
- Peer Gynt, both suites
- Piano Concerto
Haydn
- Symphonies 2., 6.-8., 26., 30., 45., 49., 56., 92., 94., 100.-101., 103.-104.
- Both cello concertos
Händel
- Water Music
- Violin Concerto in B flat
- Holst St Paul’s Suite
Ives
- The Unanswered Question
- Tone Roads No 1.
Janaček
- Sinfonietta
- Taras Bulba
- Capriccio
Korngold
- Much Ado About Nothing, Op. 11
Ligeti
- Chamber Concerto
Liszt
- Faust
- Les préludes
- Both piano concertos
- Totentanz
- Hungarian Rhapsodies 2., 5.-6., 12.
Lutoslawski
- Concerto for Orchestra
- Jeux venitiens
- Paganini Variations
Mahler
- Symphonies 1.-5., 8.-9.
Mussorgsky
- Night on Bald Mountain (original version)
Mendelssohn
- Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage
- Hebrides
- Symphonies 3.-4.
- Violin Concerto
Mozart
- Symphonies KV 201, 202, 318, 385, 543, 504, 550, 551
- Concertante symphonies KV 297b, 315f, 364
- Piano concertos KV 271, 365, 453, 466-467, 488, 491
- Violin concertos KV 216, 218-219
- All woodwind concertos
Panufnik
- Lullaby
Prokofjev
- Scythian Suite
- Peter and the Wolf
- Overture on Hebrew Themes
- Piano concertos 2.-3.
Rachmaninoff
- Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
- Piano concertos 2.-4.
Ravel
- Rapsodie espagnole
- Ma mère l’Oye
- Pavane
- Alborada del gracioso
- Une barque sur l’ocean
- Tzigane
Respighi
- Fountains of Rome
- Pines of Rome
- Roman Festivals
- Vetrate di Chiesa
Riley
- In C
Rimsky – Korsakov
- Scheherazade
- Capriccio Espagnol
Rota
- Concerto soirée
Saint – Saëns
- Danse macabre
- The Carnival of the Animals
- 2. Piano Concerto
- Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso
Sibelius
- 7. Symphony
- Violin Concerto
Smetana
- Má vlast
Schönberg
- 2. Chamber Symphony
Schreker
- Chamber Symphony
Schubert
- All symphonies
Schumann
- Symphonies 1., 3.-4.
- Piano Concerto
- Cello Concerto
Shostakovich
- Symphonies 1., 6., 9., 11.
- 1. Cello Concerto
Stravinsky
- Concerto en Re
- Violin Concerto
Strauss R.
- Don Juan
- Tod und Verklärung
- Till Eulenspiegel
- Don Quixote
- Ein Heldenleben
- Concerto for Horn and Orchestra No. 1
Suk
- Serenade for Strings
Tchaikovsky
- Symphonies 3.-6.
- Manfred-Symphony
- The Tempest
- Romeo and Juliet
- Italian Capriccio
- Serenade for Strings
- Piano Concerto No 1 in B flat minor
- Violin Concerto
- Rococo Variations
Varèse
- Amériques
Weill
- 2. Symphony
Berlioz
- Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale
Händel
- Music for the Royal Fireworks
Hindemith
- Symphony for Wind Orchestra in B flat
- Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, Der Schwanendreher
Holst
- Both Suites
- Husa Apotheosis of this Earth
Messiaen
- Oiseaux exotiques
Mozart
- Serenades for wind instruments K. 361/370a, 375, 388/384a
Nyman
- For John Cage
Respighi
- Huntingtower
Schönberg
- Theme and Variations, Op. 43a
Weill
- Violin Concerto
In addition to the whole repertoire listed here, over 150 pieces by Croatian composers, including operas and ballets.
Stage Works
- Ballet A Streetcar Named Desire (2005)
Works for Symphony Orchestra
- Ancient Croatian Music (1991),
- Concerto for flute (2002),
- Sinfonia (2017)
Works for Wind Orchestra
- Zildjian Concerto for percussion (1995),
- Concertino for saxophone alto (1997),
- Croatian Suite (1996),
- Osor March (1994),
- Re (2005),
- Concerto for saxophone quartet based on the music from the ballet Streetcar Named Desire (2012)
Works for Chamber Orchestra
- Passacaglia in D for string orchestra (1988),
- Pastorala fosca for oboe, cembalo and strings (1990),
- Medida del tiempo por relojes differentes, 5 songs for high soprano, marimba and strings (1990), Croatian Suite for harmonica orchestra (1993),
- An die Gleichgestalteten for mezzo-soprano and chamber ensemble (1994),
- A Trip around Austria (1994),
- I light the candle up for countertenor, mixed choir and chamber orchestra (1995),
- Mourning for Bartok (1996),
- Concerto grosso for trumpet, horn, trombone and strings (1997),
- Dreamers, 9 songs for ultra-high soprano and chamber ensemble (2000),
- The Fiddles Are Broken for violin, viola and strings (2000),
- Concerto for saxophone quartet, percussion and strings (2000),
- Memories of Issa (2004-2008),
- Prelude, Aria And Fugue for string orchestra (2005),
- Ice Skating Polka for tamburitza orchestra (2008),
- Concentus Zagrabiensis for violin, bassoon, cembalo, 3 oboes, 2 horns and strings (2010),
- Twist (2015)
Chamber Music
- Macedonian Fragments for clarinet, guitar and drum (1983),
- Madrigal for soprano, flute and piano (1983),
- Four Strophes for string quartet (1988),
- A tre for string trio (1989),
- Monochromia for flute quartet (1989),
- Transfigurations for wind quintet (1989),
- Osor’s Suite for wind quartet (1989),
- La sonnambula for piano trio (1990),
- Fisarmonica blues for harmonica quintet (1991),
- Fo(u)r blue for saxophone quartet (1991),
- Frivolous Variations for saxophone quartet (1992),
- Die Todeskreise for viola, tuba, harmonica and percussion (1995),
- Trio for clarinets (1996),
- F. To Milena for soprano and 2 contrabasses (1997),
- Sebastian In Dream for 4 violins, 3 violas, 2 celli and 1 contrabass (1999),
- Peter’s Fanfares for 12 trumpets (1999),
- First 50 years of Željko for wind octet (2000),
- L’irreparable for flute, clarinet, piano, percussion, violin, viola and cello (2003),
- renata.kruno for flute alto and tuba (2003),
- Sarah’s Prayer for soprano, oboe and harp (2006),
- Über glitzernden Kies for dramatic soprano, cello and piano (2007),
- Bruno furioso for 4 violins, 3 violas, 2 celli and 1 contrabass (2008),
- Eschendorf. Ein kroatisches Märchen, 10 movements for tuba quartet (2008),
- Dalmatina for flute and vibraphone (2010),
- The Cry of a Serf for two violins and piano (2010),
- 4 Estancias for harmonica, flute, clarinet and string quintet (2012),
- Sonata for tuba and piano (2012),
- Mostar, 4 songs for soprano and piano (2013),
- Ad confusionem versus for clarinet, trombone, piano, percussion, viola and contrabass (2013),
- The Weeping of Jerusalem for piano, marimba and string quartet (2014),
- AN6A for flute, violin and viola (2014),
- -oso for clarinet, violin, cello and piano (2014),
- Didgeridoo for saxophone alto and string quartet (2017)
Choir Music
- Blue Sky for mixed choir (1985),
- Adeste, hendecasyllabi for mixed choir (1988),
- Discusiones amorosas, three Basque’s songs for mixed choir (1993),
- Oh, My Soul for male octet (2003),
- The Mast for male octet (2009),
- Salve regina for children choir and organ (2011),
- Haiku for mixed choir (2015),
- Juda’s Confession for male choir (2016),
- Mexicana for dramatic soprano, 2 female choirs, flute, trumpet, trombone and percussion (2016)
Works for Piano Solo
- Variations on the Theme from Međimurje (1988),
- Rebel’s Blues (2000),
- For Vlado (2001),
- Kate’s Kiss (2007),
- Eva (2008),
- 12 inventions (2012)
Works for Other Solo Instruments
- De oriente oblito for clarinet (1984),
- Rapsodico for viola (1987),
- Danza di corde for violin (1990),
- Martyre d’un jongleur for multi-performer (1990),
- Fruits of passion for African marimba (1993),
- 4 etudes for violin (2002),
- Toccatina istriana for small mechanical organ (2006),
- Suite for violoncello (2009)
- Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Wind Orchestra of Royal Zagreb Saxophone Quartet Northern College of Music Manchester https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxVIZk6SdZ8
- Academy of Music Zagreb | University of Zagreb | Trg Republike Hrvatske 12 | 10000 Zagreb | Croatia EU
- mladen@mladentarbuk.com
- 2021 | Mladen Tarbuk