Dalibor Grubacevic

Dalibor Grubacevic is an award-winning Croatian composer of film, classical and pop music. He has received several major professional awards in his country (the 2013 Porin in the Best Theatrical, Film, and/or TV Soundtrack category, for his music for the documentary series In Search of Marco Polo, and the Best Film Music award at the 19th Days of Croatian Cinema festival, for his music for the Nenad Puhovski documentary (Together). He is also a multifaceted artist of eclectic musical interests, whose work is best described by the contradictory label of an "unclassical classicist." In his composition, he uses classical orchestration combined with electronic sounds and instrumentation. He is a full member of the Croatian Composers' Society (HDS). Beside film scores and feature, documentary, commercial, and corporate soundtracks, Grubacevic is interested in pop, rock, and ethno music as much as in classical writing. "Two Rivers", his cantata in two parts (I: Drava and II: Mura), based on melodies and motifs from the regions of Podravina and Medjimurje, has been performed around the world, from Canada, the United States, Japan, England, Italy, Israel, and Georgia, to the region (Macedonia, Montenegro), by the Simply Brass Quintet, whose album Camminate Grubacevic has also produced. In 2012, collaborating with the renowned American composer Eric Ewazen, he recorded two Simply Brass albums at the Croatian National Theatre. He has also worked with Australian composer Alan Holley. Soundtrack composition, which has become his current stock in trade, begun with Grubacevic's well-received score for the 2006 children's feature The Ghost in the Swamp, directed by Branko Istvancic. Their collaboration continued with the 2011 drama The Bridge at the Edge of the World, based on an award-winning novel by Josip Mlakic. Dalibor Grubacevic was born and educated in Koprivnica. His musical beginnings came with the pop-rock band The Bugs, inspired by the music of The Beatles, whose music he has closely studied; the band recorded a studio album in the early 1990's. Later, Grubacevic studied classical composition under the private tutelage of Professor Natalija Imbrisak. In addition to his film and TV music, Grubacevic has had a long and fruitful career as an arranger for numerous Croatian and international artists. Since 2004, he has been working with Macedonian composer, singer and producer Aleksandar Mitevski, arranging the humanitarian song "Site sme nivni deca", which featured many Macedonian pop stars. One of them was the late Tose Proeski, for whom Grubacevic had written a string arrangement for his cover of "Can You Feel the Love Tonight." He has also arranged for Dario Pankovski (album Dario - 25 live!), Aleksandar Mitevski (Kirilica), and Zoran Dzorlev, on the song "Ne kazuvaj libe" from the eponymous album. He has also arranged for Arsen Dedic, on his cover of Mitevski's song "Balada". Grubacevic has produced the 2008 album Fulmination by the renowned Croatian ethno-blues artist Miroslav Evacic, receiving a nomination for the country's pre-eminent musical award, the Porin, in the Best Ethno Album category. Also worth noting are his scores for the 2010 wartime documentary Suspended Voice, by Visnja Staresina, and the documentary series Hebrang by Zoran Budak and Croatian Aquatic Treasure by Miro Andric, in addition to the aforementioned In Search of Marco Polo, by Miro Brankovic.