Kornelije Kovač

Kornelije "Bata" Kovač

Kovač promoting the Omladina festival in October 2011.
Background information
Birth name Kovács Kornél
Born 1 January 1942
Niš, Serbia under German occupation
Genres Progressive Rock, Symphonic Rock, Jazz Rock, Classical
Occupation(s) Musician, songwriter, composer, producer
Instruments Keyboards, organ, piano
Years active 1961 – present
Labels PGP-RTB, Casa Ricordi, Philips Records, Jugoton, Komuna Belgrade, PGP RTS, ITMM
Associated acts Indexi, Korni Grupa, Zdravko Čolić, Bisera Veletanlić, Riblja Čorba, Bajaga i Instruktori

Kornelije "Bata" Kovač (pronounced [kɔ̌rne̞ːlije̞ bǎːta kɔ̂v̞atʃ]; Serbian Cyrillic: Корнелије Ковач, Hungarian: Kovács Kornél; born 1 January 1942) is a famous Serbian composer.

Early life

Born in Niš during World War II in the Nazi-occupied Serbia to a Hungarian father and a Serbian mother, Kovač grew up in a prominent artistic family - his grandfather was a conductor, his father a music professor and a violinist, his mother a singer in the opera choir.

Kornelije Kovač received his early music education at his hometown's Subotica College Of Music, after which he attempted to enroll in the Belgrade Music Academy. He didn't pass the entrance exam so he entered the Academy Of Music Art in Sarajevo where he graduated from the Theory And Piano Department.

Along with his classical music education, he was devoting a great deal of his time to the pop and rock music.

Career

His career as a professional musician started in 1961. Profoundly educated, he was able to exercise successfully in various fields of activities: as composer, pianist, keyboard player, producer and arranger. In 1961, he formed his first band, BKB, which became a prominent jazz trio at the time. In 1963 they entered The Yu Jazz Festival, that took place in Bled (Slovenia). After conducting the various orchestras in Bosnia, he finally joined Sarajevo's most popular pop band Indeksi. With them he had a two-month-long tour in Russia. In 1968, he moved to the Yugoslav capital, Belgrade, where he founded one of the most significant Yugoslav pop-rock bands ever, Korni Grupa. As a composer and a musician, he won many music contests that took place in former Yugoslavia. With Korni Grupa he entered following music festivals in Europe:

In 1979 Kornelije Kovač moved to England where he collaborated in various projects, such as :

Among the prominent British musicians with whom Kornelije Kovač collaborated while living in UK, were:

Recent projects

Kornelije Kovač has been writing music for theatre, movies and television. Like the composer of pop and rock music he has been greatly successful. His songs were released on numerous LP-s in Yugoslavia, Spain, France, the United States, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Norway etc. Many of them were Golden or Platinum Records.

Since 1979, Kornelije Kovač has participated in many projects in Spain, as a producer, composer or arranger.

Most recent release

He was married to Spomenka Stojanović until Spomenka's death with whom he has three daughters: Aleksandra, Kristina (both of whom are also involved with music) and Anja.

On 19 January 2011, Serbian broadcaster RTS announced that Kornelije Kovač and his two daughters Aleksandra and Kristina Kovač will each compose a song and present a singer, who is representing Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011.[1]

External links

References

  1. ↑ Jiandani, Sanjay (2011-01-19). "Serbia: Kovac family to compose entry". EscToday.com. Retrieved 2011-01-19.