Berislav Šipuš

Director of the Ensemble, composer, conductor and educator

Berislav Šipuš (Zagreb, b. 1958), pursued his art history studies at the Faculty of Arts and Letters along with the composition studies with Stanko Horvat at the Zagreb Academy of Music, from which he graduated in 1987. He continued with his studies in composition with Gilbert Bosco in Udine (1986) and with François-Bernard Mâche and Iannis Xenakis at the Electronic Studio UPIC in Paris (1987). He studied conducting with Vladimir Kranjčević, Željko Brkanović, Krešimir Šipuš and Milan Horvat.

From 1979 to 1982 he was a pianist-in-residence and repetiteur at the Croatian National Theatre Ballet in Zagreb; from 1987 to 1989 he taught music theory at the Elly Bašić Music College in Zagreb; from 1988 to 1989 he worked as a pianist and repetiteur for the Bermuda Civic Ballet, and from 1989 he worked as a programme producer for the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall. That same year he began his cooperation with the Teatro alla Scala in Milan as a pianist and repetiteur in the ballet (1989-1999), orchestra conductor for ballet productions (1997-1999), pianist and repetiteur and conducting assistant in the opera (1999-2002). He was concurrently active in Zagreb, particularly at the Academy of Music as a teacher of theoretical subjects (1988-1989). In 1998 he became assistant professor in the Department of Composition and Music Theory, and associate professor in 2005. He worked as a producer of the Music Biennale Zagreb in 1987 and 1989. He has been its artistic director since 1997. From 2001 to 2005 he was the managing director of the Zagreb Philharmonic. He has been managing the Cantus Ensemble since its foundation in 2001.

He has conducted all over Croatia, in Bulgaria, Albania, Germany and Italy, and has received many Croatian and foreign awards for his compositions. Among these are the Rector’s Award of the University of Zagreb (1985), the first prize at the 15th International Jeunesses Musicales Competition (Belgrade, 1985), SKOJ Seven Secretaries’ Award (1985), Music Biennale Zagreb Award (1987), Udine Festival of Contemporary Music Award (1987), Croatian Music Institute Award (1988), The Days of Yugoslav Music Award (1989), Vjesnik’s Josip Štolcer Slavenski Award (1995), Boris Papandopulo Award of the Croatian Composers’ Society (2002), Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of France (2004).