Mladen Tarbuk (1962), one of the most versatile Croatian artists, works with equal success as a composer, conducter, writer, educator and producer.

He reached the peak of his diverse career in 20

08 at the Vienna Musikverein when he conducted works by Haydn and Mozart played by the orchestra Concert – Verein. On this occasion he conducted his own piece Sebastian u snu. As a conductor he achieved a good international reputation regularly performing as guest conductor with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf from 2004 to 2009, conducting in various opera houses, concert halls and renowned symphony orchestras in Canada, Mexico, Germany, Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Serbia…

Maestro Mladen Tarbuk left a mark on the Croatian music scene conducting opera productions of the Music Academy which were performed within the “Lisinski subotom” season (Die Zauberflöte, Carmen, Le Rossignol); with several years of collaboration with the Symphony Orchestra with which, in addition to numerous concerts of contemporary and classic symphonic repertoire, he recorded thousands of minutes of mostly Croatian music; he is known for the establishment of the Symphonic Wind Orchestra of the Croatian Army. Despite numerous difficulties in the short period while he worked as artistic manager of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb from 2002 to 2005, Maestro Mladen Tarbuk offered the Croatian audience a number of top performances (Glorija, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District, Don Carlos, Tristan and Isolde, Bajadera, Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story, Der Eisenhammer).

In 2001 after the resignation of artistic director Valter Despalj, in only three months maestro Mladen Tarbuk successfully compiled a music program for the Dubrovnik Summer Festival. Twelve years later, in 2013 he became artistic director of the music program and achieved remarkable conceptual shifts.