Berislav Šipuš

Berislav Šipuš (b. 1958) is a Croatian composer and conductor. He was born in Zagreb and studied art history at the University of Zagreb and composition at the Zagreb Academy of Music in the class of professor Stanko Horvat. He got additional education in composition with Gilbert Bosco from Udine, François-Bernard Mâche and Iannis Xenakis from Paris and in conducting with Milan Horvat. In year 1989, he began his cooperation with the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy, where he worked as accompanist at the Ballet section, a conductor in the ballet productions and assistant conductor in the Opera section (1999–2001). At the same time, Šipuš was active in Zagreb, particularly at the Zagreb Academy of Music, where he worked as the lecturer of musical theory (1988–1989), Assistant Professor at the Department of Composition and Music Theory (since 1998), associate professor (since 2005) and full-time professor (since 2009). He was also a producer in years 1987 and 1989, as well as artistic director of Music Biennale Zagreb (1997–2011). From 2001 until 2005, Šipuš served as a Director of the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra and artistic director of the Cantus Ansambl. In 2015, Šipuš was named Minister of Culture of the Croatia in the Cabinet of Zoran Milanović. For his compositions (about fifty works) Berislav Šipuš has been awarded at Croatia and abroad with Zagreb Music Biennial Award (1987), Udine Contemporary Music Festival Award (1987), Boris Papandopulo Award of the Croatian Composers Society (2002), etc.