PETAR UGRIN

Born: January 12th, 1944, Zagreb, Croatia (Yugoslavia)

Died: September 14th, 2001, Ljubljana (Slovenia)

Nationality: Slovene

In due course, the short impression below will be replaced with a more extensive career overview

BIOGRAPHY

Petar ‘Pero’ Ugrin studied the trumpet and violin at the Ljubljana Music Academy. He became Yugoslavia’s best-known jazz trumpeter, playing in the ensembles of Josip Forenbacher, Janez Gregorc (with whom he performed at the Bled Jazz Festival), and Silvije Glojnarić. In 1972, Ugrin joined Jože Privšek’s Ljubljana Radio and Television Big Band. In 1979, he released a modern jazz album, ‘Samo muzika’, for which he sang and moreover played the trumpet, flugelhorn, electric violin, and tambourine; some pieces on this album were written by Privšek, while Slobodan Marković took care of the synthesizer. Ugrin was a member of progressive jazz band September. As a session musician, he worked with artists such as Tihomir Asanović and Aska.

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST

Petar Ugrin was the musical director of Kvalifikacija za Millstreet, the pre-selection in which seven new EBU members from Eastern Europe vied for three places in the 1993 Eurovision Song Contest final in Millstreet. He conducted the RTV Ljubljana Big Band for the Slovenian and Hungarian entries, ‘Tih deževen dan’ and ‘Árva reggel’ respectively, of which the former qualified. Ugrin, however, did not accompany the Slovene group 1 X Band to the Eurovision final, where ‘Tih deževen dan’ was conducted by its arranger, Jože Privšek.

EUROVISION INVOLVEMENT YEAR BY YEAR

1993 Millstreet (1)

Country – Hungary

Song title – “Árva reggel”

Rendition – Andrea Szulák

Lyrics – György Jakab / Emese Hatvani

Composition – László Pásztor / György Jakab

Studio arrangement (demo) – László Pásztor / György Jakab

Live orchestration – Miklós Malek

Conductor semi-final – Petar Ugrin (MD)

Score semi-final – 6th place (44 votes) & DNQ

1993 Millstreet (2)

Country – Slovenia

Song title – “Tih deževen dan”

Rendition – 1 X Band (Cole Moretti / Andrej Bedjanić / Tomaž Kosec feat. Urška Gestrin / Sandra Zupanc / Barbara Šinigoj)

Lyrics – Tomaž Kosec

Composition – Cole Moretti

Studio arrangement – Jože Privšek

(Festival Orchestra RTV Slovenia conducted by Petar Ugrin)

Live orchestration – Jože Privšek

Conductor semi-final – Petar Ugrin (MD)

Conductor final – Jože Privšek

Score semi-final – 1st place (54 votes)

Score final – 23rd place (9 votes)