A website dedicated to the Eurovision orchestra and the 346 musicians who conducted it between the first contest in 1956 and the last live orchestra edition in 1998. By using the various indexes, a wealth of interviews with, and biographical information about musicians from all corners of Europe can be accessed - as well as backgrounds about the history of the Eurovision Song Contest, the San Remo Festival, and the Nordring Radio Prize. Feel free to roam around!
The following article is an overview of the career of Hungarian trumpet player, composer, arranger, and conductor Miklós Malek. The main source of information is an interview with Mr Malek, conducted by Bas Tukker in Budapest, 2007. The article below is subdivided into two main parts; a general career overview (part 3) and a part dedicated to Miklós Malek's Eurovision involvement (part 4).
Miklós Malek twice conducted a Hungarian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest, in 1995 and 1998. Moreover, he arranged the music to ‘Árva reggel’, which failed to qualify from the 1993 Eastern European preliminary round for the contest in Millstreet.
BIOGRAPHY
Miklós Malek hails from a working-class family. At a very young age, he became interested in music, mastering the accordion and the trumpet. He played the trumpet in a Dixieland orchestra with which he won a talent show that was broadcast on national TV in 1963. As a result of this, he decided he wanted to make a career in music. He studied classical trumpet at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest (1964-70).
Since the 1960s, he has worked as a composer and arranger in the Hungarian popular music industry and the world of theatre. Amongst others, he worked both as composer, arranger and trumpeter with his own Expressz Ensemble for more than twenty years. After that, he joined Studio 11, the music band of Hungarian radio. One of his songs, ‘Hull az elsárgult levél’, won a prize in the Bratislavská Lýra Festival in Czechoslovakia (1974).
Although Malek’s work focuses on popular music genres in the first place, he has orchestrated and composed symphonic character pieces – commissioned by the Hungarian Radio – on a regular basis since 1975; amongst these are three brass concertos. Between 1992 and 1999 he was continuously employed by the Hungarian TV as a musical director.
However, he mainly works as an arranger in the recording studio, having collaborated with the likes of Caterina Valente and Harald Faltermeyer and even having been commissioned by the BBC to record the music for the TV series Robin Hood. Besides all this, he has often worked with live orchestras; most spectacular perhaps was his participation in the cross-over production Carmen with jazz guitarist Al Di Meola in 2003.
He is a board member of Artisjus, the Hungarian federation of composers. His wife and both of his children are professional musicians as well.
EUROVISION SONG CONTEST
Miklós Malek’s first involvement in the contest came in 1993, when he arranged the music to ‘Árva reggel’. This song, performed by Andrea Szulák, was chosen to represent Hungary in Ljubljana, in the preliminary heat for the new EBU members from Eastern Europe: apart from Hungary, these were: Estonia, Slovakia, Romania, Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina. The first three were to qualify for the Eurovision Song Contest in Millstreet, Ireland. Coincidentally or not, the three participating ex-Yugoslavian states won. Malek was not sent along as a conductor to Ljubljana, according to himself because, probably, Hungarian TV officials were not aware that it was customary to do so.
Two years later, in 1995, he was the Hungarian conductor in Dublin for Csaba Szigeti and his song ‘Új név egy régi ház falán’. Malek had not written the arrangement, but, two weeks before the contest, he was asked by the song’s composer, Ferenc Balázs, to come along to Dublin, because the arranger, a percussionist by the name of Bela Zsoldos, was not a conductor by profession. Strangely, Balázs and his lyricist Attila Horváth had to pay for Malek’s stay in Dublin, because Hungarian TV refused to do so.
Unfortunately, Csaba Szigeti lost his voice during a daytrip along the Irish coast and in the end, the Hungarian entry finished second-last. Nevertheless, Malek, being the passionate musician that he is, thoroughly enjoyed his stay in Dublin, curiously visiting the rehearsals of many other countries to see his colleagues at work with the orchestra. The sound technicians’ work interested him, too.
“That is also a part of my job, because I work in the studios a lot. I watched the rehearsals attentively, as if it were a football match! The organisation in Dublin was perfect. For that reason, I was not nervous at all. The orchestra was great; these musicians understood what music like this was about.”
At a reception in Dublin (Eurovision 1995)
In 1998, Malek was involved in the Hungarian entry ‘A holnap már nem lesz szomorú’, a delightful blues ballad, sung by Charlie, one of Hungary’s most successful recording artists. Composer István Lerch wrote the rhythm score, but Malek added an orchestration with strings and brass. He accompanied Charlie to Birmingham, England, as a conductor. Malek thought the English organisation was slightly inferior to what he had seen in Dublin three years before. But he enjoyed working with the BBC Concert Orchestra nonetheless.
“The best thing in Birmingham was the orchestra. It was spectacular, so much quality! Those musicians played practically everything by heart. The overture they played during the show was absolutely magnificent!”
This Hungarian entry was awarded with a mere four points and a 23rd place. This came as a shock for the entire Hungarian delegation. “This time we were even more heavily disappointed than in 1995. Not that I had expected that we would win or finish among the first five, no – but I thought we would get a respectable number of points. Charlie himself could not understand it either. His entire career has been a string of successes, apart from this Eurovision episode. The song was quite good, too. After the voting we went back to the hotel immediately, where we sat down at the bar and tried to find the reason as to why we had failed so utterly… Charlie had sung well, the music was played excellently. We simply could not understand it. Who knows, perhaps Europe was not ready for blues back then?”
The 2008 Hungarian entry, originally titled ‘Szívverés’, but during the contest sung in English (apart from a few lines) as “Candlelight”, was selected by an expert jury of which Malek was a member. The song was composed by Viktor Rakonczai (a former member of VIP, representatives of Hungary in 1997) and sung by Csézy. This classy traditional Eurovision ballad came last in the second semi-final.
Does Miklós Malek look back in anger on his Eurovision participations, which all ended with a disappointing result? “No, because I did what I could… and, if the orchestra returned to the contest, I would love to conduct it again! For, what could be better than working with an orchestra?"
The Hungarian delegation in Birmingham - composer István Lerch (far left), conductor Miklós Malek (third from left) putting his arm on the shoulder of solo singer Charlie, mouth organ player Tamás Szabó (second from right), lyricist Atilla Horváth (far right), and two backing singers
OTHER ARTISTS ABOUT MIKLÓS MALEK
Péter Wolf, himself twice a conductor in the contest, has known Miklós Malek since their student days in the 1960s. They are close friends. “We also meet privately. We have more or less led parallel lives, studying a classical instrument at the conservatory, but later working as arrangers for Hungarian radio and in the recording studios. However, he has one big downside: he does not like football! In the 1960s, we each were in a band of our own. Those bands used to play football against each other, for fun, on what almost was a daily basis. Miklós was the only one who never participated in those games…” (2007)
László Pásztor, composer of “Árva reggel” for the 1993 Eurovision Song Contest and one of the members of Neoton Familia, which won the 1983 Yamaha Music Festival in Tokyo with ‘Time goes by’. “Miklós and I are of the same age and started our career in music more or less at the same time. Our ways crossed several times as band leaders. He really is a nice guy with a profound knowledge of music. When arranging, he always succeeds in focusing on the essence of the work. He wrote new arrangements to my winning song in the Yamaha Festival ‘Time Goes By’, which I conducted at the anniversary concert of the festival in Tokyo in 1989. Apart from having orchestrated ‘Árva reggel’, he wrote many string arrangements to my songs for the popular pop group TNT.” (2007)
Atilla Horváth, coincidentally, was the lyricist of both songs that Miklós Malek conducted in the Eurovision Song Contest. “In 1995, both the composer of the song, Ferenc Balázs, Miklós and I had to pay for our stay in Dublin ourselves, since Hungarian TV could afford to delegate one person only: the performer, Csaba Szigeti. A friend of mine, chief editor of the Hungarian police magazine, managed to find accommodation for us in the headquarters of Irish police, a castle in Phoenix Park. Oddly, the officials there were all convinced we were very cleverly disguised secret agents. The composer and I were dressed in jeans and we wore long hair and earrings, while they assumed that Miklós, who looked every inch a gentleman, was our boss. Miklós only arrived one day before the last rehearsal. By then, Csaba had no voice left after having caught a terrible cold during a trip to the Irish seaside. Miklós understood what needed to be done; during the night, he translated the song into a lower key; he rearranged the entire orchestra, and wrote a whole new score for all instruments! Next morning, all musicians got their new sheets and Miklós invited every one of them for champagne thanking them in advance for their pains of having to learn the new version. After the contest, Miklós and I decided to spend a week in London, the capital of rock music. He is a super-gifted musician, a real gentleman and a good friend.” (2008)
The Hungarian team in the 1995 Eurovision Song Contest during a riding tour in Belfast, Northern Ireland: Miklós Malek is standing up; seated (from left to right) - singer Csaba Szigeti, composer Ferenc Balázs, and lyricist Atilla Horváth
Bas Tukker did an interview with Miklós Malek (and Péter Wolf) in Budapest, August 2007; this interview was previously published in EA-Nieuws (2008-09, no. 1), the magazine of Eurovision Artists
Sleeve notes of CD 'Brass concertos' by Miklós Malek (Hungaroton / 2003)
Thanks to Attila Horváth, Péter Wolf, and Lászlo Pásztor for providing their additional comments
In due course, the short impression below will be replaced with a more extensive career overview
BIOGRAPHY
After an unfinished bar study at university, Stefan Raab started working as a freelance composer of radio commercials in 1990. In the 1990s, he became a television personality, hosting the show Vivasion on nationwide music channel VIVA. Simultaneously, he began composing and producing songs, mainly novelty records. Since 1999, he has been the presenter of TV Total, a late night show which has been broadcast by ProSieben four times a week since 2001. In 2005, intending to create a better version of the Eurovision Song Contest, Raab initiated the Bundesvision Contest, with songs from all sixteen states of Germany.
EUROVISION SONG CONTEST
Stefan Raab is the only Eurovision conductor in the history of the contest not to have conducted one single note: being the composer of the 1998 German entry, Guildo Horn’s comedy effort ‘Guildo hat Euch lieb!’, he insisted on taking the conductor’s bow, although all music came from a pre-recorded track. Guildo Horn finished eighth. Two years later, Raab participated again, this time as the singer of his own creation ‘Wadde hadde dudde da?’, which came fifth.
In 2004, he composed the best of his three Eurovision songs, the laid-back ‘Can’t Wait Until Tonight’; performed by Max Mutzke, this German entry finished eight. In 2010, Raab was the jury president of the pre-selection process, dubbed Unser Star für Oslo; the eventual winner, Lena Meyer-Landrut, went on to win the contest proper with ‘Satellite’. The following year, Lena Meyer-Landrut again represented Germany, this time with a song produced by Raab, 'Taken By A Stranger'.
Rendition – Guildo Horn & Die Orthopädischen Strümpfe (= Michael Kernbach / Rainer Kind / August Schrader / Albert Niesen / Michael Schneider)
Lyrics – Stefan Raab
Composition – Stefan Raab
Studio arrangement – Stefan Raab / Michael Holm
Live orchestration – none
"Conductor" – Stefan Raab
Score – 7th place (86 votes)
2000 Stockholm
Country – United Germany
Song title – “Wadde hadde dudde da?”
Rendition – Stefan Raab
Lyrics – Stefan Raab
Composition – Stefan Raab
Studio arrangement – Stefan Raab
Live orchestration – none
Conductor – none
Score – 5th place (96 votes)
2004 Istanbul
Country – United Germany
Song title – “Can’t Wait Until Tonight”
Rendition – Max Mutzke
Lyrics – Stefan Raab
Composition – Stefan Raab
Studio arrangement – Max Mutzke / Stefan Raab / The Heavytones (= Rüdiger Baldauf / Wolfgang Norman Dalheimer / Alfonso Garrido / Herbert Jösch / Niels Klein / Dominik Krämer / Philip Niessen / César Pérez)
In due course, the short impression below will be replaced with a more extensive career overview
BIOGRAPHY
Wiesław Pieregorólka played in several jazz bands as a clarinettist and pianist, before he formed the Pieregorólka Big Band, which, in the 1980s, contained some of Poland’s best jazz musicians and performed in jazz festivals abroad. In the 1990s, Pieregorólka established himself as an important record producer for Universal Music, working with artists such as Wojtek Pilichowski, Kasia Kowalska, and Srebrne Kagańce.
As a composer and arranger, he wrote for the likes of Kuba Badach, Andrzej Zaucha, and the groups Perfect and Boleros. In 1997, he was nominated for the Fryderyk Award for best arranger of the year. He wrote the music to several TV series, including the sitcom Lokatorzy, which ran for 6 years.
EUROVISION SONG CONTEST
Wiesław Pieregorólka conducted two Polish Eurovision Song Contest entries, the first one being ‘Chcę znać swój grzech’ for Kasia Kowalska in 1996; the sophisticated arrangement to this intense ballad was written by Pieregorólka himself. Two years later, he conducted ‘To takie proste’ for the band Sixteen in the festival final held in Birmingham.
Lastly, in 1999, the first Eurovision edition without an orchestra present, Pieregorolka had a hand in writing the studio arrangement for that year's Polish entry, 'Przytul mnie mocno'.
Born: May 9th, 1945, Čáry, Slovakia (Czechoslovakia)
Nationality: Slovak
In due course, the short impression below will be replaced with a more extensive career overview
BIOGRAPHY
At the Bratislava Conservatory, Vladimír 'Vlado' Valovič studied the trumpet and conducting (1961-67). In the early 1970s, he worked as the musical director of the Czech radio branches in Brno and Bratislava. In 1974, he founded the VV Systém Jazz Orchestra, with which he toured in Czechoslovakia and abroad; amongst the members of the orchestra was Juraj Burian. Between 1983 and 1994, Valovič conducted the Radio Bratislava Big Band and, from 1994 onwards, he has waved the baton for the Gustav Brom Orchestra. He arranged and conducted songs in many editions of the Bratislavská Lýra Festival.
EUROVISION SONG CONTEST
Vladimir Valovič conducted three Slovak Eurovision entries, the first one being ‘Amnestia na neveru’, which was performed by Elán in the 1993 Eurovision pre-selection for the new EBU members from Eastern Europe; the Slovak rock ballad came just one point short of qualifying for the international final in Millstreet.
One year later, the country made its official debut in the contest with Martin Ďurinda and his band Tublatanka and their composition, ‘Nekonečna pieseň’ – another rock anthem. In 1998, on his birthday, Valovič led the Eurovision orchestra in Birmingham for ‘Modlitba’, a stylish yet much underrated ballad performed by Katarina Hasprová.
In due course, the short impression below will be replaced with a more extensive career overview
BIOGRAPHY
Alberto Estébanez Santesteban studied at the Pamplona Music Academy, but he already earned his money as a professional pianist from his seventeenth year onwards, accompanying the likes of Pablo Abraira, Paloma San Basilio, and Manolo Escobar. From the late 1980s onwards, he got involved in recording sessions, first as a keyboardist and later as a producer as well. He wrote arrangements for Julio Iglesias, La Década Prodigiosa, Serafín Zubiri, and, more recently, David Bisbal and Rafael Artesero. He composed many pop tracks with lyrics by Mikel Herzog. On Spanish television, he was the producer and musical director of the Operación Triunfo casting show.
EUROVISION SONG CONTEST
Alberto Estébanez composed the song ‘¿Qué voy a hacer sin ti?’, performed by Mikel Herzog, who also wrote the lyrics. It was the Spanish entry to the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest in Birmingham. Estébanez wrote the orchestral arrangement to this Mediterranean ballad and conducted the Eurovision orchestra in the live broadcast. Spain finished sixteenth.
Two years later, Estébanez had another Eurovision involvement, as he produced (and arranged) the studio version of Serafín Zubiri's Spanish entry 'Colgado de un sueño'. Given that the 2000 Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm did not have a live orchestra, Estébanez was deprived of a second opportunity to make his appearance as a conductor in the event.
In due course, the short impression below will be replaced with a more extensive career overview
BIOGRAPHY
Being a graduate of London’s Royal College of Music, Martin Koch has orchestrated many of the most popular musicals at West End theatre since the late 1970s, including Chicago, Oliver, and Mamma Mia! He supervised the productions of Les Misérables and Miss Saigon in the Netherlands, Australia, Poland, Austria, South Africa, Norway, and several Asian countries. He was the musical director of several award shows in the 1990s, including the Laurence Olivier Awards from 1993 to 1995. With Nick Gilpin, he founded a music production company and he worked on productions with Anastacia, Diana Krall, Michael Bublé, and Cliff Richard. In 2009, Koch won no fewer than three awards (Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Broadway World Award) for his orchestration to the musical Billy Elliot.
EUROVISION SONG CONTEST
Martin Koch was the musical director of the last Eurovision Song Contest to date with live orchestral accompaniment; this was in 1998, when the festival was held in Birmingham. Koch arranged the music to the opening and closing sequences and the interval entertainment ‘Jupiter – The Bringer Of Jollity’, featuring Lesley Garrett and Vanessa Mae. Because the live music rule was no longer in force, several countries’ delegations chose to not use the accompaniment of the BBC Concert Orchestra at all. Koch himself conducted the French entry Marie-Line’s ‘Où aller’; the decision to have the backing track to this song enriched with live string accompaniment was only taken in the course of the rehearsals leading up to the live broadcast.
The following article is an overview of the career of Croatian composer, arranger, and conductor Stjepan "Stipica" Kalogjera. The main source of information is an interview with Mr Kalogjera, conducted by Bas Tukker, July 2011. The article is subdivided into two main parts; a general career overview (part 3) and a part dedicated to Stipica Kalogjera's Eurovision involvement (part 4).
Born: May 24th, 1934, Belgrade, Serbia (Yugoslavia)
Died: January 3rd, 2025, Zagreb (Croatia)
Nationality: Croatian
SHORT EUROVISION RECORD
Stipica Kalogjera orchestrated and conducted two Croatian Eurovision entries in the 1990s; ‘Nostalgija’ (1995) and ‘Neka mi ne svane’ (1998). His involvement in the contest started much earlier, though, because he wrote the arrangements to ‘Jedan dan’ and ‘Pozdrav svijetu’, the Yugoslavian efforts in 1968 and 1969. Moreover, he participated as an arranger or conductor in many editions of the Yugoslavian and Croatian Eurovision pre-selections, in which he had three more involvements with winning entries after the abolition of the Eurovision orchestra in 1998.
BIOGRAPHY
Stjepan ‘Stipica’ Kalogjera is the younger brother of Nikica Kalogjera, also a composer and arranger with an involvement in the Eurovision Song Contest. Their father, a native Croatian, was a professor of history at the Belgrade High School, who moved to Zagreb in 1947. Stipica started playing the violin when he was six years old. He further mastered this instrument at the Vatroslav Lisinski Music Academy in Zagreb, where he also studied the viola, trumpet, and piano as well as following obligatory courses in theoretical subjects such as solfège, harmony, counterpoint, and music history (1947-52).
Although initially attracted to classical music, Stipica became interested in jazz in the late 1940s, as he recalls. “When I was fourteen or fifteen years old, I listened to the broadcasts of Radio Luxembourg for the first time and I was delighted by the big band of Duke Ellington with Cat Anderson on trumpet! Around the same time, I saw some American films such as Bathing Beauty and Young Man With A Horn, which featured some of the best jazz musicians of the time. It was especially Henry James’ rendition of ‘Hora Staccato’ that fascinated me. At that point, in 1951, I decided I wanted to study playing the jazz trumpet as well.”
Stipica Kalogjera (far left) as the trombone player in his brother Nikica's jazz sextet, mid-1950s. The others, from left to right - Ozren Depolo (sax), Rajko Milosavljević (at the piano, but in fact double-bass player) with above him Ivo Mosettig (trombone), Nikica Kalogjera (piano), and Silvije Glojnarić (drums)
“Just like my brother Nikica, I studied medicine at the University of Zagreb. It's a pure coincidence that the both of us later chose the same career in music. My parents wanted us to progress as doctors but because studying music and medicine at the same time proved impossible, I left the music school in 1952. As an adolescent, studying music had been no more than a hobby, but later I became so passionate about jazz that I could not leave it alone! Between 1951 and 1957, I played in many different amateur bands and combos; one of those was the Joža Vlahović Big Band. With a group of friends from the jazz scene, we miraculously managed to get permission from Yugoslavian authorities to travel to the West in 1957. Our tour lasted for a full year. We travelled across France and West Germany, entertaining the soldiers in the American Forces clubs along the way. In serious music, I was the concert master of the Social Orchestra of the Music Institution of Zagreb between 1955 and 1957, playing the viola.”
Almost immediately upon his return in Yugoslavia after his stay in Western Europe (1958), Kalogjera was invited to join Miljenko Prohaska’s Big Band of Radio Zagreb as a trumpet player. Meanwhile, he continued his medicine studies, finishing his Ph.D. thesis in 1962. He was a practicing doctor at the Sveti Duh hospital in Zagreb for one year only, quitting in 1963 because his extensive work in the music business took up all of his time.
“Already by the late 1950s, it was obvious to me that I could earn pretty good money as a musician; in comparison to other European countries, rewards weren't impressive, but life in Yugoslavia was very cheap at that time. After our tour in Western Europe, I was very eager to return home to start working professionally. In the Big Band of Radio Zagreb, I was given the opportunity to write my first arrangements. Initially, Nikica, who already had considerable experience as a composer and arranger, provided me with some help, getting me started in the business. Before long, I discovered I truly had the talent to create music! From that moment onwards, I started composing and arranging for various other orchestras and choirs as well. Another field of activity became writing music for cartoons and television series.”
With his wife, singer Maruška Šinković (late 1960s)
Kalogjera was a faithful member of the Big Band of Radio Zagreb (renamed the HRT Big Band), staying with the orchestra for a full forty years (1958-98). Apart from his work as a trumpeter and arranger, he later also played the keyboards in the ensemble. Between 1990 and 1994, he was the big band’s sound producer as well. As an arranger, he wrote over 5,000 scores for the big band and various other orchestras.
From the late 1950s onwards, however, Stipica Kalogjera’s main claim to fame has been his signature under literally thousands of arrangements to pop and light entertainment songs. In 1958, he worked at the Jugoton Studios in Zagreb for the first time, recording with the popular vocal quartet 4M. For 4M, he wrote the arrangements to their successful covers of American pop repertoire.
"The first few years of my musician's life were spent exclusively as a performer. The first arrangement I wrote was in 1958 for a performance at Šalata (in Zagreb - BT). The guys from the quartet 4M asked me to write an arrangement for the then hugely popular hit by Paul Anka, 'Diana'. That's how it began. Then I also wrote the charts to their follow-up hits like 'Buona Sera' and 'The Great Pretender'."
Mr Kalogjera (far left) performing a violin solo with Miljenko Prohaska conducting the Radio Zagreb Big Band behind him (c. 1970)
In time, Kalogjera's sophisticated arrangements gave him the reputation of one of Yugoslavia’s best orchestrators. In the 1960s and 1970s, he wrote the scores to hit records such as ‘Suza za zagorske brege’ for Vice Vukov (1968), ‘Više se nećeš vratiti’ for Mišo Kovač (1969), ‘Sve što znaš o meni’ for Arsen Dedić (1969), ‘Galeb i ja’ for Oliver Dragojević (1975), and ‘Nježne strune mandoline’ for Tereza Kesovija (1975). Kalogjera specialized in penning tasteful string and brass arrangements for ballads in the typical Dalmatian style, which explains why he worked so extensively with some of the prime artists of this genre, such as Arsen Dedić and Ðorđi Peruzović.
Although primarily sought after as an arranger, Stipica Kalogjera made his mark as a songwriter as well. As a composer, he has an impressive string of hits and evergreens to his credit – almost all of them ballads – including ‘Obećaj mi to (Zajedno)’ for Gabi Novak & Marko Novosel (1961), ‘Ti koju ne poznam’ for Igor Jakac (1965), ‘Adrese moje mladosti’ for Gabi Novak (1966), ‘Bit ćeš uvijek moja’ for Arsen Dedić (1969), ‘Tvoje lice’ for Mišo Kovač (1971), ‘Tvojih pola sata’ for Hrvoje Hegedušić (1973), ‘Ponoćno sunce’ for Ðorđi Peruzović (1974), ‘Djeca jednog vijeka’ for Oliver Dragojević (1975), and ‘Sunce djetinjstva’ for Kemal Monteno (1978). Kalogjera’s songs were also recorded by artists such as Krunoslav Slabinac, Duško Lokin, Džo Maračić, Dalibor Brun, Ivica Šerfezi, Lidija Percan, Ibrica Jusić, and Tereza Kesovija.
When asked about his output as a composer, Kalogjera explains, "It's true that I wrote far more arrangements than compositions. I have never abandoned composing completely, but I worked less on it over the years. It's not that I preferred arranging, but people just continually asked me for arrangements and that takes a lot of time, so I don't get enough time to compose. I started in the 1960s. It was the time of the emergence of many festivals. I regularly participated in festivals in Zagreb, Split, Opatija, and once in Krapina, but that festival is somehow outside my style, so I can't say that I did anything significant; but I don't have complaints, because fortunately some of my songs were very popular."
With Istrian songstress Lidija Percan in the Jugoton Studios in Zagreb, mid-1980s
Stipica Kalogjera participated in numerous song contests in the former Yugoslavia as a songwriter and arranger. His well-known compositions ‘Ti si moja obala’ and ‘Krovovi’, performed by Gabi Novak (1960) and 4M (1962) respectively, participated in the Zagrebfest of Popular Music; the former of these songs won the jury prize. Gabi Novak interpreted another of Kalogjera’s creations, ‘Vino i gitare’, at the 1967 Opatija Festival and was awarded with a first prize by the audience and a second prize by the professional jury. In 1973, Stipica’s wife Maruška Šinković-Kalogjera won the prestigious Split Song Festival with ‘Ća je bilo, tega više ni’, which was composed, arranged, and conducted by her husband; an English version of the song was performed by British jazz vocalist Frank Holder. With the same song, Stipica and Maruška represented Yugoslavia at the Bratislavská Lýra Festival in Czechoslovakia in 1974, obtaining the Silver Lyre (second place).
Kalogjera has been involved in every edition of the Split Song Festival since 1962 as an arranger, writing the scores to over one-hundred participating songs, including successful efforts as Oliver Dragojević’s ‘Picaferaj’ (1967), Josipa Lisac’s ‘Kapetane moj’ (1970), Meri Cetinić’s ‘Čet’ri stađuna’ (1979), Jasna Zlokić’s ‘Adio bella’ (1987), and Radojka Šverko’s ‘Još mirišu kušini’ (1990). Apart from his overall victory in 1973, Kalogjera won many other prizes in Split, including more than ten awards for the best arrangement and the jury prize in 1982 for his composition ‘Dobra večer, uzorita’, which was interpreted by Kemal Monteno. In the 1980s, Kalogjera was the musical director of several editions of the song festival in Split. As an arranger and conductor, he also participated in music festivals in Belgrade, Krapina, Skopje, and Pristina.
“Although I never received formal training as a conductor," Kalogjera explains, "I managed to fairly quickly get the hang of how to work with orchestras on recording and performing arrangements. The first time ever I conducted an orchestra was in 1968, but that was in the recording studio; my first stage appearance was at the Split Song Festival of 1970. One of the most important qualities of a conductor in the light entertainment business is to maintain a good contact with the members of the orchestra, making sure each of them is motivated to play at his best. During rehearsals, he has to be able to recognize wrong tones of every instrument in the band. Unfortunately, due to my high age, in 2011 I had to take the decision not to appear anymore as a conductor in the Split Song Festival. Those lengthy rehearsals and three festival evenings have simply become too exhausting for me! That does not mean I will not be involved in the contest anymore, because I will still be writing scores; in 2011 alone, there were 21 entries to which I wrote the orchestral arrangement!”
With Maruška (c. 1995)
Uniquely, Stipica Kalogjera has managed to successfully do the same work for over fifty years now. From 1980 onwards, his arrangements were not only recorded by the artists with whom he had already worked in previous decades, such as Oliver Dragojević and Kemal Monteno, but also with younger performers such as Goran Karan and Danijela Martinović. In his long career, he arranged a staggering 85 hours of music, including some 500 arrangements to songs composed by Zdenko Runjić, approximately 250 by Ðorđe Novković, and 170 by Kemal Monteno. A factor in Kalogera's continued success seems to have been his ability to adapt to important technical developments.
"In the beginning of my career, all studio work was completely live, with all musicians playing simultaneously in one session which was recorded on a 1/4 inch analogue tape recorder. In the 1980s, the 1/2 inch recorder was introduced in the Jugoton Studios. Then came the 16 and 24 track tape recorders and, nowadays, we create all music with computers. I have worked with computers since 1990 – initially, only in studio sessions, but the last ten years at home as well for scores and music sheets. On a personal note, I regret the fact that orchestras have been replaced by playback and computers, but it is a development that cannot be stopped. For studio recordings today, I also work with drum tracks, for example.”
Although his extensive activities as an arranger for popular artists took up most of his time, Kalogjera managed to compose two pieces of musical theatre, which were performed at the Komedija Theatre in Zagreb, O’kaj (1974) and Kaj 2 O (1980). Especially O’kaj, a tale about two American cowboys in the Wild West (roles played by Boris Pavlenić and Martin Sagner) who decide to risk their lives for revolution in Mexico, with lyrics by Nino Škrabe, Boris Senker, and Tahir Mujičić, delighted the Croatian audience, being performed on no fewer than 271 occasions.
As for music awards, Stipica Kalogjera received several prizes for his achievements in music. In Belgrade, the 1989 Golden Turntable for best arranger of Yugoslavia was bestowed upon him. Moreover, he won no fewer than four Porin Prizes, the Croatian equivalents of the Grammy Awards: twice for the best production for two albums with Arsen Dedić (‘Tihi obrt’ in 1994 and ‘Ministarstvo’ in 1999) and once for best arrangement to a song recorded by Oliver Dragojević, ‘Cesarica’ (1994); and lastly, in 2010, he received the Porin Lifetime Achievement Award for his entire oeuvre, which includes an impressive amount of arrangements.
When asked about the quantity of his arranging work, Kalogjera smiles, "It's just work, work, and once again work with a little bit of talent and a large amount of experience acquired over the years. Although I am meticulous by nature, I started keeping records only in 1975; so at a very late stage. I began keeping notes in a book; what type of work and for which artist or composer. Since then, I have made almost 1,500 arrangements. Maybe a total of 3,000 in a lifetime! There are 150 arrangements for Oliver alone. The numbers are big, but then it also took me many years to write all of those scores!"
When asked about retiring in 2011, Stipica Kalogjera explained that he was not thinking about withdrawing from the music business yet. “I like to work, and although I always say how I don't have time - I feel best when I am working. Music is all I know and I couldn't do anything else. I do still enjoy writing arrangements; and I haven't given up performing altogether. The most ambitious project I was involved in the last couple of years without a doubt was the show in September 2010 with Tereza Kesovija, who celebrated her fifty years as a professional singer. For this show, staged in the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall in Zagreb, I wrote 25 arrangements for a symphony orchestra, which I conducted on stage. It's great to have the freedom to choose comfortable and interesting projects. I hope to be able to continue doing so for some years!”
Conducting a festival orchestra (2006)
EUROVISION SONG CONTEST
Long before Stipica Kalogjera represented his country Croatia as a conductor in the Eurovision Song Contest in the 1990s, he was involved in the festival as an arranger: he wrote the scores to two Yugoslavian entries, ‘Jedan dan’ (1968) and ‘Pozdrav svijetu’ (1969).
The former was interpreted by the very popular group Dubrovački Trubaduri, although Eurovision rules did not allow singing groups at that time and the official credits stated that the entry was performed by Luči Kapurso and Hamo Hajdarhodžić, with three other members forming the backing group. Their song, a mix of Dalmatian folklore with pop elements, did quite well in the contest, finishing seventh, and the single release went on to achieve hit success in several Western European countries, most notably Belgium and the Netherlands.
The 1969 effort ‘Pozdrav svijetu’, the lyrics being an endless list of greetings in different languages, was performed by Ivan (Ivica Krajač) & 3M – outside the microcosm of Eurovision better known as vocal quartet 4M, with which Kalogjera had collaborated so extensively around 1960 – and finished thirteenth. Both songs were conducted by Miljenko Prohaska.
When asked about these two arranging commissions, Kalogjera explains, “Of both of those entries I wrote the orchestration at the request of the song’s composer, Ðelo Jusić for ‘Jedan dan’ and Milan Lentić for ‘Pozdrav svijetu’. Mr Jusić became an excellent orchestra arranger later, but at that time he was still quite young and did not have the experience to write for a grand orchestra. In the late 1960s, I was not an established conductor, so it was never on the table that I would conduct these songs in the Eurovision Song Contest finals. Miljenko Prohaska was the official conductor of RTV Zagreb (the Croatian broadcaster in former Yugoslavia, BT). It was also he who conducted the recording sessions for these songs.”
“Somehow, ‘Jedan dan’ was a song destined to become a hit success from the very beginning; it has a very characteristic introduction and the melody is simple and memorable. ‘Pozdrav svijetu’, however, was not so attractive. It was intended to be an anthem that would have instant appeal to the audience – at which it failed!”
Ivan & 3M (better known in Yugoslavia as 4M) performing 'Pozdrav svijetu' on the 1969 Eurovision stage - Teatro Real, Madrid
Apart from his contribution to these two Yugoslavian entries, Kalogjera was involved in many editions of Jugovizija, the Yugoslavian pre-selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, as a composer and arranger. He wrote the scores to ‘Drage misli’ and ‘Jesen na rubu ulice’, with which Gabi Novak attempted to win a ticket to the Eurovision editions of 1961 and 1962 respectively. A couple of years later, he tried his hand at composing a suitable song for Gabi Novak himself, but ‘Prvo pismo’ was not chosen as the winning entry in 1966. Between 1984 and 1990, he arranged and conducted six Jugovizija hopefuls, including one submitted by RTV Pristina (Kosovo) and one by RTV Ljubljana (Slovenia). His protégés Oliver Dragojević’s (with the song ‘Ðeni’, 1988) and Boris Novković (‘Dajana’, 1990) came close to winning the selection programme, both finishing second.
The newly independent republic of Croatia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in 1993 and was reasonably successful in the 1990s, finishing with the first six no fewer than four times. Having finished in the bottom half of the scoreboard at its first two attempts in 1993 and 1994, it managed to impress the European juries for the first time in 1995 with a crossover ballad, ‘Nostalgija’, composed by Tonči Huljić. It was performed as a duet of Danijela Martinović, lead singer of pop group Magazin, and operatic vocalist Lidija Horvat. A year before, Huljić and Magazin had had a major hit success in Croatia with a similar song, ‘Simpatija’ – also scored by Stipica Kalogjera. Kalogjera also penned the arrangement to ‘Nostalgija’ and finally got the opportunity to conduct the orchestra in an international Eurovision final, in which Croatia finished sixth.
“With Mr Huljić, I worked on several projects,” Kalogjera comments, “and I was requested by him to write a suitable orchestration to ‘Nostalgija’. To my mind, it was an excellent song. At the finals in Dublin, it was very nice to meet my colleagues who conducted for Slovenia and Bosnia, Jože Privšek and Sinan Alimanović. Jože was a good friend and a brilliant jazz musician – surely the best arranger in former Yugoslavia."
"In rehearsals, there was some discussion with the Irish production team. The studio recording that I made of the song was exactly three minutes; however, the intro was a cadenza, a more or less improvised solo, by a violinist who was on stage with the group. It was impossible to tell beforehand how long his part would take. After the first rehearsal, I was told by the producer that we were over the maximum of three minutes. I was invited over to the control room to check the recording and they allowed me to explain my point of view. They were very understanding and that was the end of the problem! Working with the Irish orchestra itself was quite satisfying, although conducting in a Eurovision Song Contest is a little bit more difficult than otherwise, because you have to focus on three minutes only – something which requires a lot of concentration.”
Magazin's two lead singers in the 1995 Eurovision Song Contest - Danijela Martinović (left) and Lidija Horvat
The lead singer of Magazin, Danijela Martinović, left the group one year after the Eurovision participation to pursue a solo career. In 1998, she managed to win DORA, the Croatian Eurovision selection programme, with a lush ballad composed by Petar Grašo called ‘Neka mi ne svane’. When Danijela’s song won the selection, Stipica Kalogjera’s help was called upon to make a re-recording of it with a grand orchestra. The original arrangement by Remi Kazinoti had been done with synthesisers and without live instruments. In the international festival final, held in Birmingham (UK), this Croatian entry was awarded with 131 points and a fifth place.
When asked about his memories of Birmingham, Kalogjera replies, “From the first rehearsal in Birmingham, I had a good contact with the English orchestra musicians. It was a wonderful orchestra and they did an excellent job on the arrangement. ‘Neka mi ne svane’ is a very good composition and, apart from her good vocals, Danijela’s stage presentation was really attractive, too. It was great working with the BBC Radio Orchestra and meeting up with my old friends Mojmir Sepe and Aleksandar Džambazov, who was the musical director for the Macedonian delegation."
When asked about Birmingham in the interview he gave us in 2014, Džambazov himself also recalled meeting Kalogjera and Sepe, “We were part of the nucleus of arrangers and conductors who regularly met back in the days of those countless music festivals across Yugoslavia. Kalogjera had often conducted in Macedonia. We always had an excellent connection. Because of the falling apart of Yugoslavia and the disappearance of the festivals, I had not seen him for years. We were together at every opportunity, having a drink and a chat.”
Confirming the story, Kalogjera himself comments, “The three of us, Mojmir Sepe, Aleksandar, and I, spent some hours together remembering the glorious days of the Opatija Song Festival. We also went on an excursion together to the Swan Theatre in Shakespeare’s birthplace Stratford-upon-Avon. It was very nice meeting my old friends again.”
"My most vivid memory of the contest in Birmingham does not have to do with music at all, however. One day in the Holiday Inn where we were staying, at about 11.30pm, the fire alarm went off. My wife Maruška and I, who were both in our night dress, quickly got our clothes on and rushed down the staircase from the eleventh floor onto the street. Amidst all hotel guests gathered on the pavement outside the building, my wife discovered a little girl in a thin blouse. She shivering with cold. My wife gave her own coat to her. Luckily, the alarm was a false and we could all get back upstairs. When we were back in our room, my wife asked me if I knew who that girl was. She had no idea. She was very surprised to learn that it was our singer Danijela. Maruška simply had not recognised her without her make-up on!”
Danijela holding her trophy after winning the Croatian Eurovision pre-selection DORA in 1998
Though the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest was the last festival to date with a live orchestra, Stipica Kalogjera conducted several more Croatian entries, albeit in the pre-selection programme DORA only. In 1999, the first year without live music in the international final, HRT (Croatian TV) decided to introduce an orchestra to DORA. This might seem strange, even more so when one realises that, in all previous editions of DORA, sing-back – live vocals, but all music on backing track – had been in place.
“The broadcaster was forced to introduce an orchestra under pressure of the musicians’ trade union. There was a new law which stipulated that it was not allowed to broadcast any music festival on television without an orchestra of a minimum of twenty members.”
HRT, however, did not abide by this rule very strictly, as there was no live music in the 2000 edition of DORA. After three more editions with an orchestra (2001 to 2003), the live band was dropped once and for all in 2004.
“The new regulations weren't popular with music festival organizers. For the many regional festivals we have here in Croatia, it was impossible to find the financial resources to keep maintaining such a big orchestra. HRT weren't fond of having to pay for twenty musicians either. The broadcaster exerted considerable pressure on the government; and unfortunately the rule was dropped in 2004. That was the end of the story.”
In the editions of 1999, 2001, 2002, and 2003, Stipica Kalogjera was not only involved as a conductor of a considerable part of the entries, but as HRTs music producer as well. He conducted three winning songs: ‘Marija Magdalena’ by Doris Dragović (1999), ‘Strune ljubavi (Strings of my heart)’ by Vanna (2001), and ‘Sasvim sigurna (Everything I want)’ by Vesna Pisarović (2002). In all three cases, the original arrangement had been written by others, upon which Kalogjera wrote transcriptions for the orchestra. In the course of these years, he had to deal with some difficult situations involving the backing tracks.
Vesna Pisarović (in white) with songwriter Milena Vlaović on stage with their first prize awards in the 2002 DORA Festival
“In 1999, the European Broadcasting Union was on the brink of disqualifying ‘Marija Magdalena’, because there were sampled voices on the backing track. It was the first year without an orchestra and the EBU rules about what was allowed and what was not had not yet been very clearly described. As DORA’s producer, I was the person who decided to give permission to Doris Dragović’s team to include these vocals – and thus nearly responsible for my country being thrown out of the competition!"
"Two years later, there was even more upheaval here in Croatia… the selection programme was won by ‘Strune ljubavi’, a song I conducted. With the live orchestra present, there were strict rules as to the use of a supporting track – it was allowed to only include bass, percussion, and sound effects; all strings and brass had to be played by the orchestra. In my capacity as the show’s producer, however, I had allowed the composer of this particular song, Tonči Huljić, to include the all-important violin solo on the playback track as well. Many other participants were extremely angry about this and thought the entry should be disqualified. I made a big effort to prove that the violin solo was manipulated with effects; it would have been impossible to recreate that sound with a live violin! It was kind of a funny discussion, which was blown up to a huge scandal. In the end, the song wasn't disqualified. Of course, it won the competition and represented our country in the Eurovision final.”
“Of course, I was very angry when I discovered that it had been decided upon to abolish the orchestra in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1999,” Kalogjera concludes. “I still watch Eurovision, but it has become a disappointing experience. Each year, there seem to be more and more scene effects, with the music itself progressively pushed to the background. Without the orchestra, the programme has lost much of its attraction.”
Counting in the orchestra for Vesna Pisarović's winning performance in the 2002 DORA Festival
OTHER ARTISTS ABOUT STIPICA KALOGJERA
So far, we have not gathered memories of other artists about Stipica Kalogjera.
Studio arrangement – Remi Kazinoti / Stipica Kalogjera
Live orchestration – Stipica Kalogjera
Conductor – Stipica Kalogjera
Score – 5th place (131 votes)
1999 Jerusalem
Country – Croatia
Song title – "Marija Magdalena"
Rendition – Doris Dragović
Lyrics – Vjekoslava Huljić
Composition – Tonci Huljić
Studio arrangement – Remi Kazinoti
Live orchestration (Croatian final) – Stipica Kalogjera
Conductor (Croatian final) – Stipica Kalogjera
Conductor (international final) – none
Score – 4th place (118 votes)
2001 Copenhagen
Country – Croatia
Song title – "Strings Of My Heart (Strune ljubavi)"
Rendition – Vanna
Croatian lyrics – Vjekoslava Huljić
English lyrics – Adonis Ćulibrk "Boytronic"
Composition – Tonči Huljić / Ante Pecotić
Studio arrangement – Remi Kazinoti / Ante Pecotić
Live orchestration (Croatian final) – Stipica Kalogjera
Conductor (Croatian final) – Stipica Kalogjera
Conductor (international final) – none
Score – 10th place (42 votes)
2002 Tallinn
Country – Croatia
Song title – "Everything I Want (Sasvim sigurna)"
Rendition – Vesna Pisarović
Croatian lyrics – Nenad Ninčević "Orfej"
English lyrics – Milana Vlaović
Composition – Milana Vlaović
Studio arrangement – Ante Pecotić
Live orchestration (Croatian final) – Stipica Kalogjera
Conductor (Croatian final) – Stipica Kalogjera
Conductor (international final) – none
Score – 11th place (44 votes)
SOURCES & LINKS
Many thanks to Stipica Kalogjera for providing us with his CV and a CD with an overview of his work, as well as for patiently answering our huge list of questions in an email exchange, July 2011
Thanks to Tin Španja for checking the Croatian sleeve notes of the wonderful 2CD with an anthology of Stipica Kalogjera’s work, ‘Gold Collection’ (2010)
Pictures courtesy of Stipica Kalogjera & Ferry van der Zant
