Alfi Kabiljo - Composer’s Biography

Alfi Kabiljo (Zagreb, Croatia, Yugoslavia, December 22, 1935) is a composer, conductor, arranger, pianist, text and libretto writer and producer with a successful career. He went to the private music school of Rudolf Matz, music school Blagoje Bersa as a student of Margita Matz, and continued his education with her in the music school Vatroslav Lisinski. At the age of sixteen he founded his first orchestra and performed in schools in Zagreb. He graduated in architecture in 1963 and before that wrote songs that were competing at different musical festivals. In 1965. He went to Paris where he worked as a conductor, arranger and composer. From late 1960’s he wrote songs for international musical festivals and won many awards. At that time he started his collaboration with the libretto writer Milan Grgić and they wrote the musical Velika trka (it was the first musical published on an LP record in Yugoslavia) for the Zagreb City Theatre Komedija. Together they made nine musicals, including the famous Jalta, Jalta (1971) that was performed close to a thousand time in Croatia and abroad. Some of his other musicals are Dlakav život (Grgić), Car Franjo Josip u Zagrebu (Grgić), Kralj je gol (Grgić), Crveni otok (Bulgakov-Kljaković-Grgić), Vjenčani list (Kishon-Kušan), Tko pjeva zlo ne misli (Britvić). Besides for theatre, Kabiljo is the author of music for many feature and TV films and series. He wrote his first film music in 1971 for the film Ave Marija by the director Lordan Zafranović. They continued to collaborate on his other films - Kronika jednog zločina (1973) and Okupacija u 26 slika (1978). During the 1970’s he worked on films by directors Zvonimir Berković (Putovanje na mjesto nesreće, 1971), Marijan Arhanić (Poslijepodne jednog fazana, 1972 and Letači velikog neba, 1977), Vanča Kljaković (Kužiš stari moj, 1973 and Usporeno kretanje, 1979), Antun Vrdoljak (Deps, 1974) and Vatroslav Mimica (Seljačka buna 1573, 1975, which won the Golden Arena in Pula for music and it was the first published soundtrack in Yugoslavia). He worked with Fadil Hadžić on his film Novinar (1979). In 1985, he was invited to Hollywood by the MGM Studio to compose the music for the film Gymkata by the director Robert Clouse. In the following year, he recorded the music for the film Gunbus by the director Zoran Perišić with the National Philharmonic Orchestra in London. He also worked on international film productions Transylvania 6-5000 (1985), The Girl (1987) and Fear (1988). Among the many domestic films that he worked on, several stand out: Mimica’s Banović Strahinja (1981, Golden Arena in Pula), Zafranović’s Pad Italije (1981), Zločin u školi (1982) by Branko Ivanda and Ne daj se, Floki! (1986), San o ruži (1986) and Osuđeni (1987) by Zoran Tadić. In 1990, he did his next important work on an American production - the original music composed for the film Scissors by the director Frank de Felitta starring Sharon Stone. Afterwards, he worked with Rajko Grlić on his film Neka ostane među nama (2010) for which he won the Golden Arena in Pula, and with Branko Ivanda on his film Lea And Darija (2011), for which he won a Porin award in 2011. He was the author of the music for the Croatian-Finnish co-production Domoljub (Isänmaallinen mies, 2013). Besides writing music for about forty feature films, he is also the author of music for about a hundred episodes of different TV series. Most well-known among them are Nikola Tesla (1977), Mačak pod šljemom (1978), Nepokoreni grad (1982) and Ljubav ili smrt (1999). In addition, he is the author of many orchestral and chamber pieces, two ballets (Pandorina kutija and Kentaur XII), one humorous opera (Casanova u Istri) and many other musical projects. At the Winter Olympics in 1994, 1998 and 2002, the most famous ice-skaters of the world skated to his original music. He was the president of the Croatian Composers’ Society from 1992 to 1994, and a member of the international festival organization FIDOF. Throughout his career he won many awards, such as: Vjesnik’s award Josip Štolcer Slavenski in 1986, Milivoj Körbler award from the Croatian Composers’ Society in 1998, Charter of the City of Zagreb in 1999, Status award for life-time achievement in 2003 and the music award  Porin for life-time achievement in the same year.


Filmography:
Da se ne zaboravi/May it never be forgotten (2015) (short documentary)
Isänmaallinen mies (2013)
Neka ostane među nama (2010)
Internationale Zone (1995)
Scissors (1991)
Destroying Angel (1990)
Fear (1988)
The Girl (1987)
Osuđeni (1987)
Sky Bandits (1986)
Ne daj se, Floki! (1986)
San o ruži (1986)
Obećana zemlja (1986)
Transylvania 6-5000 (1985)
Gymkata (1985)
Ujed anđela (1984)
Ambasador (1984)
Zadarski memento (1984)
Medeni mjesec (1983)
Zločin u školi (1982)
Hoću živjeti (1982)
Pad Italije (1981)
Banović Strahinja (1981)
Lidija (1981) (TV)
Snađi se, druže (1981)
Gospođica (1980)
Usporeno kretanje (1979)
Novinar (1979)
Okupacija u 26 slika (1978)
Sudite me (1978) (TV)
Pred odlazak (1978) (short feature)
Nikola Tesla (1977) (TV series)
Letači velikog neba (1977)
Klara Dombrovska (1976) (TV)
Mater (1976) (short feature)
Seljačka buna 1573 (1975)
Veliki datumi saveza komunista Jugoslavije (1975) (short feature documentary)
Dolje s oružjem (1975) (TV)
Rad zida grad (1974) (medium length documentary)
Deps (1974)
Nocturno (1974) (TV)
Kužiš stari moj (1973)
Kronika jednog zločina (1973)
Dramolet po Ciribiliju (1972) (TV musical)
Poslijepodne jednog fazana (1972)
Putovanje na mjesto nesreće (1971)
Prvi valcer (1971) (short feature)
Ave Marija/Moje prvo pijanstvo (1971)