Ivan Josip Skender
Ivan Josip Skender (born in Varaždin, 1981) is a composer and conductor, a versatile musician with a remarkably broad scope of activity. He enrolled in composition studies in 1997 at the Zagreb Academy of Music under Professor Željko Brkanović, becoming the youngest composition student in the Academy’s history. In 1999, he also began parallel studies in conducting under Professor Vjekoslav Šutej. He later continued his education with postgraduate studies in Vienna under Uroš Lajovic, as well as through various composition (Michael Jarrell, József Soproni) and conducting (Klaus Arp, Bertrand de Billy, Zubin Mehta, among others) workshops and seminars.
His broad and diverse oeuvre includes music for soloists, chamber ensembles, orchestras, choirs, theater productions, musicals, and opera. His opera Šuma Striborova (“Stribor’s Forest”) is the most frequently performed opera of the Music Biennale Zagreb, with 27 performances to date. As a conductor, he has collaborated with numerous Croatian and international ensembles, with a special focus on performances and premieres of contemporary Croatian composers. In 2012, members of the Cantus Ensemble for Contemporary Music elected him as their permanent conductor.
From 2005 to 2019, he was employed at the Opera of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb as a chorus master and conductor. He also served as acting director of the Opera during the 2013/2014 season. Beginning in 2009, he worked as an assistant to Professor Uroš Lajovic at the Zagreb Academy of Music, and since 2019, he has held a permanent position there as an associate professor in the Department of Conducting.
He is the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions for his artistic work, including the Rector’s Award, the Stjepan Šulek Award and the Papandopulo Award for composition, as well as the Milka Trnina Award for conducting and the Vladimir Nazor Award for overall artistic achievement. Since 2019, he has been a member of the artistic leadership of the Music Biennale Zagreb, and since 2023, one of its artistic directors. In 2020, he was appointed a member of the Assembly of Representatives of the Croatian Composers’ Society. As of 2024, he is an associate member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.