Zoran Simjanović

Biography

Zoran Simjanović was born in Belgrade. At the age of six he had begun to play piano, than he attended the music school "Mokranjac" and eventually graduated at the Belgrade Music Academy.

Since 1961 he founded and played in some of the most recognized rock bands (Siluete, Elipse), which have been awarded in Yugoslavia and abroad. He also wrote pop songs for his friends singers who were winning prizes at festivals although he has not much interest in pop music.

Since 1975, he has been dealing with scenic music and cooperating with TV, film and theatre productions in Yugoslavia and abroad. As a scenic composer he uses all music styles although most of his work is electronic-based.

Until 2008 he has written music scores for 62 feature films, a large number of TV films, TV series and theatre plays, as well as cartoons and advertising films and clips.

He was awarded the Gold Arena for music twice at the film festival in Pula ("The Fragrance of Wild Flowers" in 1978 and "Balkan Express" in 1983). At the unofficial festival of film music, costume and production design in Mladenovac he has won the first prize for "When father was away on business" soundtrack in 1985.

Currently, he lives and works in Belgrade. He is also making efforts in publishing film music in Yugoslavia and abroad (MILAN music - "When Father Was Away on Business" and "Guardian Angel")..

Feature films he wrote music for have been awarded at all important festivals worldwide (Cannes, Venice, Manila, San Sebastian, Valencia, Corse, Istanbul, etc.). He shared the Special Award of the City of Valencia with Yves Montand in 1983. For that occasion he wrote music for the opening of that year’s Festival in Valencia.

He is also interested in composing music for theatre. He composed scores for over 20 theatre plays in all Belgrade theatres, as well as for the musical plays "Joys of Belgrade" and "The Fish in the Sea" and several cabarets. With Paolo Magelli he worked on the Paris version of Macchiavelli’s "The Mandrake" and after its success he was engaged in another French play - "The Straitjacket"..

Since 1993 he has been a professor of applied music at the Faculty of Scenic Arts in Belgrade. From 1999 to 2002 he was giving lectures in the same field at the Academy of Music Art in Belgrade, and from 2000 2002 at the Faculty of Scenic Arts in Cetinje, Montenegro. He also lectured at Dunav Film School, Post-Secondary School of Electrical Engineering and Braća Karić Academy of Fine Arts.

He collaborated in making of pedagogical music books for children – “A Collection for Primary School” with Lela Aleksic and Branka Cvejic and “Music Primer” with Zora Vasiljevic. He published a book “Applied Music” for the students of Faculties of Scenic and Music Arts. He wrote articles for “Lexicon of Film and TV terms”.

His first symphony had its premiere at Kalemegdan (Belgrade Fortress) on 14 July 2006. An interesting fact is that this was the first symphony to be written and performed in the independent Republic of Serbia.

He is a member of the European Film Academy and also a member of ASIFA (International animated film association) and SACEM (French Association of Music Composers). He is a Citizen of Honour of Valencia.

Awards

At the Festival of Film Direction in Herceg Novi he was awarded for the music score for Tito and Me in 1992. After splitting of former Yugoslavia it has remained the highest film award in the new country (now Serbia and Montenegro). At the first annual Yugoslav Film Academy Award he won a Crystal Prysm for the music score for Tango Argentino.

He was awarded for the score in In the Name of the Father and the Son at the Film Festival in Mojkovac.

At the Music Festival “Sunny Stairs” in Herceg Novi he was awarded for the best score for Goran Paskaljevic’s movie The Powder Keg in 2000.

His music score for Srdjan Karanovic’s Loving Glances won Platinum Award for the Best Music at Monte Carlo Film Festival in 2003.

He was awarded several times at the Festival of Short and Documentary Film in Belgrade. In 1993 he won the first prize for the score for the animated film Kazimir Malyevic’s Cross, Square and Circle. He repeated this success in 1994, when he was awarded for his annual production and 1998, when he got the award for the score in Belgrade Follies, a documentary film by Goran Marković. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the festival, he was given a special Shield of the Festival.

He was awarded for the best music score at the Festival of Animated Film in Cacak in 1995.

At the JRT festival of audio and video clips in Budva in 1988 he won the first prize for music in JAT audio/video campaign. He was given Honorary Mention in 2000 and Special Honorary Mention in 2006 by the Association of Serbian Advertisers for his contribution to the development of advertising.

In 2002 he was given the Award of the City of Belgrade for Radio, Television and Film Making, for the music score in the feature film “Cordon” by Goran Markovic and the CD box entitled “One Theme - One Film”