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Petar Culibrk

Born in Dubrovnik, did Masters in Zagreb, teaching for 14, playing piano for 28 years.

About Me

Petar Ćulibrk was born in Dubrovnik (1986). He started playing piano at the age of 7, continuing his education at the Luka Sorkočević Art School and graduated from the Zagreb Academy of Music in 2011. He started playing jazz at the age of 14. After his arrival in Zagreb, he worked with Morana Mesić in the “Afinado” quartet, as well as with numerous other Croatian jazz musicians - Matija Dedić, Jasna Bilušić, Saša Nestorović, Mladen Baraković, Mario Igrec, Zvonimir Šestak, Filip Pavić, Aleksandar Vešić, the Croatian Radiotelevision Jazz Orchestra, etc. Since 2010 he has been perfecting his skill at numerous seminars run by - Kenny Barron, Tony Monaco, Stefan Heckel, Renato Chicco, Joe Kaplowitz, Adam Holzman, Alan Broadbent, Eric Reed. From 2008 to 2014 he taught piano at the School for Jazz and Popular Music. From 2013 to 2018, he was professor of music theory at the Fran Lhotka Secondary Music School in Sisak. He briefly continued his professional journey in the Netherlands, and upon his return he taught piano in Petrinja. Since 2021 he has been a professor of music theory at the Dugo Selo Music School. He has played as a pianist in the Corona Quartet, with Morana Mesić, in the Vjekoslav Crljen Trio; in recent years he has been especially active with the More Love Ensamble, Cloud Buzz, and the Miro Kadoić Quartet. He won the 2nd prize at the first Croatian jazz competition in 2015. In 2020 he was awarded the Status prize in the category of “Best jazz pianist”. In 2022, he published his first solo piano album ''Old School'' (Intek Music).

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My Jazz Story

I was first exposed to jazz through a CD my mom brought home when I was 14. It was Unforgettable with love by Natalie Cole. Since I was playing classical piano at the time and dabbling with some popular tunes on my own, this was something completely different. I was mesmerized, The song was ''Straighten up and fly right'' by Nat King Cole and Irving Mills. For years I thought that wonderful piano was played by Clare Fisher but... I met Alan Broadbent when he was playing in Zagreb, Croatia in 2015 (some 15 years after first listening to that Natalie Cole CD) . He held a short workshop and was telling us an anecdote about how he was recording his album and in the studio next to him was Natalie Cole recording Unforgettable with love, so she asked him to record something with her. Yep - he recorded ''Straighten up and fly right''. Basically, that day I met the person guilty of my love for jazz piano and my subsequent career as a jazz pianist. You can imagine the level of my excitement when I was explaining it to Alan.