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Tamara Obrovac

Tamara Obrovac, composer, singer, lyricist, bandleader; Tamara Obrovac quartet / Tamara Obrovac Transhistria ensemble - contemporary Mediterranean jazz, composes for theater & film

About Me

Tamara Obrovac, “the Sorceress from Istria”:

Tamara Obrovac is one of those musicians to whom jazz is a path to understanding music as a whole. Furthermore, it has led her to an intensive investigation of her own regional music awareness, so she offers us a new musical journey through the Istrian and Mediterranean spaces and times. Her homeland Istria, a beautiful Croatian region and a North Adriatic peninsula, is particular for its musical and dialectal tradition which is the creative force of Tamara's works… Her utterly original and autochthonous music goes beyond time and geographical boundaries, thus becoming a universal artistic message which establishes Tamara Obrovac as an exceptional artist who has created her own unique musical expression.

Tamara's unique music, played by the excellent musicians from her international bands, is a genuine musical mohair which skilfully and naturally incorporates the elements of jazz, Istrian and Mediterranean folk music, and many elements of modern music, while Tamara's voice is equally impressive when she sings lyrics and when she performs vocalizes, thus turning itself into an additional instrument. She writes lyrics in her local dialect and sings in other ancient and endangered Istrian dialects, Slavic and Romanic origin. She wrote around 200 compositions, has published 12 CD's in which she wrote all of the music and most of the lyrics, and she held more then 500 international concerts, highly praised by the audience and press. In addition to her international concert activities, she composes music for theatre and film, she wrote music for 40 theatre pieces, ballets and 10 films, in Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Monte Negro, Bulgaria, Italy, etc. and has received numerous awards for her work; 11 awards for film and theatre music, including Golden arena for best film score on the National film festival, and among the others 9 Porin awards (Croatian's Grammy). International recognition came also through the nomination for the BBC Radio 3 World music Awards 2004 (European Music and Audience Award).

She published 12 author CDs: Triade, 1996; Ulika, 1998; Transhistria, 2001; Sve pasiva/Everything fades away, 2003; Daleko je/Is faraway, 2005; Neću više jazz kantati/I won’t sing jazz any more, 2009, featuring her new band “Transhistria electric” with a fresh fusion of Istrian ethno and funky and soul music; and the Madirosa, 2011, in collaboration with the Epoque string quartet, from Czech Republic. ”Ulika revival” 2014., with her quartet, that had successful showcase on Jazz-ahead Bremen 2013, (Unit records, Switzerland, June 2014) got very good international reviews including All About Jazz, Jazzthetik, Jazz Podium, Jazzthing, Kulturtipp, Jazz'nmore, Jazz convention, etc. “Canto amoroso” 2015., registered at Artesuno studio in Italy for Austrian Alessa records, Live@ZKM 2018., with her Transhistria ensemble. CD TransAdriaticum is published 2019, also for Alessa records, with the new formation of musicians in which, in addition to her enduring collaborator Krunoslav Levačić on drums, she is also joined by two great Italian musicians; Stefano Battaglia on piano and Salvatore Maiore on double bass. Latest CD Villa Idola is published 2020., in collaboration with Croatian Radiotelevision Jazz Orchestra.

Currently looking for international label and concert management.

www.youtube.com/user/tamaraobrovacMusic