Stanko Horvat

Stanko Horvat (12 March 1930 - 30 October 2006, Zagreb), Croatian composer and music pedagogue.
Biography.
Stanko Horvat graduated from the Music Academy in Zagreb in 1956 where he studied composition in the class of Stjepan Šulek. He further studied on the Paris Conservatoire (1958–59) with T. Aubin and privately with René Leibowitz. At the Electronic Studio of the Technical University of Berlin he has done studio research (1977–78).
Between 1961 and 1999, when he retired, he taught at the Music Academy in Zagreb and many of the important Croatian composers were his students. He has had a number of important public functions (Artistic Director of the Music Biennale Zagreb 1985-89; President of the Croatian Composers' Society, 1974–79, etc.). He is a member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts and has received numerous awards and much recognition for his work.
Oeuvre.
Horvat’s first works are deeply rooted in the classical tradition ("Concertino for Strings", 1952). After studying in Paris – and under Leibowitz’s influence – he turned to dodecaphony, serialism and other contemporary composition techniques. However, he soon abandoned them as they are incompatible with his sensibility. The Polish School had a much stronger influence on his work ("Contrasts for the String Quartet", 1963). In all musical forms that he has employed, Horvat has focused primarily on musical expression. He is inclined towards pure sound, simple form and traditional treatment of the instrument. His works reveal a desire for reconciliation of the contemporary and romantic, the exact and free form, the structured and improvised. His fondness towards simplicity of texture is always apparent, occasionally reminding us of minimalistic music ("Accords", 1979; "Ostinati", 1983; "Concertino for the Piano and Strings", 1996; "In modo rustico" for the bass-clarinet and piano, 1997). Horvat’s works are performed all over Europe and in almost all continents of the globe, at festivals in Croatia (Dubrovnik Summer Festival, Music Biennale Zagreb, Split Summer) and abroad (Warsaw Autumn, Musikprotokoll in Graz, Berliner Biennale, International Festival in Brno).