Kornelije "Bata" Kovač ( sr-Cyrl, Корнелије "Бата" Ковач, ; hu, Kovács Kornél; 1 January 1942 – 13 September 2022) was a Serbian composer.

Early life

Born in

Niš Niš (; sr-Cyrl, Ниш, ; names in other languages) is the third largest city in Serbia and the administrative center of the Nišava District. It is located in southern part of Serbia. , the city proper has a population of 183,164, while ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in the Nazi-occupied Serbia to a Hungarian father and a Serbian mother, Kovač grew up in a prominent artistic family - his grandfather was a conductor, his father a music professor and a violinist, his mother a singer in the opera choir. Kovač received his early music education at the College of Music in

Subotica Subotica ( sr-cyrl, Суботица, ; hu, Szabadka) is a List of cities in Serbia, city and the administrative center of the North Bačka District in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. Formerly the largest city of Vojvodina region, ...

, after which he attempted to enroll in the

Belgrade Music Academy The University of Arts in Belgrade ( sr-cyr, Универзитет уметности у Београду, Univerzitet umetnosti u Beogradu) is a public university in Serbia. It was founded in 1957 as the Academy of Arts to unite four academies. ...

. He did not pass the entrance exam so he entered the

Sarajevo Music Academy The Sarajevo Music Academy or Music Academy , University of Sarajevo ( bs, Muzička Akademija Univerziteta u Sarajevu or MAS) is a Faculty of Music of University of Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina. History Sarajevo Music Academy was foun ...

University of Sarajevo The University of Sarajevo ( Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian: ''Univerzitet u Sarajevu'' / Sveučilište u Sarajevu / Универзитет у Сарајеву) is a public university located in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the larges ...

where he graduated from the Theory And Piano Department.

Career

A composer, pianist, keyboard player, producer and arranger, Kovač's career as a professional musician started in 1961, when he formed his first band, BKB, which became a prominent jazz trio at the time. In 1963 they entered The Yu Jazz Festival, that took place in Bled (Slovenia). After conducting the various orchestras in Bosnia, he finally joined Sarajevo's most popular pop band

Indeksi Indexi was a Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnian and former Yugoslav rock band popular in Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia. It formed in 1962 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and disbanded in 2001 when singer Davorin Popović ...

. With them he had a two-month-long tour in Russia. In 1968, he moved to the Yugoslav capital, Belgrade, where he founded Korni Grupa. As a composer and a musician, he won many music contests that took place in former Yugoslavia. With Korni Grupa he entered following music festivals in Europe: *1969 - Singing Europe (Netherlands), voted the most original entry *1970 - Rock Festival Katowice (Poland) *1972 - Montreux (Switzerland) *1974 - Eurovision Song Festival (Brighton, United Kingdom) In 1978, Kovač moved to England where he collaborated in various projects, such as: the 1978 Reading Rock Festival as the keyboardist of the

Jenny Darren Jenny Darren is a British rock singer. Her initial claim to fame was that the Pat Benatar hit "Heartbreaker (Pat Benatar song), Heartbreaker" was written for her. She is known for her bluesy rock voice, on such tracks as "Ladykiller", and the Buk ...

Band. Among the prominent British musicians with whom Kovač worked while in the UK, included: * Bernie Marsden, guitar player of "White Snake" * Hans Zimmer, composer * Paul Jones, ex-singer of Manfred Mann *

Andy Pask Andrew Howard Pask (born 30 August 1955) is an English musician who was a member of the band Landscape. He wrote the theme to the TV show ''The Bill''. Early years Andy Pask was a pupil at Haileybury College where he played cello in school orc ...

, bass player of Landscape

Later projects

Kovač wrote music for theatre, movies and television. His songs were released on LP-s in Yugoslavia, Spain, France, the United States, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Norway etc. Many of them were Golden or Platinum Records. From 1979, he participated in projects in Spain, as a producer, composer or arranger.

Personal life and death

Until her death in 2005, he was married to Spomenka Stojanović, with whom he had three daughters:

Aleksandra Alexandra () is the feminine form of the given name Alexander (, ). Etymologically, the name is a compound of the Greek verb (; meaning 'to defend') and (; GEN , ; meaning 'man'). Thus it may be roughly translated as "defender of man" or "prot ...

, Kristina (both of whom are also involved with music) and Anja. On 19 January 2011, Serbian broadcaster RTS announced that Kovač and his two daughters, Aleksandra and Kristina, would each compose a song and present a singer, who would seek to represent Serbia in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2011 The Eurovision Song Contest 2011 was the 56th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Düsseldorf, Germany, following the country's victory at the with the song "Satellite" by Lena. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union ...

. Kovač died in Belgrade on 13 September 2022, at the age of 80.Preminuo kompozitor Kornelije Kovač

References

External links

* *
Interview
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Blic ''Blic'' (Cyrillic: Блиц, ) is a daily middle-market tabloid newspaper in Serbia. Founded in 1996, ''Blic'' is owned by Ringier Axel Springer Media AG, a joint venture between Ringier media corporation from Switzerland and Axel Springer AG ...

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'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Kovac, Kornelije 1942 births 2022 deaths 20th-century Serbian people Golden Arena winners Male television composers Musicians from Niš Serbian composers Serbian people of Hungarian descent Serbian record producers Serbian rock keyboardists Serbian television composers