Kornelije Kovač
| Kornelije "Bata" Kovač | |
|---|---|
Kovač promoting the Omladina festival in October 2011.
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Kovács Kornél |
| Born |
1 January 1942 Niš, German-occupied Serbia |
| Genres | Progressive rock, symphonic rock, jazz-rock, classical |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter, composer, producer |
| Instruments | Keyboards, organ, piano |
| Years active | 1961 – present |
| Labels | PGP-RTB, Casa Ricordi, Philips Records, Jugoton, Komuna Belgrade, PGP RTS, ITMM |
| Associated acts | Indexi, Korni Grupa, Zdravko Čolić, Bisera Veletanlić, Riblja Čorba, Bajaga i Instruktori |
Kornelije "Bata" Kovač (pronounced [kɔ̌rne̞ːlije̞ bǎːta kɔ̂v̞atʃ]; Serbian Cyrillic: Корнелије Ковач, Hungarian: Kovács Kornél; born 1 January 1942) is a famous Serbian composer.
Born in Niš during World War II 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, after which he attempted to enroll in the Belgrade Music Academy. He didn't pass the entrance exam so he entered the Academy Of Music Arts of University of Sarajevo where he graduated from the Theory And Piano Department.
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. 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:
In 1979, Kovač moved to England where he collaborated in various projects, such as: the 1980 Reading Rock Festival as the keyboardist of the Jenny Darren Band. Among the prominent British musicians with whom Kovač worked while in the UK, included:
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