Pavle Dešpalj

Pavle Dešpalj (18 June 1934, Blato, Korčula), Croatian composer and conductor.

Pavle Dešpalj graduated from Music Academy in Zagreb where he studied composition with Prof. Stjepan Šulek. In 1961 he founded Zadar's festival, Music Evenings in St. Donat's, also the Zadar Chamber Orchestra. Between 1962 and 1967 he was the chief conductor of Zagreb Radio Television Symphony Orchestra. In 1968 he began conducting the Florida Symphony Orchestra and the Orlando Opera, and between 1970 and 1981 he was their music director. From 1981 to 1986 he was the principle conductor of the Zagreb Philharmonic. From 1981 to 1983, he was the music program director of Dubrovnik Summer Festival, between 1987 and 1995 conducting professor at the Zagreb Academy of Music and between 1995 and 1998, conductor of the Tokyo Geidai Philharmonic Orchestra and professor at the Tokyo National University. Since 1998 he has been the chief conductor of the Croatian Chamber Orchestra, since 2000 of the Split Chamber Orchestra and guest conductor of renowned Croatian orchestras as well as Croatian National Theatre's Opera and Ballet.

Pavle Dešpalj led Zagreb's orchestras on numerous tours around Europe, America and the Far East. He is a guest conductor of many prestigious foreign symphonic orchestras in Luxembourg, Toulouse, Milan, Frankfurt, Bratislava, Salzburg, Budapest, Bucharest and Tallinn. He had also conducted the Royal London Philharmonic Orchestra, Moscow's Russian National Symphony Orchestra, Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Festival Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonics, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, and Tokyo and Yokohama Operas.