Biography
Kornelije "Bata" Kovač (Serbian Cyrillic: Корнелије Ковач, Hungarian: Kovács Kornell) (b. January 1, 1942 in Niš, Serbia) is a famous Serbian composer.
Born in Niš during World War II to a Hungarian father and a Serbian mother, Kovač came from 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.
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Kornelije Kovač received his early music education at his hometown's Subotica College Of Music, after which he attempted to enroll in Belgrade's Music Academy. He didn't pass the entrance exam so he entered the Academy Of Music Art in Sarajevo where he graduated from the Theory And Piano Department.
Along with his classical music education, he was devoting a great deal of his time to the pop and rock music.
His career as a professional musician started in 1961. Profoundly educated, he was able to exercise successfully in various fields of activities: as composer, pianist, keyboard player, producer and arranger. In 1961, 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 2-months long tour in Russia. In 1968, he moved to the Yugoslav capital, Belgrade, where he founded one of the most significant Yugoslav pop-rock bands ever, 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 (The Netherlands), Voted the most original entry
1970 - Rock Festival Katowitze (Poland)
1972 - Montreux (Switzerland)
1974 - Eurovision Song Festival (Brighton, United Kingdom)
In 1979 Kornelije Kovač moved to England where he collaborated in various projects, such as :
1980 - Reading Rock Festival - As the keyboard player of Jenny Darren Band.
Among the prominent British musicians with whom Kornell Kovach collaborated while living in UK, were:
Bernie Marsden, guitar player of "White Snake"
Hans Zimmer, a prominent composer of the soundtracks like: The Rain Man, The Last Emperor, The Lion King, etc.
Paul Jones, ex-singer of Manfred Mann
Andy Pask, base player of Landscape
Colin Hodgkinson, bass player of Back Doors
Joji Hirota, Japanese percusionst
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.