Conductor
Vlado Sunko
Vlado Sunko was born in 1954, in Split. He is a music pedagogue, conductor and composer. He graduated from the University of Zagreb Academy of Music in 1979. From 1982 to 1992, he worked as a teacher for theoretical subjects and directed the Girls' Choir of the Josip Hatze Secondary Music School in Split. In 1991, he founded the Boys' Choir and has been its first Conductor ever since. He works as Full Professor at the Music Department at the Arts Academy, University of Split and is Chief Conductor of the Mixed Choir of the said Academy, which has repeatedly been awarded for the most successfully performed compositions at the Festival of Sacred Music CroPatria. In the year 2006, he received the Award of the University of Split for his contribution to the development of the said institution.
In the year 1988, he was appointed Chief Conductor of the Brodosplit Male Voice Choir, which is better known today as the Brodosplit City Choir. Along with this Choir, he has achieved numerous awards at performances in Croatia and abroad.
For his creative and reproductive work in the year 2000, 2012 and 2017, he received the City of Split Award and in the year 2018 he received Split - Dalmatian county Award. For his work in the area of composing he has been granted a wide range of acknowledgements and awards at competitions and festivals: Dona nobis pacem (Međugorje, 1994), Capriccio cromatico, Intrada i ples (Intrada and Dance) (Mandolina Imota 1997 and 1999), Oče naš (Lord's Prayer), Cum Invocarem, Beatus vir, Tvoja i moja tajna (Your Secret and My Secret) , Solinskim mučenicima (To Solin Martyrs), Dirnutost (Responses), Majka (Mother)(Cro-Patria 1997, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2010), Dalmacija forever (Dalmatia forever) for wind orchestra (Hrvatski sabor kulture 2007.) and Missa for soloists, male choir and orchestra (Pasionska baština 2014).
Croatian President Ivo Josipovic in June 2013 awarded him with the Medal of the order of Croatian Danica with figure of Marko Marulić, the highest award for a culture that is awarded at the state level, for merits in culture in particular as an international promoter of Croatian cultural heritage and winner of international awards as a conductor, composer and pedagogue.
In 2023, due to his extraordinary artistic achievements, his many years of dedicated music-pedagogical work, the exceptional quality of his overall compositional oeuvre, and his invaluable contribution to the contemporary cultural reality of Split, Dalmatia and Croatia, the Award Committee of the daily newspaper Slobodna Dalmacija awarded him the Lifetime Achievement Award in the field of art.
A cantata for soloists, chorus and instrumental ensemble Zlato gospine milosti (The Sweetheart of Our Lady's Mercy) 1996 and Missa 2012, a symphonic epic poem In memoriam 1998, Concert for Mandolin and Orchestra 2001 and Rapsodia rustica for chamber ensemble 2009 should be pointed out as more complex compositions.
He continuously holds workshops in his homeland (Pula, Šibenik, Rovinj, Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Split) and abroad (Chile, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina). His compositions for mandolin orchestra are performed at international mandolin music festivals (Italy, Germany, Spain, Czech Republic, Hungary and France). He is a jury member at numerous competitions (festivals of Dalmatian harmony-singing groups at Omiš, festivals of mandolin players, county, national and international competitions for amateur choirs). He is a regular member of the HDS (Croatian Composers Society).
He has released fourteen CDs so far: ten with the Brodosplit City Choir, two with the University of Split Arts Academy Choir and two with the Sanctus Domnio Mandolin Orchestra.