Vinko Globokar

Avant-garde trombonist and composer Vinko Globokar has written over 80 works, from solo to chamber to opera, many of which explore the voice and speech and leave room for improvisation. He has premiered works by composers such as Mauricio Kagel, Toru Takemitsu, and Louis Andriessen. His technique on his instrument is such that many compositions have been written for him by composers, including Karlheinz Stockhausen, Henri Pousseur, and Luciano Berio, with whom Globokar studied. He also studied under Rene Leibowitz and Andre Hodeir in Paris. Although born in France in 1934, Globokar spent his teens in Slovenia. Starting out as a jazz musician there, his studies in Paris included not only trombone, but also conducting (incidentally, he went on to conduct the Warsaw Philharmonic and Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, among others). In 1967, he began an almost ten-year tenure as a music professor in Cologne, where he also co-founded the improvising group, New Phonic Art. He spent much of the '70s as a department head of IRCAM and, beginning in the mid-'80s, was head of 20th century music at the Scuola di Musica de Fiesole/Firenze. He has performed with world-renowned improvisers Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, and many more. ~ Joslyn Layne, All Music Guide