1. Early Life

2. Career

3. Personal Life

4. Awards and Nominations

5. Filmography

6. References

Julijana Hajdinjak (born 9 April 1996) is a Canadian Croatian composer. Her work has been read and performed across Canada, and has been recognized by awards and premieres by Vera Causa Opera^[1], Elektra Women’s Choir ^[2], Eastern Horizon Chamber Choir and Via Choralis ^[3].

Julijana has also worked on a variety of films, including Mistissini Healing, Um Fio Mágico, Dear Bear ^[4], Black and Blue ^[5], Death Game^[6], Unlatched, August^[7] and King Crow.

Early Life

Julijana was born in Scarborough, Ontario to Croatian parents who met through Croatian folklore dancing in Toronto. Julijana is the older sister of singer-songwriter Dani Kristina.^[8]

Julijana has been fascinated by music since the early age of three. At the age of nine, she began taking piano lessons. While Julijana received private piano instruction with Cynthia Kaarto, she also attended the Regional Arts Program at Cawthra Park Secondary School where she majored in Voice.

In her early teens, Julijana often performed with her sister, Danijela (also known as singer-songwriter, Dani Kristina) under the stage name Juliana Hayden^[9]. They performed with the Croatian band Gazde^[10], and were the opening act for singer Mate Bulić on his North American tour in Winter 2014/2015^[11]. Hajdinjak sisters have also performed alongside Tihomir Misić at various Croatian functions in Canada and the USA. In summer of 2014, Julijana recorded a demo, and visited Nashville with her sister. During her stay in Tennessee, she also performed with Karree J Phillips at the Wilson County Fair.^[12]

Julijana and Danijela Hajdinjak were invited by maestro Sinisa Leopold to perform at the Living Arts Centre alongside the HRT Tamburitza Orchestra and many other renowned Croatian performers including Tajči, Kico Slabinac, Sandra Bagaric, Klapa Sv. Juraj and Dani Stipanicev.^[13] In 2016, she also performed with Glenn Buhr and the Button Factory Band.

Despite singing her entire life, Julijana began taking vocal lessons right before university. She obtained her Bachelor of Music at Wilfrid Laurier University. She studied with soprano Lynda Mieske, and composers Linda Catlin Smith and Glenn Buhr, and was the Teaching Assistant for Buhr's composition course in 2018.

Hajdinjak’s musical interests were wide, ranging from composers such as Tchaikovsky and Desplat, to country and world music.

Career

Julijana has composed music for many films, trailers and experimental videos including Mistissini Healing (2017), Um Fio Mágico (2017), Dear Bear (2018), Unseen Alphabet (2018), Black and Blue (2018), Gaia (2018), Death Game (2019), Unlatched (2019), August (2019) and King Crow (2019).

Hajdinjak always had a passion for teaching since a young age, and began giving music lessons at 12 to children on her street. She continued to pursue music teaching, and opened her own music school, Fortepiano Music Studio ^[14], to further inspire passion through music to younger generations.

In 2018, she composed the trailer music and official theme of the Ottawa International Vegan Film Festival^[15]. In this year, Julijana also composed her first opera, Padajuća Zvijezda^[16], the world’s first Canadian-Croatian opera. It was premiered by Vera Causa Opera in June 2018 and received lots of media attention from both Canadian and Croatian media sources^[17].

Hajdinjak began her conducting career in late 2018. She became the Assistant Director and Conductor of the Canadian Croatian Choral Society’s Youth Choir^[18]. Their mission is to further develop and preserve Croatian choral music in the community.

At the end of 2018, Julijana joined Croatian rock band Rujno Vino as their lead vocalist.^[19] The band consisted of other Croatian musicians Marko Levak, Fil Miškić, John Bukovčan and Andrew Šporčić.

In early 2019, Julijana collaborated with George Brown College to work on composing music for two Greek period pieces. She was a co-composer alongside Dylann Miller, former classmate at Wilfrid Laurier. The premiere of the Greek theatre pieces will be in February 2019. Julijana is a member of the Screen Composers Guild of Canada and SOCAN.

Personal Life

Julijana has been dating Croatian musician Andrew Sporcic since 2015.^[20] She is also an environmental and vegan activist.^[21]

A huge fan of Emma Watson, Julijana was influenced by her women’s rights work, and a couple of her compositions have been inspired and influenced by strong women. She composed a graphic score Malala^[22], the 2nd movement of her work, Sentiments, inspired by Malala Yousafzai.

Awards and Nominations

• Rotaract Singfest: 2nd place 2012
• Peel Music Festival: 1st place Musical Theatre 2014
• Canadian Croatian Choral Society: Merit Award 2014
• Napredak Music Festival: 1st place and Public’s Choice Award 2015
• Royal Conservatory of Music: Gold Medal 2016
• Vera Causa Opera: Merit Award 2017
• Via Choralis Composition Competition: 1st place 2017
• Eastern Horizon Choral Competition: Finalist 2018
• Elektra Women’s Choir’s Reading Session of New Compositions: Selected Composer 2018

Filmography

References

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