Exhibition celebrating legacy of maestro Dinko Fio on view at NSK by 19 Apr 2024
On 9 April 2024, the National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK) hosted the opening of an exhibition marking the centenary of the birth of Dinko Fio, Croatia’s notable 20th-century folk song collector, composer and music educator (Daleko su moji škoji).
Authored by Dobrila Zvonarek and remaining on view until 19 April 2024, the exhibition was organised with the support of the Croatian Ministry of Culture and Media by NSK and the Klapa Singing Festival in Omiš (Festival dalmatinskih klapa Omiš), whose museum will host the exhibition from 27 June to 30 July 2024.
After a welcome address by the Library’s Director General Dr Ivanka Stričević and an introduction by the Director of the Directorate for Archives, Libraries and Museums at the Croatian Ministry of Culture and Media Anuška Deranja Crnokić, the exhibition was presented by the Festival’s longstanding collaborator and klapa singing aficionado Dr Marko Rogošić, Croatian ethnomusicologist and music educator from the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research Dr Joško Ćaleta and the Head of the NSK Music Collection Dr Tatjana Mihalić, who put special emphasis on the Collection’s resources by and on Fio. Present at the opening were also the members of maestro Fio’s family – his daughter Lovorka and granddaughters Vida, Karmen and Marina.
Maestro Fio’s share in the international validation of klapa singing
Dinko Fio (1924-2011) left behind a rich legacy of numerous recordings of Croatian folk songs, especially from Croatia’s southern islands. He also wrote his own songs and set to music the verses of the great Croatian poets, i.e. Vladimir Nazor, Ivo Cetinić, Pere Ljubić, Lucija Rudan, Tatjana Radovanović and others. A founder and leader of several klapa singing groups who tutored countless klapa singers, enthusiastically imparting to them his elaborate theory on klapa singing as well as his love towards Croatia’s folklore traditions, Fio was among the folk song collectors and music educators owing to whose dedicated work klapa singing is included on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Also important in his professional biography was his work as the choir master of the former Children’s Choir of Radio-Television Zagreb (Dječji zbor Radiotelevizije Zagreb), which he successfully led between 1961 and 1975 and with which he won the first prize at the 1961 world children’s choir competition in Lille, France, and of the vocal section of LADO, Croatia’s world-famous national folk dance ensemble.
The programme of the opening included performances of traditional Croatian music and adaptations of folk songs as well as Fio’s own songs by the klapa singing ensembles founded and originally led by Fio – male voice Nostalgija and mixed voice Prvi komin Snježanin, which remains the only klapa singing ensemble fostering a communal style of singing derived from old Dalmatian cultural traditions, and the male voice Sagena, with which maestro Fio closely cooperated.
The holder of many prestigious awards whose work significantly influenced many editions of the Omiš klapa singing festival, Fio was also decorated with the Order of the Croatian Star with the Effigy of Marko Marulić, which he was awarded by the President of the Republic of Croatia in 1996 for his extraordinary services to culture.
Dinko Fio’s legacy in the NSK collections
Being fully aware of the significance of the preservation of heritage for future generations and of the Library’s role in this context, from 2002 until his death in 2011 maestro Fio regularly visited the NSK Music Collection, eventually donating to it the autographs of his compositions and his interpretations and reworkings of Croatian folk songs.
Wishing to promote this invaluable material, in 2014 NSK launched its Fiofest programme, which has so far had four editions (2014, 2016, 2018, 2021), set up a special digital collection featuring Fio’s works and other resources related to his legacy held by the Collection (Digitalna zbirka maestra Fija) and created the related online exhibition (Maestro moj).
Exhibition catalogue (Croatian text only).
Photo by: Dobrila Zvonarek, Petar Milić.