Rok Golob is a composer, producer, conductor and multi-instrumentalist. He has worked for film, TV, radio and over 50 CD projects. His very diverse styles of music include works for full symphony orchestra, choir, big-band, rock-pop-jazz bands/soloists and even concert bands.

For various projects, he’s received 6 Golden Music Awards and 7 other awards from different countries. He’s worked with names like Elmer Bernstein, Bjork, Bobby McFerrin, Christopher Young, Joe Harnell, Martika, Jose Carreras, Gino Vannelli, Vinnie Colaiuta (Sting, Frank Zappa…), Luis Conte (Santana, Phil Collins, Madonna), Bendik (Steps Ahead), Jimmy Haslip (Yellow Jackets), Katia Moraes…Slovenian artists: Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, RTV Symphony Orchestra, Katrinas, Darja Švajger, Magnifico, Neisha, Siddharta, Oto Pestner, Dan D…

RokGolob

Beginnings

Rok Golob was born in 1975 in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

He began playing violin at 6 and piano at 9. As a child he was keen on listening to diverse styles of music, an outlook that he has emphasized even more throughout the years. At fourteen he enrolled in the High School of Music – majoring in violin and theory. He also began playing keyboards with a hard rock band and became interested in a guitar, which he learned by himself. Soon after, he assembled a band with some of his friends called So What. They recorded their first album. At the same time he formed a string quartet Rokulus in which he played first violin and composed the music. They toured Slovenia extensively and recorded for radio television programs. Later he got invited to join The RTV Slovenia Big Band to play keyboards. There he met with drummer Ales Rendla, who asked him to come play with his jazz-rock band Quatebriga (later named Quatebixa) with cohorts Zarko Zivkovic and Nino de Gleria. With that outfit he toured various jazz festivals in France and Belgium. In 1993, after finishing high school, Rok enrolled in the Academy of Music in Ljubljana and studied composition. Soon after, he finished his first solo CD project called Rokland, for which he recorded all the instruments and received 2 Golden Awards (the Slovenian equivalent of the Grammy award). Then The Slovenian Philharmonic called him to play banjo and mandolin for a tour of Ljubljana-Wels-Dunaj-Bratislava. That same year he joined the World Youth Orchestra, populated by the most talented young instrumentalists from all over the world. There he played banjo. The orchestra played in Switzerland and The Netherlands with guest stars such as Björk, Bobby McFerrin, Kent Nagano, Monty Alexander, Barbara Hendricks, Maxim Vengerov, actor Ben Kingsley, etc.

Touring

After touring he formed a new jazz-rock ensemble called Stop the Band, with whom he played all across Slovenia and became the resident band for the innovative talk show TNT, hosted by Aljosa Rebolj. Stop the Band became quite a sensation and received 4 Golden Awards in 1998. Concomitantly, Rok started to write music for various classical musicians, orchestras, groups and pop-jazz artists. After finishing university he decided to begin postgraduate studies at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He studied film music with such notables as Elmer Bernstein, Christopher Young, David Raksin, Leonard Rosenman and others. He also had the chance to record his compositions with professional studio musicians at the famous Paramount Studios and at the Musicians Union. A year later Rok met with Martika and soon after with Romina Arena, both of whom he began collaborating with. Back in Slovenia he started writing for large media and music events and established classical and pop performers. With a truly ostentatious orchestra he opened up the 49th Summer Festival in Ljubljana conducting his musical compositions called “Funk & Latin Jazz in Film Town”.

Rok played violin and conducted to Big band, String Orchestra, Choir and soloists. One month later, his song Letim (Flying) sang by the Katrinas, won the grand prize at the Slovenian Pop Festival.

Rok is a multi-instrumentalist. For different projects he records various keyboards, violin, guitars, bass, banjo, percussion, mini bouzuki, mandolin…

Today

Rok currently works and lives on destination Los Angeles – Ljubljana. He teamed up with some great groups, orchestras and artists like Gino Vannelli, Vinnie Colaiuta, Luis Conte, Bendik, Jimmy Haslip, Katia Moraes, David Goldblatt, Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, Magnifico, Siddharta, Katrinas and many more. He’s working on all kinds of projects, doing all kinds of stuff. To be continued…

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