BIOGRAPHY

Her notable recitals, chamber music concerts, and performances with symphony and chamber ensembles, made her become one of the leading Croatian concert artists. Numerous invitations from renowned festivals as well as concerts held in major music centers in Europe, North and South America, Australia and Africa testify her international reputation. 

She performed under the baton of the most prominent Croatian and world conductors, accompanied by the Zagreb Soloists, the Zagreb Philharmonic, the HRT Symphony Orchestra, and numerous foreign orchestras. The large sound archive of Katarina Krpan’s performances comprises of numerous studio recordings at the most important Croatian, Swiss and Italian radio and TV stations, and several CDs recorded by domestic and foreign record companies.  

Alongside her intensive artistic career in the country and abroad, this artist has also developed a pedagogical career. In her work with young musicians, she has shown strong ability for the development of young musicians, paying special attention to their comprehensive education. Her studens are prize winners of many national and international competitions. 

She has been a member of the EPTA (European Piano Teachers Association) since 1989. Under the auspices of this reputable international organization, she has, in the following years confirmed her abilities as the president of its Croatian youth branch. She is one of the founders of the International Piano Competition EPTA, held in Zagreb and Osijek since 1999, as well as the EPTA Summer School in Dubrovnik. 

Krpan has an interest in the music of the 20th century and the work of Croatian composers. She premiered and recorded an impressive number of contemporary piano works, equally dedicated to her by talented beginners and doyens of Croatian music (Milko Kelemen, Berislav Šipuš, Mladen Tarbuk …). She conveyed her belief in the necessity of improving national music to students, and in 2010 she founded HR PROJEKT, which brings together students of music schools and students of various departments of music academies. The aim of this project is to work on compositions by Croatian authors and perform them at concerts across the country and abroad. With the same goal, she is increasingly developing cooperation with the Croatian Music Youth. 

The awards she has won so far confirm the value of her work. The Rector’s Award, the Croatian Music Institute Award, the Ivo Vuljević Award of the Croatian Music Youth, the University Professors Club Award, the Mai Music Festival Award (France), the Vatroslav Lisinski Award of the Croatian Composers’ Association, the Milka Trnina Award of the Croatian Music Society artist, Neven Award of St. Marco’s Festival, the Plaque of the City of Zagreb. 

In 1991, she formed piano duo with her father, Vladimir Krpan and this collaboration has resulted in a large number of concert performances with programs ranging from piano four-hands and two pianos, to performances in various formations and with numerous orchestras, as well as 4 CD’s and one DVD release. . Since 2019, she has been working in the duo #kkkk with violinist Katarina Kutnar. The duo Kutnar/Krpan was acclaimed with equal success by the audience and the critics. They won the Porin discography award for the best classical music album (Berislav Šipuš: Zajedno/Together) in 2019, and for the album #KKKK Daydream in 2022, they were nominated in all categories of classical music. 

She is the director of the Summer piano school at International Cultural Centre of Jeunesses Musicales Croatia/JMI World Meeting Centre in Grožnjan, Istria. She is a professor at the Music Academy of the University of Zagreb and the head of the Contemporary studies-piano department of the Music Academy-University of Zagreb. For many years, she also worked as a visiting professor at the Steinway Academy in Verona, Italy. 

Katarina Krpan leads numerous international masterclasses worldwide and is a juror in many national and international competitions.