About

FILIP NOVOSEL, Croatia, is highly regarded as one of today’s most important innovators on the tambura/brac, forging new connections between Croatian and Balkan heritages, jazz and classical music. He earned a masters degree in Music Education from the Zagreb Music Academy (with thesis in Tambura Techniques in jazz) in 2011. Filip is also a graduate of prestigious New York’s The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, class of 2013, being the first ever tambura soloist to enroll in a major American jazz school, where he graduated cum laude.

During his studies in Zagreb, Filip established the Novosel & Ćulibrk Duo and Quartet Corona, the first Croatian jazz ensembles to feature the tambura. The quartet performed at the first Avantgarde Jazz Festival in Rovinj as the opening act for guitarist George Benson. At that time Novosel attended numerous jazz workshops but the one in Bassano del Grappa, Italy proved to be pivotal. He was named the most talented musician among sixty participants, leading directly to his acceptance into the New School’s program.

During his time spent in New York Filip realized his full music potential, learning from the masters such as Vic Juris, Peter Bernstein, Yosvany Terry, Reggie Workmann, Samir Chaterjee and many others. With one of his mentors and highly acclaimed Brazilian jazz expert, Richard Boukas he formed a duo that published a CD/DVD Live at St. Michael’s. But the most vital collaboration is the one with Slovenian drummer Zan Tetickovic. Together, they formed a quintet Balchemy, that performed in the US, Switzerland, Slovenia and Croatia. In 2014, Balchemy was awarded by the Downbeat magazine in the category Small Jazz Combo. Filip was also a finalist of ASCAP’s Herb Alpert – young jazz composer award.

In the past two years Filip performed with musicians such as Olli Soikkeli, Kruno Spisic, Matija Dedic, Vladimir Kostadinovic, Marko Crncec, Ismail Lumanovski, Theodosii Spassov and Vlatko Stefanovski. He performs often with tambura orchestras, including the tambura orchestra of Croatian TV and one hundred-member Croatian Tambura Orchestra as both soloist and composer/arranger.

Filip plays and endorses Stjepan M. Gilg tamburas. FN5 is specially designed tambura/brac with 5 strings made in collaboration with Velimir and Antonio Zwirn. Filip is also endorsee of AER amps.