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John Morovich
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John Morovich, born in 1965, grew up in Seattle's sizable Croatian community. Since 1973, he has studied, taught, and performed traditional music and dance of Croatia and other parts of south-eastern Europe. He was awarded the presigious Washington State Arts Commission Folk Arts Fellowship for 2001.
He is currently the artistic director of the Seattle Junior Tamburitzans, a 50-member youth ensemble of which he was a performer from 1974 throuth 1987. He also is interim conductor and arranger for Jele Croatian Women's Choir of Vancouver. B.C.
Most recently he was selected as Guest Conductor for the Croatian Fraternal Union of America Junior Cultural Federation Festival held in Chicago, in July 2005.
From 1980 through 2002, he was a featured performer with the Vela Luka Croatian Dance Ensemble and the Ruze Dalmatinke Orchestra.
In December, 2001, he performed in and served as orchestra director for the Croatian Christmas Cantata Narodil Se Mladi Kralj by Tomislav Uhlik of Zagreb, Croatia, which was directed by Mary Sherhart.
Since 1979, he has performed with the Sinovi Tamburica Orchestra with friends George, Tom and Tim Jovanovich, Jeff Suhadolnik, and John Major. The band, which participates frequently in the Tamburitza Extravaganzas, now includes Matt Thompson and George's son Nick.
For five years he peformed with a balkan-gypsy fusion rock band called Kultur Shock, with recent immigrants from the Balkans and recorded two albums with the group.
He has accompanied singer Virginia Voulgaris and can be heard on her new recording "Je ne t'amie Pas," an albumn of love songs and aira recorded live in 2004.
He recently recorded a CD and video live with Children of the Revolution and performs regularly with vocalist Mary Sherhart and has toured with the Lara Lavi Band.
John is active in Croatian community issues and has served as the recording secretary of the Croatian Fraternal Union (CFU) Lodge 439 of Seattle for many years and was elected delegate to the CFU National Convention. He has volunteered much time to aiding the children of St. Theresa and St. Joseph Orphanages in Zagreb, Croatia.
John has taught at many camps and seminars, including the California Kolo Festival in San Francisco, the Balkana Seattle Balkan Camp, the Texas Camp, the Eastern Europan Folklife Camps, and the Seattle Folk Dance Festival.
As an accompanist, he has worked with Petur Iliev at the Pacific Northwest Ballet School.
John has also worked with many folklore ensembles across the United States and Canada. He most recently choreographed for the Ban Jelacić Croatian Dance Ensemble of Penticton, B.C., Canada; Hrvatski Vitezovi; Sarajevo of Vancouver; and Zagreb of Victoria, B.C., Canada. John is currently available for creating new pieces for performing ensembles.
Dances John has taught include Kabanica i seksera, Grizlica, H'ajd na lievo, Mazulka, Okrani se moje, Kolo malo, Repa, Sad moi dragi u s'umi kod koza, Saljsko kolo, Slavonsko kukunjesče, Sroteš, S'tiri snehe, Tanac po susasko, Veloluški Tanac, and Žena ide na gosti.