Lana Janjanin

The 34-year-old composer, singer-songwriter and pianist Lana Janjanin was born in Zagreb, Croatia into a musical family. She started studying music at the age of 4 in her hometown, majoring in piano and music theory. At the age of 18 she enrolled in the study of classical composition at the prestigious “University for Music and Performing Arts” in Vienna, Austria, as the youngest in her class. She majored in Media Composition, attaining a master’s degree at 23.

Lana writes lyrics, composes and arranges music for her jazz ensemble, as well as for classical and jazz orchestras, which she occasionally conducts. She performed at numerous international festivals and halls (Croatia, Austria, Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Greece, China, Taiwan, Cayman Islands, etc.) She has collaborated with many renowned musicians and orchestras, including Roby Lakatos, Vlatko Stefanovski, the ORF RSO Symphony Orchestra, the HRT Jazz Orchestra, the HRT Tamburitza Orchestra, the Zagreb Philharmonic, the RTS Big Band, Athens Big Band, Nouvelle Cuisine Big Band, etc.

In 2018 she released "Miracles" - a double album recorded with the HRT Jazz Orchestra and her fellow composer colleague Dina Rizvić, presenting them as the first women in the history of Croatia (and the ex-Yugoslavian region) to have composed, arranged and performed their opus for big band. Along with this record release, also in the fall of 2018, Lana and her jazz ensemble released her debut album of original music under the name «A Minute of Love».

In 2019 Lana was nominated for the "Porin" discography award (Croatian Grammy) in the "New Artist of the Year" category. She also represented Croatia in the European youth jazz orchestra "Euroradio Jazz Orchestra", which she joined as a vocalist on the Austrian tour, performing the music of Christian Chech.

In 2021 she started the position of artistic director of the jazz projects of the Croatian Society of Composers (HDS), of which she is a regular member.

In the academic year 2021/2022 Lana attended and successfully graduated from the Diplomatic Academy at the Ministry of foreign affairs in Zagreb, with a special interest in public diplomacy, her final thesis carrying the title "Cultural diplomacy - an instrument for strengthening international cooperation".