Ivo Tijardović (1895 - 1976)

Born in Split, Dalmatia, Ivo Tijardović had many talents, to say the least: he was a composer, conductor, librettist, stage and costume designer, director, dance teacher, painter and caricaturist. A man of the theatre but also able to provide a finished product for the Edition Slave of Vienna, a Croatian enterprise (1918–23). For it, he not only composed hits for piano, such as the White Serenade, or Exitation dalmate (foxtrot), but also orchestrated them (with the help of Blagoje Bersa and Jakov Gotovac who were also working there) and he often designed their wonderful Art Deco covers.

Mauro Piccinini