Luka Veselinović

Luka Veselinovic  was born 1977. in Croatia, city of Rijeka. He now resides in Zagreb, which is the  Croatian Capital.
Luka is surrounded with music from his early age.  His father is a musician and a guitarist in a commercial pop band "Opatijski Suveniri".  His grandmother was a classical piano teacher, who shared much musical influence with Luka as a child. He learned piano for 3 years.
Luka was not initially intending to choose the musician life, as he began his studies of art history and painting on Faculty of Humanities and Social sciences in Rijeka . As he approached twenty one years of age and while yet still at college, Luka was motivated to further explore his passion for music. A Punk-rock band from Opatija by name "Ventili" had no bass player, so he picked up a bass and start to play new instrument.  Soon after that he realized music is in his blood  and started to show more interest for improvisational music and jazz. He decided to dig deeper into that direction, so he took  private  lessons with Croatian jazz bass Henry Radanovic and centered his focus toward music alone.  He would then embrace the bass with no reserve and later upright bass too.
He  moved to Zagreb to get more chances to play . He started a band  "Labyrinth", with Dalibor and Marko Matosevic, and in 2008 they recorded a jazz CD with original jazz compositions under the label of Dallas Records , with guest musicians Sasa Nestorovic, Matija Dedic and Kristian Terzic. With this band he performed on several Jazz festivals in Croatia. Soon began to perform professionally with many Croatian jazz musicians like, Kruno Levacic, Darko Jurkovic, Denis Razumovic, Borna Sercar, Oleg Kireyev Marko Lazaric,  Branko Sterpin, Zvjezdan Ruzic, Joe and Lela Kaplowitz, Maja Savic, Vojkan Jocic, Simon Marlow,Nino Nimac, Adriano Bernobic....and others. In 2005  He joined a band with famed Croatian singer, Massimo Savic, where he collaborated with many others too for a seven years stint, like: Vasuda, Sharma, Nina Badric, Jacques Houdek, Ivo Gamulin Gianni, Ivana Kindl, Divas, Marko Tolja....   And played a part in recording with multiple pop, rock, instrumental and jazz projects, as a sideman with following artists:  Marko Ramljak Band, Kristian Terzic Band, Labirynth Jazz Project, Detour, Massimo Savic, Connect, Meritas, Franko Krajcar, Bruno Krajcar, Jadranka Stojakovic, "Pips Chips & Videoclips" and others.
As a self thought musician, in order to learn more about music,  he attended many jazz seminars in Croatia: Groznjan, Pucisca ( Bosko Petrovic), in Slovenia: Novo Mesto ( Reggie Workman), In Italy : "Berklee In Umbria" - Peruggia and Masterclass In Siena, where he  had a chance to learn from and play with: Anders Jormin, Eric Harland, Jason Lindner, Furio di Castri, Omer Avital, Avishai Cohen.
 He  participated at jazz and music festivals as a part of different music projects  : "Jazz Time" in Rijeka,  "OFF Jazz and Blues Festival" in Sibenik, "Jazz Festival Bale", "Samobor Jazz Festival", "Kunstbunker Festival" in Duga Resa, "Pancevo Jazz Festival",  "EXIT music Festival" in Novi Sad, "Lent music Festival" Maribor, "Valamar Jazz Festival" in Porec, "Rovinj Jazz Festival", "Avantgarde jazz Festival" Rovinj. This year of 2013 Luka Veselinovic played the popular SXSW music festival in Austin Texas with the Kristian Terzic Band.
In 2010 he attended a "Five Week Summer Berklee Music Program" in Boston where he had a chance to play in a combo directed by famous Japanese Trumpet Player, Tiger Okoshi and he was chosen for an all star jazz band line-up. He received  scholarship for Berklee College Of Music after auditioning and Completed five semesters where Luka had had a chance to work and play  with and  some of the top  Berklee teachers like Terry Lynne Carrington, Darren Barrett,  Tiger Okoshi, Dave Buda,  Dave Santoro, Bruce Gertz, Barry Smith, Dave Santoro, John Lockwood and others.  During this study in Boston in 2012 he recorded his first (debut) album "Magnetic Whale" with some of the finest young musicians on Berklee College as a leader with his original compositions, while completely mixing and mastering and creating his own cover design personally.
Influenced by different styles of music, but mostly jazz, fusion and contemporary music, ... Luka has embarked on a  music  project, called "Veselino Jazz project" where he joins with different jazz musicians and playing, creating and performing original music.
Currently performs on different music projects and as a freelance session musician in Croatia.