Ladislav Tulač

Ladislav Tulač (February 28, 1939 in Varaždin – May 9, 2017 in Zagreb) was a well known Croatian composer, producer, musician, and musical educator, most famous for his musicals targeted at children and adolescents.

Ladislav Tulač, also known as Laci, was born in Varaždin, Croatia, where he completed elementary and both regular (Gymnasium) and musical high school.

He moved to Zagreb to study pharmacy at University of Zagreb.

Here he started singing in Academic Choir Ivan Goran Kovačić.

He dropped out of college at his final academic semester in order to pursuit his two true passions: music and theater.

He became fully employed at Zagrebačko Kazalište Mladih in 1964, where he worked as a pianist and musical educator.

At this time, he also became a member of Vocal Quartet Kenda, where he sang jazz.

In 1970 he became self-employed and continued collaborating not only with Zagrebačko Kazalište Mladih, but also with virtually every theater in the region, as well as with local TV and radio stations.

In 1971 he composed music for musical Mačak Džingiskan i Miki Trasi based on a short story by Vesna Parun, directed and adopted for theater by Zvjezdana Ladika.

His collaboration with Zvjezdana Ladika yielded another cult musical in 1982 called U koga se uvrglo to dijete, based on a short story by Hungarian author Eva Janikovszky.

It addresses the universal challenges adolescents face.

The musical contains a string of original rock'n'roll songs, for which Zvjezdana Ladika wrote lyrics in a language used by adolescents.

This poetic portrayal of life on Croatian Coast in early 20th century became known as his signature work, and has been staged in theaters across Europe, from Berlin to Skopje, most recently in Šibenik, where it opened 2012 International Children's Festival