Goran Kuzminac

Of Serbian origin, born in Zemun (Belgrade), Goran Kuzminac moved to Italy as a child, attending school and university there (he studied Medicine). Having developed an excellent self-taught fingerpicking technique, he worked for several years as a session musician in the recording studio, playing on albums by, among others, Antonello Venditti, Angelo Branduardi and Lucio Dalla, and also taking part in some of their tours.

Introduced by Francesco De Gregori to Vincenzo Micocci's It label, he released his first 7-inch single there in 1976, “Io”, which nonetheless went unnoticed. In 1979 he recorded another single, “Stasera l’aria è fresca”, which was a good success and won the Festival di Castrocaro and the Gondola d’Argento at the Venice International Festival. This was followed by another successful single, “Ehi ci stai”, which gave its title to his first album, released in 1980.

Kuzminac then began a long tour lasting about a year with Ivan Graziani and Ron, together with whom he recorded a Q-disc featuring “Canzone senza inganni”, a song they wrote for the occasion. In 1982 Kuzminac released his second album, “Prove di volo”, a very acoustic record produced by Del Newman; its standout track is “Stella del Nord”. That same year saw the release of a second Q-disc, recorded with Mario Castelnuovo and Marco Ferradini (together they wrote and sang “Oltre il giardino”), with whom he also played a series of concerts.

In 1986 he released “Contrabbandieri di musica”, produced by Alberto Radius and Antonello Venditti. For some years he then devoted himself to composing soundtracks and theme songs for TV series, as well as performing live and teaching, both in schools and at Conservatories. In 1993 a new work finally arrived, the anthology album “Strade”, featuring re-recorded themes and two previously unreleased tracks; the album was distributed at newsstands by L’Unità.

In 1997 he released “Fragole & pugnali”, produced by Mimmo Locasciulli. In December 1998 a new version of “Stasera l’aria è fresca”, remixed by Davide Carlotti, was released. Preceded by the single “Stasera no Josephine”, the album “Gli angoli del mondo” came out in 1999, released in the unprecedented acquapack format.

Finally, in 2001 the compilation “I successi” was released by DV More.

Diversifying his activities, he also began working in musical research, professional 3D graphics, video post-production and even music video production: also active in producing soundtracks for productions outside Italy and in the technique of sound design for large spaces, he has never abandoned regular record production.

In his last decade of life came the albums of new material "Dio suona la chitarra" (2008), built around the guitar and featuring collaborations with Alex Britti, Antonio Onorato, Charley De Anesi, Lincoln Veronese, Mauro De Federicis and Andrea Valeri, and "Fiato" (2012), distributed by Egea Music, as well as his first live album "Solo ma non solo" (2011), recorded in a theatre in Andria with just guitar and voice, and "Goran Kuzminac & Stefano Raffaelli Jazz Quartet" (2014), featuring ten tracks arranged by Stefano Raffaelli (piano) with Walter Civettini (trumpet / fluegelhorn), Flavio Zanon (double bass) and Carlo A. Canevali (drums): the first record on which Goran relies on voice alone, without guitar.

His last recording came as a guest appearance on Antonio Cipriani's CD "L'ultimo romantico", released on Artis Records in 2016, performing the song "Vino triste", with music by Antonio Cipriani and lyrics by Stefano Rosso.

Goran Kuzminac died on 18 September 2018 after a long illness.

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