Julijana Hajdinjak

Julijana Hajdinjak (born April 9, 1996) is Canadian award-winning composer.
== Early Life ==
Born in Mississauga, Ontario, Hajdinjak is the older sister of singer-songwriter Dani Kristina. At the age of nine, Hajdinjak began piano lessons. While Julijana received private piano instruction with Cynthia Kaarto, she also attended the Regional Arts Program at Cawthra Park Secondary School where she majored in Voice. Being a member of Cawthra Park's Chamber Choir under the direction of Bob Anderson, she had the opportunity to perform with Cirque du Soleil numerous times and most notably with The Rolling Stones at the Air Canada Centre in 2013. 
In her early teens, Julijana often performed with her sister, Dani under the stage name Juliana Hayden. They performed with the Croatian band Gazde, and were the opening act for singer Mate Bulić on his North American tour in Winter 2014/2015. On July 18, 2014, Julijana recorded her first demo, and visited Nashville, Tennessee. While performing at local spots such as the Bluebird Café|Bluebird Cafe, Hajdinjak and Kristina also performed with Karree J Phillips at the Wilson County Fair.
In December 2015, Hajdinjak and Kristina were invited by maestro Siniša Leopold to perform at the Living Arts Centre alongside the HRT Tamburitza Orchestra and many other renowned Croatian performers including Tajči, Kićo Slabinac, Sandra Bagarić, Klapa Sv. Juraj and Đani Stipaničev.
In 2016, Hajdinjak performed with Glenn Buhr and the Button Factory Band at the Jazz Room in Waterloo, Ontario.
Despite singing her entire life, Julijana began taking vocal lessons right before university. She has graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University with an Honours Bachelor of Music with distinction majoring in Contemporary Music: Composition. She studied with soprano Lynda Mieske, and composers Linda Catlin Smith and Glenn Buhr, and was the Teaching Assistant for Buhr's composition course in 2018.
Upon premiering many of her compositions at Wilfrid Laurier University, Hajdinjak culminated her final year by composing a Canadian-Croatian opera, entitled "Padajuća Zvijezda".
== Career ==
Upon completing her degree, Hajdinjak officially opened up her business, Fortepiano Music Studio, a music school and composition studio. Pursuing her passion for composition, Hajdinjak began composing for film and TV. Since 2017, Hajdinjak has composed music for many films, trailers, TV shows and experimental videos. Hajdinjak has had her works read, performed and premiered across Canada by ensembles including Via Choralis, the Laurier Orchestra, Elektra Women’s Choir, Vera Causa Opera, Choirs for Change, the University of Toronto Orchestra and the world renowned Penderecki String Quartet. 
In 2017, Hajdinjak's piece "Love Me" was awarded first place in the Via Choralis Competition.
In 2018, Hajdinjak composed the trailer music and official theme of the Ottawa International Vegan Film Festival (now known as the International Vegan Film Festival) entitled "Ubuntu". In this year, Julijana also composed her first opera, Padajuća Zvijezda, the world’s first Canadian-Croatian opera. It was premiered by Vera Causa Opera in June 2018 and received lots of media attention from both Canadian and Croatian media sources. 
Later in 2018, Hajdinjak's piece "How Long Will Your Hour Last" was selected to take part in Elektra Women's Choir's Reading Session of New Compositions. Taking place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Hajdinjak participated alongside composers Nicholas Ryan Kelly, Vincent Lo, and Deborah Sumner. Hajdinjak's piece "Fire-Flowers" with text by E. Pauline Johnson, was also a finalist in the Eastern Horizon Choral Competition.
Hajdinjak began her conducting career in late 2018. She became the Assistant Director and Conductor of the Canadian Croatian Choral Society’s Youth Choir. Their mission is to further develop and preserve Croatian choral music in the community. 
At the end of 2018, Julijana joined Croatian rock band Rujno Vino as their lead vocalist. The band consisted of other Croatian musicians keyboardist and accordionist Marko Levak, bassist Štef Šiljevinac, drummer Dan Čorak and guitarist Andrew Sporcic. Rujno Vino announced that Hajdinjak and Sporcic left the band in July 2020.
In early 2019, Hajdinjak collaborated with George Brown College to compose music for two Greek period pieces. She co-composed the stage works alongside Dylann Miller, former classmate at Wilfrid Laurier University. The premiere of the Greek theatre pieces was in February 2019. Later that year, Hajdinjak won Arcady Ensemble|Arcady's Composition Competition with her piece "Moonset", beating out 150 entries from 37 countries.
In May 2019, Hajdinjak won a MARTY Award|MARTY award for Music Instrumental, Emerging.
== Music for film and television ==
Hajdinjak began composing for film whilst in university. She connected with Ryerson University students in the Master of Fine Arts in Documentary Media program. On June 7, 2017, Stephanie Vizi's film Mistissini Healing premiered as part of the DocNow Festival at Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema in Toronto, Ontario featuring Hajdinjak's original score. On June 21, 2017, Ryerson grad Eduardo Nunes-Jansen premiered his film Um Fio Magico at the same festival featuring Hajdinjak's pieces "Love Me" and "Placid Tempest".
In 2019, Hajdinjak composed the music score for the award-winning short film Death Game (2019 film)|Death Game based on the novel by Theresa Jacobs. Death Game has been an official selection for Hamilton Film Festival, River Arts Festival, Toronto Independent Film Festival, Monsters of Horror Film Festival, Midnight in the Mortuary Horror Anthology Film and Cleveland Concoction.
Hajdinjak worked on television series, My Home, My Life which aired on TVOKids in spring 2020. The series follows a child who invites the audience into their home to see their family, customs, and traditions.
== Producing music ==
In early 2019, Hajdinjak began collaborating with her sister Dani Kristina. Kristina's first release came with her debut single, "I Wanna Belong" produced by Grammy Award|Grammy nominated, Juno Award|Juno winning Trevor James Anderson and Hajdinjak in May 2019. Hajdinjak was also credited as the arranger and backing vocalist on the track. 
On February 14, 2020, Kristina released her second single "Burning Parachute" with Hajdinjak credited as the producer, arranger, pianist and backing vocalist. 
On September 6, 2020, Hajdinjak and Kristina collaborated once more on Dani's single "You Don't Get to Choose".
== References ==
Category:Canadian award-winning composer
Category:Candian singer