Pavao Markovac

Croatian musicologist, music publisher, critic and composer of Jewish descent. Born Pavao Ebenspanger on April 5, 1903 in Zagreb, died on July 17, 1941 in Zagreb. In 1923 he changed his surname into Markovac. Started musical studies in Zagreb. Studied musicology and composition in Vienna from 1921 to 1926 where he accomplished a doctor's degree in musicology. He returned to Zagreb in 1927 and worked at the Zagreb Radio and with the Edison Bell Penkala record company (Edison Bell Penkala Ltd. Zagreb). In the period from 1927 to 1941 he wrote more than 600 articles, studies, essays, discussions and critic articles on music. He was a conductor of the Sloboda workers singing society choir. He composed around 170 works, mostly vocal, out of which only around 30 survived. Because he was an active supporter and collaborator of the then illegal Yugoslav Communist Party, he was arrested and detained by the Yugoslav Kingdom's authorities on March 30, 1941, the detention which continued after the proclamation of the Independent State of Croatia only 2 weeks later. Following an unsuccessful jailbreak attempt, he and his inmates among whom was also August Cesarec were executed by a firing squad on July 17, 1941.