Željka Barišić Pulig

Željka Barišić Pulig was born in Osijek, where she finished her primary and secondary education at the Franjo Kuhač Music School. In 1991, she graduated from the Faculty of Music in Belgrade in the class of Professor Ljubiša Petruševski. She won several first prizes at national and federal competitions of the former Yugoslavia. From 1992 to 1994, she attended postgraduate training at the Conservatoire de musique de Genève in the class of Professor Jean Pierre Sourget, and in 1998 she acquired the pedagogical and psychological competencies at the Faculty of Pedagogy in Osijek.

She started working with the Orchestra of the Croatian National Theatre in Osijek in 1985, and was subsequently employed as an oboe soloist of the Opera from 1990 to 1995. In the same period, she worked as a teacher of oboe and chamber music at the Franjo Kuhač Music School in Osijek. From 1995 to 2003, she was employed as the Principal Oboe of the Opera Orchestra of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, and since 2003 she has been playing the English horn in the same Orchestra.

She serves as a member of several international juries at competitions for young musicians.

She has performed as a soloist and member of chamber ensembles at numerous recent festivals (Dubrovnik Summer Festival, Osor Music Evenings, Varaždin Baroque Evenings). She actively collaborates with various orchestras and ensembles: Croatian Chamber Orchestra, Osijek Chamber Orchestra, Varaždin Chamber Orchestra, Komedija Theatre, Trešnja Theatre, Croatian Serenade Ensemble, Wind Quintet Elfi, Zagreb Soloists, Croatian Armed Forces Band, Cantus Ensemble, "BB” Opera, Col Legno Ensemble.

The critics describe her musicianship as excellent and impressive, elaborating that her English horn came to the fore as a signal that this instrument has remained unfairly neglected to this day. Moreover, the critics see her as an oboist whose spiritual interpretation of a piece of music contains musicality and great technique, but above all a high degree of artistic attitude that respects all the values​of musical texts, blessing them a personal touch.

She served as a member of the Central Board of the Culture Workers' Union for two terms; from 2013 to 2022.

In 2022 she also became a certified mediator.

She became a member of the CNT Zagreb’s Theatre Council in 2018, and since 2021 she serves as the Vice President of the Theatre Council. She was elected as the artists’ representative for the second time in 2022, but she stepped down from that position to take over the position of acting director of the Opera, where she remained throughout the entire 162nd theatre season.

She is the first woman in history to serve as the head of the most complex directorate of the central national theatre, and the results of the first year of her term of office prove her full dedication to the theatre: the performances of the Croatian National Theatre Opera had as many as 50,357 visitors, which is a 42% increase compared to the 2018/19 season.

Her attention and care for opera spectators of all ages is noticeable in the audience development programmes that included the production of opera performances for children, the opera for babies realized in cooperation with the Music Biennale Zagreb, as well as concert programmes, including the Doyen Opera cycles and the Chamber cycle of the Zagreb Philharmonic and Orchestra of the Croatian National Opera in Zagreb.

In addition to numerous successful premieres and re-runs, not to mention the projects supporting young musicians through a scholarship programme, she and her team have also organized the first Opera Zagreb Festival.