Marko Markovic was born on February 29th,1988, in Surdulica .
Marko grew up in his family’s hometown Vladicin Han, in Southern Serbia. He spent his childhood in a comfortable home in the town centre with his father Boban, his mother Lidija, and his sister Tamara.
Marko’s father, Boban, has been making music for more than 30 years. Consequently, he was rarely at home, spending just a little time with his family and Marko, as he was extremely busy with his band’s tours and recording sessions. With such a strong musical example in the family, Marko’s love for music strengthened, as did his admiration for his father, which inspired him to start practicing at the age of 5, even alone, dedicating all of his afternoons to his deepest passion: the trumpet.
Photo: Izedin Arnautovic
His very first teacher was his grandfather Dragutin, who was also his father’s teacher.
In the meantime, Boban kept touring with his Orchestra, playing all over the former Yugoslavia and Europe. Each time his father left, Marko was alone with his dreams of following him, and of becoming an official member of the Orchestra. He used to sit outside in the yard, playing alone and imagining the future. Indeed, his family became impatient with him because of his frequent and noisy rehearsals, and Boban was compelled to buy a muter for Marko’s trumpet so he could play and practice as long and often as he wanted.
Boban had never seriously attended to his son’s musical talent until Marko was 12 years old. One day, Lidija, Boban’s wife, forced him to dedicate a little time to listen to the musical virtuosity of his son. The result was that Boban was completely astonished by Marko’s skills, and asked him to play several traditional songs, amazed that his child was able to play goods well. Completely satisfied and surprised to hear the talent and skill he had ignored until that day, Boban gave Marko a composition to be arranged, and sent him directly to a recording studio.
Starting from that moment, the young Marko was introduced to the world he had always dreamt of, the one of the professional musicians. When he was 14, Boban came home one day and told Marko to pack his bags and join the Orchestra. There was absolutely no need to rehearse; Marko already knew the scores by heart. He fully joined the tour in May 2002, and since then has provided the band with most of the solos and has worked intensely on the group’s new compositions.
Marko’s passion for the trumpet was never simply a child’s past-time: he has been practicing 10 hours per day since he was 11 years old.
Photo: Michael Mann
Over the years, Boban has become more and more fascinated by Marko’s technique and his passion for the music and for composition; so much so that he decided to give him full control of Orchestra, as a gift for his 18th birthday.
Some years later he became the main soloist and musical arranger in the band. In addition to his musical career, Marko has branched out into screen acting, playing the main character in the movie “Gucha! The Distant Trumpet”, directed by Dusan Milic and co-produced by Emir Kusturica, whose world Première was in February 2007 at the Berlin Film festival. In the movie, Marko plays the young Romeo, a Gypsy boy and trumpet player, in love with a Serbian girl, whose father is also a very famous trumpet player. Marko took part in the movie not only as an actor, but also as a musician, playing most of the songs on the soundtrack himself. The film hit all of the major European cinemas in the autumn of 2007.
The soundtrack of the movie received a nomination for European Film Award for best original music score.
Marko currently continues to perform as the main soloist and arranger in the Orchestra, has intensely collaborated as a soloist and co-arranger with Shantel on the albums “Disco Partizani” and “Planet Paprika,” and has performed several shows with Shantel’s Bucovina Orchestra.
Since 2006, the Boban and Marko Markovic Orchestra has been collaborating with the well-known Italian trumpet player Roy Paci and the American trumpet player Frank London, as part of the “Trumpet Triumph” tour, renewed in 2009 with a new tour schedule.
Moreover Marko took part to the recording to Miss Platnum’s album “The sweetest Hangover”. Nowadays he keeps touring with his father and his band all around the world.