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Valentin Sarić

The official site of composer, translator and writer Valentin Sarić
Valentin Sarić
Valentin Sarić
Valentin Sarić, 2026
Born31 January 1992[1]
Zagreb, Croatia
EducationPavao Markovac Music School (Theory Department)
School of Applied Arts and Design, Zagreb
Institute of Church Music "Albe Vidaković"
OccupationsComposer · translator · writer · pianist · organist[1]
Notable workInvestiture of the Gods (first complete English translation)
The Ming–Qing Masterworks Series
Nevera (symphony)
Stabat Mater
MovementHyper-Classical Concert Music of the 21st Century (founder)[2]
ImprintsCanvas Editions · Epic Library (Epska Knjižnica)
WebsiteThis site

Valentin Sarić (born 31 January 1992) is a Croatian composer, literary translator, writer, pianist and organist based in Zagreb.[1] He is the founder of the compositional movement he terms Hyper-Classical Music of the 21st Century, writing symphonies, concertos and piano music rooted in the harmonic language of the classical and romantic traditions.[2] As a translator he is known for producing first-ever complete English translations of classical Chinese novels, including Investiture of the Gods (封神演義), published within his Ming–Qing Masterworks Series of more than seventy volumes.[3] He also translates classical world literature into Croatian under the imprint Epic Library (Epska Knjižnica), and publishes original fantasy and science-fiction as well as sheet music editions. His catalogue on IMSLP lists twelve original compositions and over one hundred arrangements.[4]

Contents

Background and education [ edit ]

Sarić was born on 31 January 1992 and grew up in Zagreb, Croatia, where he continues to live and work.[1] He received his foundational musical training at the Pavao Markovac Music School in Zagreb, where his principal course of study was in the Theory Department (Teoretski odjel). He completed his secondary education at the School of Applied Arts and Design (Škola primijenjene umjetnosti i dizajna) in Zagreb.

He subsequently studied at the Institute of Church Music "Albe Vidaković" (Institut za crkvenu glazbu "Albe Vidaković") at the Catholic Faculty of Theology in Zagreb, an education that grounds much of his later sacred and choral output. He has since taught music at several schools in Zagreb, work that feeds directly into his large body of piano music for ballet training.

Compositional method, style and aesthetics [ edit ]

Sarić describes himself as the founder of Hyper-Classical Concert Music of the 21st Century, a term he formally declared as a marketing brand and stylistic orientation for his work in 2023.[2] He defines it as high-quality tonal composition, presentation and performance rooted in the whole arc of Western art music from the Middle Ages through the post-romantic and early-modernist traditions, drawing in particular on the idioms of the Baroque, the Viennese classics, Romanticism and early Modernism. For Sarić, melody, tonal harmony and classical forms are fully contemporary means of expression rather than historical relics, and his music is written to be performed repeatedly — in concert halls and on digital media platforms alike — with each movement intended to be recognisable and musically self-sufficient.

The style deliberately sets itself apart from what Sarić regards as the academic categories of the avant-garde, neo-classicism, neo-baroque and neo-romanticism, the twelve-tone legacy of Schoenberg, minimalism, and what he calls strategies of "quasi-artistic shock." He likewise rejects the traditional division between absolute and programme music, holding that clear musical quality matters more than theoretical justification. Folk, popular and jazz materials are admitted only when subjected to serious classical artistic processing. While the idiom does not extend to functional liturgical music, it embraces the heritage of classical sacred music, an area strongly represented in his own catalogue.

His output spans symphonies, concertos, ballets, symphonic boleros, sacred and choral works, chamber music and a substantial body of piano music for daily use in ballet training.

List of compositions [ edit ]

A selection from Sarić's catalogue, grouped by genre. Most works are available as recordings on Spotify and YouTube; direct links are being added. Multi-movement works are listed once, rather than as individual movement releases.

Symphonies

Concertos

Ballets

Symphonic ballet fantasias

Symphonic boleros

The Gravity Dance cycle

An ongoing cycle of short orchestral pieces named for moons and celestial bodies, composed mainly in 2024–2025. It includes Io, Europa, Ganymede, Galatea, Deimos, Phobos, Triton, Rhea, Mimas, Iapetus, Hyperion, Umbriel, Miranda, Enceladus, Epimetheus, Neso, Proteus, Phoebe and Trigo, among others.

Sacred and choral

Chamber music

Christmas music

Other works

Arrangements

Original writing [ edit ]

Alongside translation, Sarić writes original fantasy and science fiction, historical fantasy, and AI-dialogue-themed non-fiction exploring the creative capabilities of large language models, as well as language phrasebooks.[2] Much of his prose is produced through an openly declared method of human–AI collaboration, in which he directs, structures and refines the work. He also writes and edits under the pen names Brighty Salamander and Wilfried Wott. His original fiction is organised into several standalone-friendly series.

Jinn & Journeys

An anthology of standalone fantasy and science-fiction tales united by the recurring presence of the Jinn.

Shadows of the Dragon Throne

A historical-fantasy sequence retelling the fall of China's great dynasties through documented history and speculative metaphysics.

Celestial Legends Reforged

The great legends of China recast as compact epic fantasy, including modern retellings of the Four Great Classical Novels.

Pristine Worlds: Clean Dystopia Standalones

Standalone "clean dystopia" science-fiction novels set across humanity's solar colonies.

Airspace Zero: Aerial Dominion Standalones

Standalone science-fiction novels centred on aerial and aerospace warfare, linked by theme rather than continuity.

The Milkomeda Series (forthcoming)

An upcoming series set around the collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies, and how civilisations meet during that slow apocalyptic merger.

Into the Cthulhuverse

Modern retellings and full-length expansions of H. P. Lovecraft's works.

Adventures & Appendices

Science-fiction and fantasy novelettes, each followed by two appendices — a hundred-question Q&A and a "Lore Codex."

Stories and 100 Q&A

Standalone, wholly human-written short stories, each followed by a 100-question Q&A session generated with GPT-4 as an extended appendix.

Canvas Editions

Illustrated modern retellings of the world's literary classics, an explicitly human–AI collaborative imprint with Sarić as editor and curator.

Literary translation [ edit ]

Sarić works trilingually across Classical Chinese, Croatian and English, with a particular focus on Ming- and Qing-dynasty vernacular fiction — including gong'an (court-case) fiction, huaben story collections, shenmo (gods-and-demons) novels and caizi jiaren romances — much of it never previously translated into any Western language.[3]

The Ming–Qing Masterworks Series

His flagship English-language project, the Ming–Qing Masterworks Series, comprises more than seventy volumes of complete, unabridged translations of classical Chinese novels and story collections, spanning the great vernacular fiction of the Ming and Qing together with select foundational works from earlier dynasties. The series opens with the first complete English translation of Xu Zhonglin's Investiture of the Gods (Fengshen Yanyi, 封神演義).[3][5]

Selected volumes (the complete 70-title list is being added):

Judges of Dynasties: Imperial China's Legendary Court Cases

A separate translation series — distinct from the Ming–Qing Masterworks — gathering the five great pillars of the gong'an (court-case) tradition, several appearing in complete English translation for the first time.

The Journey to the West Cycle

The Journey to the West Cycle presents the full mythic arc of the Journey to the West tradition in English — from the Song-dynasty The Monkey Pilgrim (大唐三藏取经诗话), through Wu Cheng'en's Journey to the West itself, to the seventeenth-century sequel The Second Journey to the West (後西遊記).[7]

Foundational Texts of Classical China

A separate translation series — distinct from the Ming–Qing novels — devoted to the foundational philosophical, ritual and statecraft texts of classical China. View the series on Amazon. The complete title list is being added.

Croatian translations — Epic Library (Epska Knjižnica)

Under the imprint Epic Library (Epska Knjižnica), Sarić produces first Croatian translations and typeset editions of classical world literature, published mainly through his Etsy shop. The catalogue is organised into the following collections.

Nordic sagas (Nordijske sage)

Chinese literature (Kineska književnost)

Finnish literature (Finska književnost)

Jules Verne in Croatian (Jules Verne na hrvatskom)

Vampire fiction (Vampirska fikcija)

Adapted classics & world literature (Klasici i svjetska književnost)

Selected translations [ edit ]

Language phrasebooks [ edit ]

Distinct from both his original writing and his literary translations, Sarić maintains a separate strand of practical, LLM-assisted language phrasebooks — neither fiction nor translation nor retelling. The main GlobeTalker Phrasebooks series runs to 55 volumes covering languages from Croatian, Finnish and Icelandic to Mandarin, Swahili, Quechua and constructed languages such as Esperanto and Toki Pona, while a companion series, The Multilingual Phrasebook Series: 50 Essential Phrases in 50 Languages, gathers fifty languages across seven multi-language volumes.

Discography [ edit ]

TitleAlbum details
Album title Released: year
Label: label / self-released
Formats: SpotifySP, YouTubeYT, digital download
Album title 2 Released: year
Label: label
Formats: …

Publications [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

  1. "Valentin Sarić". Muvac. Retrieved 9 July 2026.
  2. "About the Author: Valentin Sarić". Amazon. Retrieved 9 July 2026.
  3. "Investiture of the Gods (Fengshen Yanyi): The First Complete English Translation". Amazon. Retrieved 9 July 2026.
  4. "Category: Sarić, Valentin". IMSLP / Petrucci Music Library. Retrieved 9 July 2026.
  5. "The Pavilion of Brocade Fragrance (錦香亭)". Amazon. Retrieved 9 July 2026.
  6. "The Emperor's Golden Tablet (Cases of Judge Peng)". Amazon. Retrieved 9 July 2026.
  7. "Journey to the West (English Edition), The Journey to the West Cycle". Amazon. Retrieved 9 July 2026.
  8. Add press mentions, interviews, reviews here as they accumulate — this is what makes the page feel "encyclopedic".

External links [ edit ]

Categories: 1992 births· Living people· Croatian composers· Croatian translators· Translators of Classical Chinese literature· 21st-century classical composers· Croatian pianists· Croatian organists· Musicians from Zagreb· Croatian fantasy writers
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