Vid Veljak (1996) has distinguished himself on the Croatian and international scene as one of the youngest, most talented and versatile cellists, excelling as a soloist in both, classical and contemporary music. His artistry also extends to chamber music and experimental projects, reflecting a broad and adventurous musical identity. He began studying the cello at the age of three under the guidance of Tatjana Skljarenko, and soon after with Mauro Šestan in Rijeka.

His talent was recognized very early by the prominent cellist and pedagogue Valter Dešpalj, who invited him to join his class at the Academy of Music in Zagreb, where he passed the entrance exam at the age of 14 and graduated in 2017. From 2012 to 2015, he simultaneously studied at the International Music Academy of the Principality of Liechtenstein in the class of Jens Peter Maintz and V. Dešpalj. He also studied with Romain Garioud in Paris from 2016 to 2018. He attended masterclasses with renowned cellists such as Giovanni Sollima, Enrico Bronzi, Laszlo Fenyö, Miklós Perényi, Gustavo Tavares, Michael Flaxman, Xenia Janković, among others. He won numerous competitions, including the Antonio Janigro International Competition in Poreč and Daleki akordi in Split. He is the founder and a member of the Rijeka Piano Trio alongside pianist Filip Fak and violinist Krunoslav Marić.

He is also a member of the international contemporary music ensemble Synchronos. During his studies, besides perfecting the canonical repertoire, he focused on performing contemporary cello music, premiering many works by Croatian composers, several of whom dedicated compositions to him (e.g., Asterión Concerto for Cello and Chamber Orchestra by Tomislav Oliver – making him the youngest Croatian cellist to whom a concerto has been dedicated – Idioma I by Tomislav Oliver, and the Cello Concerto by Davor Bobić). He is one of the founders of the NAE Collective, which brings together prominent young musicians and multimedia artists with the goal of promoting contemporary electroacoustic music and multimedia arts.

He stood out with solo recitals, performing some of the most complex works for cello and electronics at the Music Tribune in Opatija 2018 and the Music Biennale Zagreb 2021, for which an online recital was recorded. From March 2019 to 2022, he was the principal cellist of the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, regularly performing as a soloist. In 2019, he launched the project Resonance(s), dedicated to recording works for solo cello (and electronics) by Croatian composers, aiming to promote 20th- and 21st-century compositions and encourage the creation of new works. With this project, he released two albums. In 2022, the album Resonance(s) II won the Porin discographic award (and was nominated in four classical music categories).

Since June 2022, he has been a member of the Zagreb Soloists ensemble, and in September of the same year, he became the principal cellist of the Croatian National Theatre Orchestra in Zagreb. In November 2022, he toured with the ensemble as part of the international Hans Zender Academy under the mentorship of Ensemble Modern members. Since 2022, he has been a cello professor at the Academy of Fine Arts and Music in Split, where he became an assistant professor at only 26 years old.