Kreutzer Quartet in Oxford

November 25, 2020

Enjoying working with student composers in Oxford yesterday — exciting, challenging and very colourful mix of pieces!

Photo by Peter Sheppard Skærved

Hajdi Elzeser – premiere of ‘Intermezzo’

October 3, 2020

Today: my friend and brilliant pianist Hajdi Elzeser performs in Detmold — works by Eggert, Delinikolov, Gesualdo, Pandevska, Jarret and my new ‘Intermezzo’, as part of the 11. Hörfest Neue Musik.

[gview file=”https://trandafilovski.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Flyer-HF-2020_final.pdf”]

‘Aquarelle (cycle)’ premiere

September 24, 2020

Tonight in Skopje: premiere of my string orchestra piece ‘Aquarelle (cycle)’ and music by Pande Shahov, Toma Proshev, Goran Nachevski and Risto Avramovski. Days of Macedonian music festival 2020. Chamber Orchestra of the Macedonian Philharmonic, conductor Sasho Tatarchevski. Gutted I couldn’t be there!

Peter Sheppard Skærved at St Mary Abchurch

September 20, 2020

Peter Sheppard Skærved in his element — a magical evening in the ‘auditory’ of St Mary Abchurch.

It was just wonderful to finally experience again a living, breathing music event — Peter Sheppard Skærved weaving brilliantly music, words and magic. The programme included music by Vitali, Matteis, Colombi, Baltzar, Sainte Colombe, Vilsmayr, words by Anne Finch, Milton, Anne of Winchelsea and Pepys — and my most recent violin piece ‘Grain’ (written for Peter during lockdown), received a fantastic premiere.

Here are some of Peter’s thoughts after the event: After a Concert

And a Youtube link to the materials for the concert: Materials for ‘Preludes & Vollenteries’

‘Grain’ – Peter Sheppard Skærved

June 2020

At the desk / Lockdown recording of my new solo violin piece ‘Grain’ – written for my friend, the brilliant Peter Sheppard Skærved:

Reviews: Dickinson and Cowie Kreutzer Quartet CDs

April 2020

Edward Cowie: Three Quartets and a Solo (Métier)

Sunday Times: “Quietly frenetic textures act as skein-like support for more forthright material in Cowie’s First Quartet, Dungeness Nocturnes (1969), while the Second, Crystal Dances (1977), is dazzlingly faceted and the Sixth, The Four Winds (2012), reflects upon the winds and seasons. The Kreutzer Quartet’s leader, Peter Sheppard Skærved, give the virtuoso solo violin piece GAD (2017), written during an anxiety episode yet often surprisingly playful.” — Stephen Pettitt

MusicWeb International: “A remarkable new CD. The performances of these four works are ideal. Every bar suggests that violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved and the other members of the Kreutzer Quartet have a great empathy with this music and create a magical and engrossing performance. The musical language of this music is as diverse as its emotional background. The liner notes are impressive. They include the preparatory paintings Cowie made before starting work on his quartets. They are excellent and would grace any art collection. Let us hope that this is really an ongoing project.” — John France
Read more

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Peter Dickinson: Chamber and Solo Works (Toccata Classics)

Gramophone: “Magnificent playing and sound. A marvellous disc.”
Read more

Neil Heyde and Rohan de Saram in Oxford

February 20, 2020

A special and memorable evening: Neil Heyde and Rohan de Saram performing old and new music at the Holywell Music Room in Oxford. Music by Offenbach, Conrad Beck, Reinhold Glière, Richard Beaudoin and two premieres: David Gorton’s Caleuche Chasma and my Kaleidoscope – more info here: Music for Two Cellos: Old and New.

It is an honour and a privilege to be able to work with these maverick musicians. Here they are rehearsing, earlier in the day:

Hajdi Elzeser recording ‘Ripples-Waves-Bells’

February 16, 2020

Fantastic day in Detmold, Germany, with my dear friend Hajdi Elzeser. She recorded ‘Ripples-Waves-Bells’, which she premiered in 2018, in the Brahms-Saal of the Detmold Hochschule. Wonderful playing, and great sound by Sascha Etezazi – the recording will be out soon.

ECCO 2020 – Ensemble Fractales

February 4, 2020

Great performance by Ensemble Fractales at Flagey in Brussels for ECCO 2020. The programme included my piece ‘TRI-O’ (represening Macedonia), and works by Elis Hallik (Estonia), Charlotte Torres (Switzerland), Matti Heininen (Finland), Ryszard Lubieniecki (Poland), Vlad Razvan Baciu (Romania) and Johan Svensson (Sweden).

Here are a few photos that capture the atmosphere:

Rohan de Saram and Neil Heyde

December 18, 2019

Working with two mavericks – cellists Rohan de Saram and Neil Heyde – on my new cello duo:

Goldsmiths CMRU talk

October 29, 2019

I will be talking about several of my pieces and my current interests as a composer and player this Thursday (31st October) at Goldsmiths – as part of their Contemporary Music Research Unit visiting composers series. The talk is open to the public, so if you are in London and have some free time, please come along:

https://www.gold.ac.uk/calendar/?id=12949

Ljubiša Kirovski – premiere of ‘distortion-spectrum’

October 21, 2019

The virtuoso Macedonian violinist and violist Ljubiša Kirovski will give the premiere of my piece ‘distortion – spectrum’ (дисторзија – спектар), written for him, on Friday 25th October as part of the festival ‘Golden Lyre’.

More about Ljubiša and the concert (in Macedonian) here: http://www.smum.mk/vest-statija/80424/zlatna-lira-2019-koncert-na-ljubisha-kirovski

Robert Saxton – 4th Quartet

July 9, 2019

Rehearsing with Robert Saxton this afternoon – wonderful to work on his 4th Quartet, which we are performing in the autumn.

Kreutzers with Robert Saxton at the RAM. Photo by Peter Sheppard Skærved

Dream of a Field Cricket

June 1, 2019

Totally inspiring day at the Rural Life Centre, Farnham Common. This was a project devised by Peter Sheppard Skærved and conservationist and author Laurence Rose, celebrating the field cricket: one of England’s most threatened species, supported by ‘Back from the Brink’ – a wonderful and ambitious conservation project with the aim “to bring back from the brink of extinction some of England’s most threatened species of animal, plant and fungi.”

We explored Farnham Heath; watched, listened, wrote and admired the fabulously diverse wildlife of this ecosystem; in a salon-style performance in the evening, Peter and I played his new composition Seven Calls (written for this occasion), a selection of my violin duos, pieces by Telemann, Bartók and Scelsi, all related to aspects of the project – and the music was interweaved with words by Laurence Rose and participants in the afternoon workshop.

More information about the event here:
Back from the Brink: ‘The Dream of the Field Cricket’

And here is Peter’s account of the day, with photos, recordings and more:
‘The Dream of the Field Cricket’ – reporting back

Please do have a look at Back to the Brink to find out about their wonderful work, and support them if you can.

Noëlle-Anne Darbellay and Rene Camacaro at DMM 2019

April 20, 2019

Fascinating concert last night as part of Days of Macedonian Music 2019 festival. Violinist Noëlle-Anne Darbellay performed my piece Fragments-Light beautifully, and cellist Rene Camacaro joined her for a programme of music by (mainly) Swiss and Macedonian composers: Jean-Luc Darbellay, Heinz Holliger, Georges Aperghis, Alfred Zimmerlin, Alek Pejovski and Bojana Petrovic Aleksova.

Noëlle-Anne Darbellay and Rene Camacaro rehearsing in Daut Pašin Amam, Skopje.

United Music Publishing

April 2019

I am very excited to have joined United Music Publishing. The group of composers represented by UMP features a number of colleagues and friends that I have worked with very closely, and whom I admire both as a composer and performer. For more details and to order pieces published by UMP, please click on the following link:

UMP Composers: Mihailo Trandafilovski

Edward Cowie’s ‘Particle Partita’

March 2019

Performed by Peter Sheppard Skærved and Mihailo Trandafilovski
an Optic Nerve production
Director: Colin Still
Editor: Jack Churchill
Sound: Jonathan Haskell

Edward Cowie and the Kreutzers in Cumbria

February 26, 2019

We have just spent a wonderful weekend with Edward Cowie in Cumbria (home to the Lake District). In our concert at Kendal Parish Church last Saturday, we performed Edward’s 5th String Quartet (“Birdsong Bagatelles”), as well as Haydn’s “Bird”, “Lark” and Ravel’s quartets. Edward’s captivating world of birds, nature, music, art and science is an inspiration.

‘Music of the Spheres’ at the Guangzhou Triennal

February 2019

Charlotte Jarvis’s ‘Music of the Spheres’ was exhibited the 2018 Guangzhou Triennial (China).

The performance and installation cycle includes two compositions for string quartet: my Fibers AND Coils and Peter Sheppard Skaerved’s ‘Bubble Sequence’, as well as a middle movement: the bubbles in the photos contain a recording of an improvisaton by the Kreutzer Quartet encoded in specially made DNA.

More about the project here:
https://cgplondon.org/music-of-the-spheres/

BVMA day – Kreutzer Quartet at Kings Place

February 4, 2019

A few photos illustrating a fabulous day at Kings Place yesterday: we supported the British Violin Making Association Makers Day 2019. We got to play on several of the excellent new instruments on display, both individually and as a group, and loved the experience!

Photos by Emma Hardy:



More here:

http://www.peter-sheppard-skaerved.com/2019/02/the-kreutzer-quartet-at-the-bvma-makers-day-kings-place-3-2-19/

Recording Cowie’s “Particle Partita”

January 15, 2019

Fantastic day recording / filming Edward Cowie’s insane violin duo “Particle Partita” with Peter Sheppard Skaerved. Watch this space for the film – produced by Colin Still / “Optic Nerve”.

Recording “Particle Partita”. Photo by Peter Sheppard Skaerved.

New SOKOM CDs

December 2018

Two new CDs of Macedonian music have just been released by the Macedonian Composers’ Association – they include my pieces wind/hills/waves (for solo cello) and Fibers AND Coils (for string quartet). The performers are Yoni Gotlibovich (live recording of his brilliant performance at the DMM festival earlier this year), and the Kreutzer Quartet:

Recording David Matthews’s 13th Quartet

November 27, 2018

Great day recording David Matthews’s 13th Quartet with the Kreutzers and singers Rebecca Lea, Jessica Dandy, James Robinson and William Dawes. Here is a film of the premiere which we gave last July at Wilton’s:

Hajdi Elzeser at Musikschule Lenze

September 13, 2018

Coming up this Sunday: the brilliant Hajdi Elzeser performing at Musikschule Lenze, Germany – music by French and Macedonian composers, including my piece Ripples-Waves-Bells, which she premiered earlier in the year.

 

Kreutzer Quartet at Wilton’s

July 21, 2018

Fantastic to be back at Wilton’s Music Hall!

Wonderful to work with singers Jess Dandy, William Dawes, Rebecca Lea and James Robinson on David Matthews’ 13th String Quartet, and many thanks to William Cole for his musical supervision.  Also on the programme: Bach/Michael Finnissy – Contrapunctus XIX and Continuation, Pavel Zemek (Novak) – Quartet 2 ‘Pizzicato’, Beethoven – Quartet Op 135, and Edward Cowie’s 6th Quartet ‘The Four Winds’.

Here is a film of our peformance of the Cowie, recorded & directed by Colin Still:

Kreutzers at the JDP centre, Oxford

June 3, 2018

We had a fantastic time last night at the Jacqueline du Pre centre, St Hilda’s College, Oxford, presenting music and readings that explore the significance of music for the work of the Bloomsbury Group and Virginia Woolf in particular. The concert juxtaposed music that influenced Woolf – Bach Fugues, Mozart, Beethoven – with a new work by Jeremy Thurlow inspired by Woolf’s ‘Orlando’:

http://www.ox.ac.uk/event/kreutzer-quartet-virginia-woolf%E2%80%99s-music

Peter Sheppard Skaerved reading Virginia Woolf – Kreutzer Quartet at the JDP centre

CD launch

June 1, 2018

CD Launch

at Craft Central (London, Isle of Dogs)

Peter Sheppard Skærved – Violin/presenter

Guest Artist – Mihailo Trandafilovski

Music by Telemann, Bartók and Trandafilovski

More info here: “Colours-Limits” at Craft Central

 

Artwork Ensemble Piano Duo

April 6, 2018

Two extraordinary musicians, Hajdi Elzeser and Nenad Lečić in Strumuca, Macedonia last night. Beautiful playing – playful, focused, intense, balanced.

Music by Debussy, Schubert, Jana Andreevska, Kostadin Delinikolov, and my solo piano piece Ripples, Waves, Bells.

Nenad Lečić


 

Hajdi Elzeser

Meitar Ensemble at DMM 2018

April 4, 2018

Fantastic concert by the Meitar Ensemble at the Days of Macedonian Music Festival 2018. Music by Ari Ben-Shabetai, Angel Spiroski, Ayal Adler, Valentina Velkovska-Trajanovska, Ruben Seroussi, and myself.

Here is a photo with cellist Yoni Gotlibovitch, after his performance of wind/hills/waves – he was just brilliant:

With Yoni Gotlibovich

DMM 2018

March 2018

Looking forward to this year’s ‘Days of Macedonian Music’ festival. I will be working with cellist Yoni Gotlibovich from the Meitar Ensemble (Israel), and Macedonian pianist Hajdi Elzeser on two of my most recent pieces. Here is the brochure:

Interfaces

March 2018

Very exciting to be contributing towards this great project – Interfaces, coordinated by the Onassis Cultural Centre and supported by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union:

“Interfaces is an international, interdisciplinary project focusing on bringing new music to an extensive range of new audiences. It involves a partnership of organisations from a wide range of European countries having a broad spectrum of experience in fields such as performing, multi-media exhibitions, new media, acoustic and electroacoustic research and education. This trans-sectoral approach is the key to opening up new perspectives on both the creative dimension of the project and the central objective, which is to engage new audiences of all ages and those potential audience segments which, for a variety of demographic or cultural reasons have not yet been exposed to the music of our time.”

As part of this project, I have been asked by one of the participating institutions, the European University Cyprus, to write a set of pedagogical pieces: duos (student and teacher) – for two violins and four hands piano. Pedagogy is one of my passions as a musician, and as a composer, I have written for children before (e.g. my cycle Čekori), but not for a few years now – and it is very inspiring to come back to it.

More information soon …

Quatuor Diotima at Flagey, Brussels

February 20, 2018

A few photos (by Francois de Ribaucourt) capturing the atmosphere at the wonderful concert given by Quatuor Diotima in Brussels (Flagey, Studio 1), as part of the ECSA (European Composer and Songwriter Alliance) ECCO project.

With Diotima (Franck Chevalier, Yun Peng Zhao, Pierre Morlet, Constance Ronzatti) and selected composers Kimmo Hakola (Finland), Paul Pankert (Belgium), Andrea Tarrodi (Sweden), Malte Giesen (Germany), Helena Tulve (Estonia), and myself (Macedonia):

Kreutzers at Goldsmiths 2018

February 1, 2018

Back at Goldsmiths for a great day with student composers and a concert featuring works by Bach, George Holloway, Peter Dickinson, Edward Cowie and Michael Finnissy:

Kreutzers at Goldsmiths

 

Performing Finnissy at Goldsmiths – photo by Malene Skaerved

‘Composition & Craft’ at Craft Central

December 1, 2017

‘Composition & Craft’
A first salon evening at the Forge, in association with Craft Central

Peter Sheppard Skærved – Violin/presenter
guest artist – jeweller Sylvia Edwards
guest artist – Mihailo Trandafilovski-Violin

A celebration of the links between making; between music and craft.
Extraordinary 17th century instruments playing music of their own time and ours. New music responding to the artists at work at Craft Central, and by living composers. Dialogues; conversation with jeweller Sylvia Crawford, talking about her work and inspiration.
Meet the artist, meet the composers.

This event is inspired by the extraordinary archiecture and acoustics of the ‘The Forge’, which was part of the Victorian iron shipbuilding industry. After the decline of shipbuilding, The Forge was part of the box girder bridge building industry which exported bridges across the world. Manufacture finally ceased in the 1950’s. Although some alterations have been made to the structure, much of this exciting building remains intact.

Hafliði Hallgrimsson – Paul Klee Studies (world premiere)
Judith Bingham-The Lost Works of Paganini (2014)
Roger Redgate-Caprice 1 (world premiere)
Mihailo Trandafillovski-‘Colours/Limits’ and ‘Arc-en-Ciel’
David Matthews- ‘Sibeliad’ & ‘Three Chants’ (world premiere)
Sadie Harrison- ‘Tarab’ for Two Violins (World Premiere)
Nigel Clarke-Pernambuco (1994) & Loulan (2003)

And works by composers from the 1600s including Biagio Marini, Henry Purcell. Nicola Matteis, and more

Played on instruments by NIcolo Amati, Antonio Stradivari

Kreutzers recording Dickinson and Cowie

November 29, 2017

Today and next Monday, we are recording quartets by Peter Dickinson and Edward Cowie. More information about upcoming CDs of their music soon.

Kreutzers at All Saints, East Finchley. Photo by Peter Sheppard Skaerved

New piece for Linda Merrick

November 23, 2017

Great afternoon working with the wonderful clarinettist Linda Merrick at the RNCM – exploring the instrument and gathering material for a new piece (clarinet, violin and piano) that I am writing for her. Here we are earlier in the year – Linda rehearsing the solo movement from Michael Finnissy’s clarinet quintet, written for us:

Photo by Peter Sheppard Skaerved

Musical Orbit

November 12, 2017

I am thrilled to have joined the roster of teachers at Musical Orbit – a great project led by Nicole Wilson, allowing for direct, person to person lessons online!

If you are interested in a one off lesson, or in finding a regular teacher, you might want to check it out.  The teaching roster includes a number of internationally renowned professionals.

Here is a link to my page on Musical Orbit:

Musical Orbit – Mihailo Trandafilovski

Photo by Claire Borley

Preludes and Vollenteries 5

November 3, 2017

Tonight, I am joining Peter Sheppard Skærved’s inspiring series ‘Preludes and Vollenteries’, exploring the baroque violin and the astonishing churches of London’s Square Mile.  We are playing music by Georg Philip Telemann, including his suite ‘Gulliver’s Travels’, several of my duos from ‘Čekori’, and my duo ‘Arc-en-Ciel’.  Details here:

Preludes and Vollenteries 5 at St. Botolph without Bishopsgate

 

Peter Sheppard Skærved at St. Botolph. Photo by Malene Skærved

Hajdi Elzeser & Ensemble Horizonte

September 30, 2017

Thrilled to be working with my friend and fantastic pianist Heidi Elsässer and Ensemble Horizonte – concert tonight in Detmold, Germany as part of the 8. Hörfest Neue Musik. On the programme is my TRI-O, and music by Jana Andreevska and Lang:

[gview file=”http://www.ensemblehorizonte.de//bilder/Flyer%208.%20HF%202017.pdf”]