December 20, 2019

Excited to be included in the ECCO programme next February in Brussels, and looking forward to working with Ensemble Fractales!

December 18, 2019

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

November 29, 2019

This evening, we are playing Haydn and Beethoven at the Holywell Music Room in Oxford:

https://www.ox.ac.uk/event/feeling-new-strength-string-quartets-and-voice

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

October 29, 2019

A wonderful day recording Simon Bainbridge’s Clarinet Quintet – Kreutzers and Linda Merrick:

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

September 19, 2019

Opening today: Charlotte Jarvis’ ‘Music of the Spheres’ at the Hartlepool Art Gallery – including my piece ‘Fibers AND Coils’.

More about the project here:

Music of the Spheres

“Music of the Spheres” @ Hartlepool Art Gallery

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

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.

Beautiful playing by Yoni Gotlibovich: premiere of my piece wind/hills/waves – live recording from the Days of Macedonian Music Festival 2018:

May 9, 2019

From our concert last night at the Jacqueline du Pré centre (St Hilda’s College, Oxford):

April 27, 2019

My close collaborator, pianist Ana Gaceva performed music by Swiss and Macedonian composers in Bern, Switzerland yesterday, as part of the l’art pour l’Aar concert series – the programme included my piece Ripple Effect.

Ana Gaceva in Bern

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.

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

March 2019

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

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.

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/

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/

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.

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:

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:

November 19, 2018

“Sandstorms of sound and a gradient towards otherworldly peace.”

Review by Rob Barnett (MusicWeb International) of my recent Metier CD – click on the following link for the full review:

Trandafilovski: Diptych – Review

October 13, 2018

Roderick Chadwick and the Kreutzers rehearsing Gloria Coates’s Piano Quintet at St John’s Smiths Square.  We premiered this piece in Munich three years ago, and a live recording of the premiere was recently released on Naxos.

Also on the programme: Crawford Seeger, Foss, Kirchner and Ives.

Part of Americana ’18: American Mavericks

Photo by Malene Skaerved

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.

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:

June 19, 2018

Tonight, Belgian radio station Klara will be airing Diotima’s performance of my piece ‘Fibers AND Coils’ – live recording from their ECCO concert earlier this year:

https://klara.be/playlists/late-night-lab/2018-06-19

Quatuor Diotima peforming at Flagey, Brussels

June 2018

Our latest CD – now available for preorder:

https://Naxos.lnk.to/Coates

The Los Angeles Times says: “A mesmerizing American symphonist, Gloria Coates is our last maverick.”

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

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

May 1, 2018

Just released on Toccata Classics: a new CD of Jeremy Dale Roberts’s chamber and instrumental music, performed by Peter Sheppard Skærved, Roderick Chadwick, Bridget MacRae and us (Kreutzer Quartet):

Jeremy Dale Roberts: Chamber and Instrumental Music

April 2018

Nice review (in Macedonian) by Tina Ivanova of the recent concert by the Meitar Ensemble at DMM:

Meitar concert review

Meitar at DMM. Photo my Zdenko Petrovski.

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

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

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:

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 …

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):

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

January 12, 2018

The wonderful pianist Hajdi Elzeser is giving the premiere of my new piece ‘Ripples-Waves-Bells’ tonight at the Frakzionen Festival in Bielefeld, Germany. Also on the programme: music by Kostadin Delinikolov, Aleksandar Pejovski and Frank Höngen:

https://www.frakzionen-festival.de/frakzionen-2018/fr-22-00/

December 2017

My piece ‘Fibers & Coils’ has been selected for performance at the ECSA (European Composer and Songwriter Alliance) winter session in Brussels.

The ECCO concert will take place at Flagey-Studio 1 in Brussels on 20 February 2018, performed by Quatuor Diotima.

Full programme and more information here:

https://www.flagey.be/en/activity/4421-quatuor-diotima-ecco-concert

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

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

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

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

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

October 25, 2017

Excerpt from our recording session yesterday:

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”]

September 22-24, 2017

Charlotte Jarvis is presenting her ‘Music of the Spheres’ (including pieces by Peter Sheppard Skærved and myself), at the ‘Abandon Normal Devices’ (AND) Festival 2017. More here: https://www.andfestival.org.uk/events/music-of-the-spheres/

The music in the video above is taken from my piece ‘Chetiri’, performed by the Kreutzer Quartet and the New London Chamber Choir.

July 13, 2017

Kreutzers with Michael Finnissy and Linda Merrick in St Michael’s Church, Highgate. Today, we recorded his recent clarinet quintet (written for Linda and us), and his string quartet Civilisation.

May 16, 2017

This is as good as it gets as a composer – two of my favourite collaborators bringing my music to life today – a joyous day of recording at St Michael’s, Highgate:

With Peter and Roderick

April 28, 2017

Rehearsing with Michael Finnissy, Linda Merrick and the Kreutzers at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.  Today, premieres of thrilling new clarinet quintets by Paul Pellay, Adam Gorb and Finnissy, + my quartet ‘Star Factory’:

Photo by Peter Sheppard Skaerved

April 12, 2017

Having a fantastic time in my home country.  Great to work with violinist Mareike Neumann and flutist Dante Montoya from Detmold-based ‘Ensemble Horizonte’, and the Macedonian pianist Kristina Svetieva.  Tonight they are playing my TRI-O and music by Tairi, Combier, Mittmann, Krishino and Pande Shahov, as part of the Days of Macedonian Music 2017 festival.

Ensemble Horizonte

March 20, 2017

Truly a privilege to be able to work with these three amazing musicians, collaborators and friends – today with Peter Sheppard Skaerved, Clifton Harrison and Neil Heyde, after recording my quartet ‘Fibers AND Coils’:

Here is an outtake:
 
Recorded at Saint John the Baptist church, Aldbury.
Sound: Jonathan Haskell

February 16, 2017

Peter Sheppard Skaerved and I will be playing John Cage’s ‘Atlas Eclipticalis’ at Tate Modern, as part of the Robert Rauschenberg exhibition:

https://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/audio/john-cage-something-nothing-performance

Here are a couple of photos from last night’s dress rehearsal – taken by Malene Skaerved:

February 7, 2017

Violinists Darragh Morgan and Victoria Mavromoustaki will be performing my duo Colours/limits (part of Čekori), and music by Sally Beamish, Luciano Berio, Gavin Bryars, Takemitsu and Bartok:

http://www.brixtoneast1871.co.uk/phos-music-festival-2017

January 2017

Back at Bath Spa University and Goldsmiths this week – two concerts featuring works by Douglas Young, Jeremy Thurlow and Edward Cowie, alongside Shostakovich No.13 and Beethoven Op.135:

https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/news-and-events/events/20170125-string-quartet/

https://www.gold.ac.uk/calendar/?id=10483

December 19, 2016

Great day recording Paul Pellay’s new clarinet quintet, written for Linda Merrick and us. Listen to outtakes here:

http://www.peter-sheppard-skaerved.com/2016/12/recording-day-19-12-16-paul-pellay-michael-alec-rose-with-linda-merrick-clifton-harrison-neil-heyde-mihailo-trandafiloski/

November 8, 2016

Ana Gaceva

The wonderful Macedonian pianist and my close collaborator Ana Gaceva is giving a recital at the Meridian Festival of Contemporary Music in Bucharest, organised by the Romanian section of the ISCM. The programme includes my piece Ripple Effect, which she premiered in 2011.

Full programme here:
http://cimro.ro/meridian-2016/

November 3, 2016

Rehearsing in the Robinson College Chapel, Cambridge. Photo by Peter Sheppard Skaerved

Tonight we are playing in Cambridge (Robinson College Chapel). The concert explores Virginia Woolf’s interest in string quartets and features new work inspired by her writing. Programme includes new pieces by Jeremy Thurlow and Elliott Schwartz, Priaulx Rainier’s string quartet and Beethoven’s op.135:

https://www.cambridgelivetrust.co.uk/tickets/events/weaving-threads-virginia-woolf-string-quartets

October 26, 2016

On the way to the European Bioinformatics Institute, where our collaboration started – tonight, we are presenting it with Charlotte Jarvis and Nick Goldman – music by Peter Sheppard Skaerved and myself. More about the project here: http://www.trandafilovski.com/music-of-the-spheres-at-dilston-grove/

Photo by James Read

October 16-22, 2016

Just back from China, where we have had the most inspiring time, in residency at the Tianjin Conservatory of Music. A week of concerts, workshops, masterclasses and discovery – organised by our host, George Holloway (head of composition).

The two concerts focused predominantly on British music:

Programme One:
Mihailo Trandafilovski – ‘Fibers AND Coils’ (2015)
George Holloway – ‘Birds in Flight’ (2012)
Laurie Bamon – ‘All the Summer Sea birds’ (2016)
Sadie Harrison – ‘Broken Wing’ (2015)
Richard Beaudoin – ‘You know I’m yours’ (2016)
Giacinto Scelsi – ‘Arc en Ciel’ (1973)
Michael Finnissy – ‘Nobody’s Jig’ (1981)

Programme Two:
David Matthews – 8th Quartet Op 75 (1998)
Benjamin Britten – ‘Elegy’ (1930)
George Holloway – ‘Tullochgorm’ (2016)
Michael Finnissy – ‘Civilisation’ (2012)
Holloway – ‘From Nothing to No One’ (2006)
Robert Saxton – ‘3rd Quartet’ (2009-11)

But, for me, it was the work with the students that proved most memorable – just wonderful to work with such talented, open, and humble musicians.  Here are some comments by the students:

[gview file=”http://www.trandafilovski.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Kreutzer-Student-comments.doc”]

And, some photos that capture the atmosphere: