July 16, 2016

Tonight: keynote session at the Performance Studies Network Fourth International Conference, at Bath Spa University – Neil Heyde’s lecture entitled ‘Inventing an Ensemble Identity’ leading to a concert by the Kreutzer Quartet. The programme includes a new piece by Laurie Bamon, Michael Finnissy’s ‘Nobody’s Jig’ and ‘Civilisation’, and my piece ‘Fibers AND Coils’ (link below). Plus, interviews with all composers, led by Peter Sheppard Skaerved and Roger Heaton.
 

June 1, 2016

My new piece for two violins – premiere at the British Museum on June 17th:

About the piece

 
Article by Angelina Dimoska in Macedonian daily newspaper “Nova Makedonija”:
Да се пишува ангажирана музика значи да се има став
 
Full programme for the event

May 16, 2016

Article about some of my current projects on the Macedonian Composers’ Association website (in Macedonian):

Богата активност на Михаило Трандафиловски изминатиов период

May 5, 2016

Great day with students at Goldsmiths:

Photo by Peter Sheppard Skaerved

April 2016

A recent review of my Innova CD on LaFolia.com; the article also features two other Kreutzer Quartet CDs, with music by David Gorton and Gloria Coates:

String Theory 18: Bundled Quartets and a few Trios

April 1, 2016

Fantastic day at Wilton’s Music Hall – improvising with Peter Sheppard Skaerved, for a film directed by Malene Skaerved – watch this space for more on this project.

Audio and more photos from the day here: http://www.peter-sheppard-skaerved.com/2016/04/21176/

March 10, 2016

Congratulations to the brilliant PSOGO Quartet (Julian Velasco, Mark Main, Jordan Lulloff, Joseph Herbst) who have been selected to perform in the final round of the prestigious 2016 NASA (North American Saxophone Alliance) saxophone quartet competition.  As part of their programme, they will give the first performance of my recent piece BLAZE-glow, written for them, and based on this image by Mark Sullivan, to whom the piece is dedicated:

Mark Sullivan: Flamenco Lights

February 2016

To be released this month:

Link to NMC page

January 28, 2016

Our first concert with the brilliant American viola player Clifton Harrison, who has just joined us. Here we are, at Goldsmiths, with composer David Matthews. The programme, celebrating living composers, also included music by Michael Finnissy, Sadie Harrison, Richard Beaudoin and my piece ‘Fibers AND Coils’. More info here:

http://www.gold.ac.uk/calendar/?id=9462

January 19, 2016

‘Music of the Spheres’ at the Festival of Genomics tomorrow:

http://www.festivalofgenomicslondon.com/

Charlotte Jarvis – Music of the Spheres at Dilston Grove – photo by James Read

December 7, 2015

Back at our musical home, Wilton’s Music Hall, with music by Bartók, Kodaly, Schubert, and new pieces by Richard Beaudoin and Sadie Harrison:

https://www.wiltons.org.uk/whatson/109-schubert-bartok-kodaly

October 10, 2015

Just published by CEM (Macedonian Centre for Musicology):

New book by Angelina Dimoska and Tina Ivanova – profiles of seven Macedonian composers: Jana Andreevska, Pande Shahov, Miroslav Spasov, Nikola Kodjabashia, Rober Sazdov, Vanja Nikolovski Gjumar and myself.  Here is a link (Macedonian only):

October 2015

New CD by Ensemble ConTempora, released by SOCOM – live performances from this year’s DMM festival. On the CD is my piece “One, Changing” for mixed ensemble, as well as music by Goce Kolarovski, Ana Pandevska, Valentina Velkovska-Trajanovska, Darija Andovska, Kokan Dimushevski and Jana Andreevska:

‘Magnets, Lava, Crystals’ on CD: http://www.innova.mu/albums/mihailo-trandafilovski/five
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/trandafilovski-five/id1022501197?ign-mpt=uo%3D4
Download mp3: http://www.clarinetclassics.com/shop/magnets-lava-crystals/

August 28, 2015

Released today by innova Recordings, and available for order/download on iTunes, Amazon and other music services:

VIEW TRAY

ONE SHEET

Here are some amazing people who made this album possible:
Performers/collaborators – my Kreutzer Q colleagues (Peter Sheppard Skaerved, Morgan Goff, Neil Heyde), Roger Heaton, Evie Heyde, Roderick Chadwick, Aidan Oliver, New London Chamber Choir,
Mark Sullivan (cover and booklet images),
Vladimir Martinovski (poet),
Recording/producing – Jonathan Haskell, Graham C. Williams, Simon Weir,
Special thanks to Minjas Zugik for his generosity and vision,
the fabulous Wilton’s Music Hall (in which three of the pieces on the CD were premiered),
and the coolest label around, innova Recordings (Philip Blackburn, Chris Campbell, Steve McPherson).

June 12 – July 5, 2015

Charlotte Jarvis’ thrilling collaborative project: science, art and music in a unique coalition.  The performance and installation cycle includes two new pieces for string quartet: ‘Bubble Sequence’ by Petter Sheppard Skaerved and ‘Fibers AND Coils’ by me:

Dilston Grove exhibition

More about the project:
http://www.onthemedia.org/story/storage-potential-dna/
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/28/the-molecular-music-written-in-dna.html
http://www.peter-sheppard-skaerved.com/2015/06/music-of-the-spheres-at-cgp-londondilston-grove/

June 19, 2015

This weekend, we are playing works by women composers in Munich, centered around the unique voice of Gloria Coates:

[gview file=”http://www.musica-femina-muenchen.de/wp-content/uploads/mfm-Konzertprogramm_21-06-2015_pdf_web.pdf” width=”70%” save=”0″]

May 21, 2015

Coming up next week: Macedonian contemporary music in Belgium – ConTempora playing two concerts in Mons and Liege.

Programme includes my TRI-O, for flute, violin and piano:

May-June 2015

We are back with three concerts at our favourite Wilton’s Music Hall this spring to present Beethoven’s amazing middle period quartets – alongside new music by Roger Redgate, Edward Cowie and Robin Holloway:

The Kreutzer Quartet presents Beethoven’s Middle

With Edward Cowie at Wilton’s

May 2015

Very excited about going back to my clarinet quintet ‘Magnets, Lava, Crystals’ with close collaborator Roger Heaton – tomorrow at the Michael Tippet Centre.  Also works by Webern, Beethoven/Matthews, Cowie and student composers:

Bath Spa Live: Kreutzer Quartet and Roger Heaton

April 23, 2015

This Kickstarter campaign has just been launched by Artists & Engineers. Please have a look and support if you can!

I am so EXCITED to be taking part in this awesome project, led by the artist Charlotte Jarvis:

April 2015

Another brilliant performance of my piece One, Changing (ConTempora/conductor Sašo Tatarčevski) and a fantastic premiere of Ripple Effect (2) by Ana Gaceva (with Bitola Chamber Orchestra/conductor Zsolt Nagy), at this year’s Days of Macedonian Music Contemporary Music Festival (brochure here).  Such a privilege to share my music with collaborators/friends from my home country.  Here are some rehearsal/concert photos (courtesy Maja Argakijeva) that capture the atmosphere:

ConTempora/Sašo Tatarčevski

With conductor Sašo Tatarčevski

Ana Gaceva/Bitola Chamber Orchestra

Ana Gaceva/Zsolt Nagy/Bitola Chamber Orchestra

February 24, 2015

Wonderful atmosphere at the closing concert of European Composers and Songwriters Alliance’s ‘Creators Conference’, at the BOZAR centre in Brussels:

Photo credit: John Stapels.

The programme included my Diptych (Violin concerto no.2), as well as works by Jean Luc Fafchamps (Belgium), Mate Balogh (Hungary), Pertti Jalava (Finland) and Lynne Plowman (UK).

January 2015

My piece Diptych has been selected for a performance at the final concert of ECSA’s ‘Creators Conference’ next month:

ECCO concert – Brussels

It will be performed by the European Contemporary Composers Orchestra (conductor Thomas Van Haeperen) and violinist Peter Sheppard Skaerved, at the BOZAR Centre in Brussels.

November 23, 2014

Some photos from a terrific week in Malmö, Sweden – working with composers Simon Söfelde, Alfred Jimenez, Dante Hidemark Boström, Josef Söreke, Jonatan Sersam, Ismael Palacio, Cecilia Damström, Martin Jeff Dalin Volsing, David Riebe, Stefan Klaverdal and Anna-Lena Laurin.  Inspiring collaborations leading to two concerts at the Connect Festival for New Music:

October 2014

Just released: new album with selected pieces performed at the DMM festival in Skopje, earlier this year.  On the CD is my recent TRI-O (for violin, clarinet and piano), played by my wonderful Macedonian colleagues Vladimir Kostov, Marija Vrshkova and Katerina Bachevska, as well as music by Pejovski, Temkov, Petrovic, Andovska, Bakrnchev and Shahov:

October 29, 2014

In the midst of performing some of the most intense music we have encountered: Michael Hersch’s mammoth string quartet Images From a Closed Ward :

October 22, 2014

Fantastic day in Aldbury – we have just recorded Edward Cowie’s 3rd String Quartet (outtakes here: In Flight Music) and Sadie Harrison’s exquisite …under the circle of the moon… for two violins.  This photo was taken at the end (literally!) of the recording day – Peter seen here breaking a string:

Photo by Sadie Harrison

October 7, 2014

The wonderful Joanna Jones is giving a talk at the Pharos Trust’s Contemporary Music Festival tonight – and screening her Re-Veil-Le – a symbiosis between her artwork and my Violin Concerto No.2, Diptych:

Joanna Jones talk

September 30, 2014

This is EXCITING – last night in Skopje, a new ensemble for contemporary music was launched, featuring some of the most original and exciting Macedonian performers – congratulations Socom, Bojana Petrovic Aleksova, Sasho Tatarchevski, Marija Vrskova, Vladimir Kostov, Katerina Bachevska, Igor Ivanov , Bojan Taleski and all others involved!

On the programme were pieces by Jana Andreevska, Darija Andovska, Bojana Petrovic Aleksova, Alek Pejovski, Valentina Velkovska-Trajanovska, Zivojin Glisic and myself.

Summer 2014

Currently finalising the edit of a film of my cello duo (S)pacing, written for the fantastic Neil and Evie Heyde.  An Optic Nerve production: director-Colin Still, sound-Graham Williams.  More info soon …

Here is a photo from the session last month:

July 29-30, 2014

Photo by Peter Sheppard Skaerved

Short lunch break in front of Saint John the Baptist church, Aldbury, where we have just recorded some wonderful transcriptions of Beethoven, Scriabin and Schumann by David Matthews.  Here is an outtake from the session – David’s quartet version of Scriabin’s Prelude op.75:

http://www.peter-sheppard-skaerved.com/2014/07/alexander-scriabindavid-matthews-prelude-op-75/

May 25, 2014

The start of a new project – at the European Bioinformatics Institute, with Joana Seguro, Mira Calix, Charlotte Jarvis, Nick Goldman and Peter Seppard Skaerved.  More info soon!

Photo by Peter Sheppard Skaerved

May 2014

New Kreutzer Quartet release on Move Records: music by the Australian composers Don Banks, Nigel Butterley, Richard Meale and Felix Werder:

UNFOLD on Move Records

April 11, 2014

Excited about two concerts tonight by Macedonian friends and colleagues: Marija Vrškova, Vladimir Kostov and Katerina Bačevska performing my TRI-O in Skopje (Macedonia), and Ana Gaceva playing Ripple Effect in Minsk (Belarus):

DMM 2014 brochure

Ana Gaceva in Minsk

April 9, 2014

I will be talking about some of my recent pieces at the Academy of Music in Macedonia, as part of the Days of Macedonian Music 2014 festival:

[gview file=”http://www.trandafilovski.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DMM-2014-workshops.pdf”]

March 14, 2014

Photo by Marius Skaerved

“The collapse of the old certainties” – Webern, Stravinsky, Kodaly, Suk and Foulds at the National Portrait Gallery:

Late Shift: The Great War in Portraits: Kreutzer Quartet

February 6, 2014

Kreutzers at Goldsmiths

Great first day of our new Goldsmiths residency – workshop with students of Roger Redgate during the day, followed by a concert including some key 20th century works as well as Finnissy and Matthews:

http://www.gold.ac.uk/calendar/?id=7215

January 2014

Re-Veil-Le by Joanna Jones and my Diptych for violin and strings – live recording from our concert in Dover last October – performers Peter Sheppard Skaerved and Longbow.  Film by Dominic de Vere.

January 16, 2014

With Roderick Chadwick

Outtakes from yesterday’s recording session at St Michael’s Church, Highgate, with the wonderful Roderick Chadwick and Peter Sheppard Skaerved:

http://www.peter-sheppard-skaerved.com/2014/01/mihailo-trandafilovski-arc-en-ciel/

December 13, 2013

Photo by David Gorton

Colourful and enjoyable evening in the Enlightenment Gallery of the British Museum, presented by Peter Sheppard Skaerved, with Diana Mathews (viola), Lucy Railton (cello) and Julian Perkins (harpsichord).  The photo on the right shows us performing some wonderfully realised Dowland/Byrd/Randall arrangements by David Gorton; also on the programme were pieces by Matteis, Walther, Sadie Harrison, and the premiere of my recent violin duo ARC-EN-CIEL.

November 2013

Front Cover Image: Ostinato by Mark Sullivan.

My clarinet quintet Magnets, Lava, Crystals has just been released by the Clarinet Classics label.  Written for the astonishing clarinetist Roger Heaton and the Kreutzer Quartet, this piece was first performed at Wilton’s Music Hall in London in December 2011.  The recording can be downloaded here: http://samekmusic.com/product/magnets-lava-crystals/.  The download also includes a high definition video by Simon Weir combining filmed excerpts from the recording session with a conversation between Roger and myself concerning the genesis and technical aspects of the piece.

May-November 2013

Kreutzers, Bridget McRae and Jeremy Dale Roberts

This was an amazing series to be a part of.  Each of the six concerts featured one of the op.18 quartets alongside other works by Beethoven and his contemporaries, plus premieres by Jeremy Dale Roberts (broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s ‘Here and Now’), David Matthews, Sadie Harrison, David Gorton, Edward Cowie and Michael Finnissy.  With guest artists Bridget McRae (Solo Cellist of the Munich Chamber Orchestra), Emily Beynon (Principal Flute of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra), Aaron Shorr (Head of Piano, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), Chris Redgate (Oboe, Evelyn Barbirolli Fellow at the Royal Academy of Music), Diana Mathews (viola, well known to Wilton’s audiences for her collaborations with the Quartet) and members of the New London Chamber Choir.  More about the series here: Beethoven Begins

October 12, 2013

Such a privilege to be a part of this unique project, organised by the brilliant Dover Arts Development (DAD) and culminating with a fantastic concert last night, devised and led by Peter Sheppard Skaerved.  The photo above shows a stage from Joanna Jones’ new work RE-VEIL-LE, one of the commissioned pieces, made into a beautiful film by Dominic de Vere, alonside which Longbow ensemble performed my piece Dyptich.  Also on the programme were two wonderful, complementary works by Nigel Clarke (music) and Malene Sheppard Skaerved (poetry), entitled Dogger, Fisher, German Bight, Humber, Thames, Dover, Wight.  Here are some more photos from the event and audience responses: Transit: Pulp & Rags: The Grand Finale, and you can see the full programme below:

[gview file=”http://www.trandafilovski.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/DAD_PR_14pp_web.pdf”]

September 25, 2013

Photo by Ohsuga Kaori

I have just started rehearsing with the Tokyo-based collective mmm… (Reiko Manabe-flute, Kaori Ohsuga-piano, Shungo Mise-violin, Daryl Jamieson-composer).  The photo above shows our first Tokyo-London rehearsal over Skype!  Concert coming up on 3rd October and includes my new piece TRI-O, written for them, as well as music by Arturo Corrales, Elo Masing, Alex Mincek, Marco-Antonio Pérez-Ramirez and Daryl Jamieson.  Very excited to work with them and be a part of their innovative series of concerts.  Here is the flyer:

[gview file=”http://www.trandafilovski.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/mmm_no.5_flyer.pdf” save=”0″]

Spring/Summer 2013

Gloria Coates: Among the Asteroids (Tzadik)

Tapestry: Chamber Music by Elliot Schwartz (Metier)

Michael Alec Rose: Chamber and Solo Works for Strings and Horn (Toccata Classics)

Anton Reicha: Complete String Quartets, Volume One (Toccata Classics)

June 27, 2013

Amazing day yesterday – recording my piece Diptych (Violin Concerto No.2), written for the virtuoso Peter Sheppard Skaerved and dedicated to our friend Richard Bram.  I could not be more grateful for the opportunity to work with such brilliant, open and committed musicians: Aisha Orazbayeva, Preetha Narayanan, Alice Barron, Midori Komachi, Diana Mathews, Shulah Oliver, Evie Heyde, Valerie Welbanks, and Rachel Merloo.  You can hear outtakes from the recording session here:

Diptych outtakes

And this picture is Peter’s response:

May 31, 2013

Photo by Thor Brødreskift

With Roderick Chadwick and Michael Finnissy:

http://www.fib.no/en/Programme/?TLp=752266

May 7, 2013

Photo by Peter Sheppard Skaerved

Another great day recording Reicha with my Kreutzer Quartet friends in Aldbury (listen to outtakes here: Reicha Op.49 No.2).  It has been such a privilege to able to play some fantastic instruments for our Reicha recordings: the ‘Kustendyke’ and the ‘Regent’ Strads.  Peter and I finished the day with a short conversation about the experience of playing these instruments, about composing, and colour – and it was simply an amazing experience to record a couple of my violin pieces on the ‘Regent’ (seen in the photo on the left): In the Hills (from Čekori), and Fragments-Light, the first piece I wrote for Peter and the Enlightenment Gallery in the British Museum.  You can hear this dialogue and the recordings here: Mihailo Trandafilovski – Interview and Performance.

May 3, 2013

Caprices at the RAM

A day celebrating virtuosity in contemporary violin music – great project led by Peter Sheppard Skaerved which culminated with this event in the David Josefowitz Hall at the Royal Academy of Music, highlighting a number of exciting composers and players.  Music by Sadie Harrison, David Gorton, Ansgar Beste, Robert Szymanek, William Cole, Anthony Friend, Richard Causton and others.  Peter and I also had a first look at my new violin duo, which I am working on at the moment, called Arc-en-Ciel.  On the right you can see some of the performers: from the left, Peter Sheppard Skaerved, me, Sadie Fields, Diana Mathews and Maciej Tomasz Burdzy.

April 29, 2013

Interview with Jasmina Kantardzieva, for www.mkd.mk (in Macedonian only):

http://www.mkd.mk/kultura/mihailo-trandafilovski-sovremenata-klasichna-muzika-chesto-strada-od-neadekvatna

April 8, 2013

Ensemble Reconsil Vienna performing in Skopje

Days of Macedonian Music Festival 2013 closes tomorrow, after 10 days of varied and colourful events.  The programme this year included my pieces Strike-Flow and A-de-scent, performed by two exciting groups: Ensemble Reconsil Vienna (conducted by Roland Freisitzer), and Slovenian Trio Ars Musica (violinist Mojca Menoni Sikur, pianist Jerneja Grebenšek and cellist Martin Sikur) – I hope to work with both again soon!

March 17, 2013

Photo by Marius Skaerved

A fabulous week of collaboration – huge privilege to work with the fantastic New London Chamber Choir, conductors Clement Power and Aidan Oliver, and of course my friends from the Kreutzer Quartet, Peter Sheppard Skaerved, Neil Heyde and Morgan Goff.  This inspiring project was made possible by Minjas Zugik, whose generosity and vision are rare.  Here are a few more photos that capture the atmosphere from the day of the concert (10th March at Wilton’s Music Hall, London) and the recording session of my piece Chetiri, written for this event, that followed (16th March at All Saints Church Tooting, London):

January 24, 2013

The wonderful Macedonian pianist Ana Gaceva performing at Gallery MC in New York.  Music by Ginastera, Poulenc, Goce Kolarovski, Jana Andreevska, Ilija Pejovski, Michael A. Bakrnčev, and my piece Ripple Effect, which she premiered brilliantly in 2011 – you can hear this performance on the Listen/watch page.

December 18, 2012

Paper sculpture by Oona Patterson

Very enjoyable evening at Wilton’s Music Hall last night, where Peter Sheppard Skaerved and I presented a colourful programme based around Telemann’s ‘Gulliver’s Travels’, including works by Leopold Mozart, Judith Bingham, Sadie Harrison, David Matthews and a selection of my duos from Čekori.  Unique and intimate atmosphere in one of Wilton’s hidden rooms, complemented by a fascinating paper sculpture by Oona Patterson.  More info here:

Telemann’s ‘Gulliver’s Travels’

November 2012

The Macedonian Composers’ Association has just released a double CD with a selection of works performed at the Days of Macedonian Music festival earlier this year.  My piano trio A-de-scent is played on the CD by the Bulgarian Trio Ardenza: pianist Daniela Dikova, violinist Negina Stoyanova and cellist Geoffrey Dean.  Also on the CD are pieces by a number of younger-generation Macedonian composers: Ilievska, Petrović, Načevski, Petrovski, Simunoska, Svetiev, Tairi, and Bakrnčev.

October 28, 2012

My piece Star Factory, for string quartet, has been selected for performance at the International Review of Composers in Belgrade, Serbia.  It will be played by Construction Site ensemble at the opening concert of the festival on November 3rd.  Full festival programme here: http://composers.rs/en/?page_id=1059

You can hear/see two of our (Kreutzer Quartet) performances of this piece on the Listen/watch page.

October 16, 2012

Yesterday we recorded Gloria Coates’ unplayed string quartet Among the Asteroids, begun in 1961!  It will be released on John Zorn’s Tzadik label.  You can find out more about the piece and hear the outtakes here.

And to illustrate her unique language, here is a film of one of our live performances of her music: In the Fifth Dimension, from her String Quartet No.5, recorded at the South London Gallery in 2010:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuBqvciBtGs&feature=plcp

October 6, 2012

Neil Heyde and Morgan Goff giving a class on Mozart K168. Photo by Peter Sheppard Skaerved

We spent a great day in Glasgow yesterday at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, playing the music of John McCabe with clarinettist Linda Merrick and pianist Aaron Shorr, and working with student string quartets and composers – very inspiring finish to the day with a diverse and exciting combination of pieces by RCS composers!

July 5,  2012

Photo by Peter Sheppard Skaerved

Roger Heaton will be releasing a new CD with music by Radulescu, Scelsi, Boulez, and my clarinet quintet Magnets, Lava, Crystals, which he commissioned in 2011 and first performed with us at Wilton’s Music Hall last December.  The CD should be out this autumn on the Clarinet Classics label.  More info soon …

July 1, 2012

Macedonian-born pianist Hajdi Elzeser has just given the German premiere of my Six Kinds of Contemplation, written a few years ago, in a concert at Musikschule Lenze, Herford.  Also on the programme were pieces by Hatzis, Debussy, Stasock, Glass, Koppel, and fellow Macedonian composer Kosta Delinikolov. 

Hajdi is the founder and leader of Artwork Ensemble, a fantastic 2 piano/2 percussion quartet based at the Hochschule for Music in Detmold, Germany.

Live video of Hajdi’s performance can be seen on her Vimeo channel.