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.

June 20, 2012

Amazing evening at Wilton’s Music Hall earlier this month (6th June) – the last classical music concert there before renovation.  The hall was full to capacity and the stage looked fantastic with a painting by artist Joanna Jones hung in the background.  Such a privilege to work with a great group of musicians: Aisha Orazbayeva, Midori Komachi, Preetha Narayanan, Alice Barron, Steven Crichlow & Annabelle Berthomé Reynolds (violins), Diana Mathews (viola), Jessica Hayes & Valerie Wellbanks (cellos), Rachel Meerloo (double bass), and of course, Morgan Goff and Peter Sheppard Skaerved from the Kreutzer Quartet.

We had a fantastic time performing Mendelssohn’s Octet and his early D minor concerto; also on the programme was my  new piece for solo violin (Peter) and strings, Dyptich, commissioned specially for this event and dedicated to our dear friend, photographer Richard Bram.

Link to Wilton’s Music Hall

Here are a few photos from the day:

May 3, 2012

Hugely enjoyable evening, playing Sibelius’ ‘Voces Intimae’ and Matthews’ 12th Quartet at Kings Place, to launch the ‘Inner Voices’ festival: http://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on-book-tickets/curated-weeks/sibelius-david-matthews-inner-voices

Photo by Peter Sheppard Skaerved

April 2012

Our new DVD, Quartet Choreography, with music by Stravinsky, Lutoslawski, Ligeti and Finnissy has just been released by Metier. More details here: http://www.divine-art.com/CD/msvdx101info.htm

March 28, 2012

Photo courtesy of SOCOM

Bulgarian Trio Ardenza (pianist Daniela Dikova, violinist Negina Stoyanova and cellist Geoffrey Dean) performing my piano trio A-de-scent at the Days of Macedonian Music 2012 festival.  Great pleasure to work with such committed and enthusiastic musicians.

March 5, 2012

A double CD with selected pieces from last year’s Days of Macedonian Music festival has just been released by the Macedonian Composers’ Association. It includes my solo piano piece Ripple Effect, performed live by Ana Gaceva (which you can hear on my listen/watch page), as well as several performances by the Kreutzer Quartet: pieces by Zografski, Nikolovski, Prošev and Načevski. Full list of pieces/composers and mp3 downloads available here: DMM 2011 CD

February 14, 2012

Overview of the software DVD ‘Evolution and Collaboration: the composition, rehearsal and performance of Michael Finnissy’s Second String Quartet’ (2007) produced by Amanda Bayley (University of Wolverhampton) and Michael Clarke (University of Huddersfield) in 2011.
This promotional video was edited by Jane Clegg.
Sound recording reproduced with kind permission NMC Recording Ltd.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRL0VP0kTT4&feature=youtu.be

February 12, 2012

This winter/spring we are releasing several new CDs: the Second and Third String Quartets (written for us) by Michael Finnissy on NMC, music by John McCabe (with Linda Merrick, clarinet and Aaron Shorr, piano) on GUILD, Richard Beaudoin on New Focus Recordings (NYC), and the second volume of our David Matthews complete string quartets recordings on Toccata Classics (the first one is available here).

December 7, 2011

My new piece for clarinet and string quartet Magnets, Lava, Crystals, commissioned by the virtuoso clarinetist Roger Heaton, will be premiered at Wilton’s Music Hall on 7th December:

http://www.wiltons.org.uk/listings/kreutzer-quartet.html

It has been a privelege to collaborate with Roger over the past few months and discover, for me, new areas of sound. We have just presented the piece as part of Peter Sheppard Skærved’s innovative Soundbox research event series at the Royal Academy of Music – and I can’t wait to play/hear it in the fabulous acoustic of Wilton’s.

Working with Roger Heaton at the RAM. Photo by Peter Sheppard Skaerved

November 12-15, 2011

Malmo stage. Photo by Morgan Goff

We have just spent three fantastic days in Malmö, working with talented and enthusiastic young composers from the Music Academy and performing three concerts:

http://www.connectfestival.se/

Excerpts from the third concert (solo instruments and quartet with electronics) can be seen here:

http://vimeo.com/32270909

Following on, you can come to Wilton’s Music Hall in London on the 27th November to hear a Swedish/British programme: two of the Swedish quartets we have just discovered (by Dag Wirén and Hildng Rosenberg), alongside pieces written for us by Nicola LeFanu and David Matthews, and a 1952 Quartet Movement by Peter Maxwell Davies:

http://www.wiltons.org.uk/booknow.php?event=connect-festival

November 8, 2011

Photo courtesy of the Society of Slovene Composers

Just back from a wonderful weekend in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where with Peter Sheppard Skærved and Ana Gaceva we performed a colourful programme by (mostly) Balkan composers at the European Composers’ Forum Conference – music by Zografski, Spasov, Stefanović, Žebeljan, Kopač, Rose, Trandafilovski, Birtwistle, Golob, Marić, Martinsson, Petrovski and Šavli:

http://www.dss.si/media/uploads/files/DSS-program%202011-brez.pdf

Here is a live recording from the concert of six pieces from my cycle Čekori (courtesy of Radio Televizija Slovenia):
[yendifplayer audio=2]1.March, 2.Drones, 3.Song, 4.In the Hills, 5.Pulsing, 6.Colours/Limits

Peter Sheppard Skærved & Mihailo Trandafilovski, violins

September 14, 2011

Music from my recent LORELT CD was played on BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction, presented by Max Reinhardt: 1st and 2nd movements from A-de-scent (performed by Lontano: Caroline Balding vln, Sophie Harris vlc, Dominic Saunders pno). More information about the programme, including a list of all the music played is available here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b014fhln

Summer 2011

I am currently working on a clarinet quintet which was commissioned by maverick clarinetist Roger Heaton. As part of the Kreutzer Quartet, I first worked closely with Roger in Cyprus in the summer 2010 at the Pharos Contemporary Music Festival. I found his musicianship inspiring.

The piece will be premiered later this year and will be recorded by Roger and the Kreutzer Quartet for an album of new clarinet quintets on the Clarinet Classics label.

Roger Heaton and the Kreutzers on the way to lunch in Nicosia, Cyprus. Photo by Jan Philip Schulze

July 29, 2011

Front Cover Artwork: Phoenix by Jo Harris.

Performers: Lontano, Odaline de la Martinez (conductor), Kreutzer Quartet, Peter Sheppard Skærved, Caroline Balding and Mihailo Trandafilovski.

April 26, 2011

Kreutzer Quartet and pianist Zubin Kanga in the Duke’s Hall, Royal Academy of Music

Photo by David Gorton

April 2011

This leading Russian contemporary music group will perform my chamber music piece Strike-Flow in a concert at the Festival of Russian chamber ensembles “Points, lines, zigzags: 25 New Music Compositions”. They first performed the piece last month in Skopje, Macedonia – presenting it with conviction and virtuosity. More information about them here:

http://m-c-m-e.ru/eng/

March 29, 2011

Photo courtesy of SOCOM

Macedonian pianist Ana Gaceva gave a wonderfully intuitive and dedicated premiere of my new solo piano piece, Ripple Effect, at the contemporary music festival Days of Macedonian Music. Click here to view the score and hear the recording (live from the concert):

http://issuu.com/composers-socom/docs/m.trandafilovski_-_ripple_effect

Speaking as a composer, working with her was an enriching experience, and I am very excited about future collaborative projects.

March 2011

DMM 2011 festival brochure

This month, we have started to explore Macedonian 20th/21st Century music. As part of a residency at the contemporary music festival Days of Macedonian Music, we played two quartet concerts, followed by a concert of solo and duo violin music. This was an exciting project for us: we worked on rarely performed quartets by three major Macedonian composers of the 20th Century: Tomislav Zografski (1934-2000), Vlastimir Nikolovski (1925-2001) and Toma Prošev (1931-1996).

Also on the programme were works by younger-generation Macedonian composers: Soni Petrovski, Goran Načevski, Bojana Petrović and Miroslav Spasov.

The variety of the musical material we covered is fascinating – 20th Century European music influences framed within a distinctive Macedonian approach, often incorporating elements from the rich folk music tradition.

October 19, 2010

Peter Sheppard Skaerved and Mihailo Trandafilovski, members of The Kreutzer Quartet, will be joined by the brilliant Roderick Chadwick on piano in order to present a programme of wild virtuosity and colour. Works by Ravel, Bartók, Liszt and Brahms will be played, the Bartók duos on a unique pair of Guadagnini violins.

October 2010

Days of Macedonian Music 2009 – live recording

Performers: Arcata Stuttgart, Patrick Strub (conductor)

September 23, 2010

Part of the series A History of the World in 100 objects.

Works by Nigel Clarke, Dafina Zeqiri, Yigit Kolat, Shen Yi, Bartok, Scelsi, Evis Sammoutis, Tartini, Michael Hersch, and Trandafilovski.

http://www.britishmuseum.org/pdf/Trade%20and%20travel%20programme%20090910.pdf

http://www.peter-sheppard-skaerved.com/2010/02/british-museum-photos-by-richard-bram/

Summer 2010

May 23, 2010

As part of our residency at the spectacular Wilton’s Music Hall, we are playing music by Brahms, Joachim, Bach/Beethoven on the 23rd May, and Neil and Evie Heyde will premiere my new piece for two cellos (S)PACING, written for them. Also new music by Laurie Bamon. Come and join us if you can …

Kreutzers at Wilton’s, photo by Richard Bram

March 2010

Fuse Arts presents two evenings of newly commissioned contemporary classical music by acclaimed composers Laura Bowler, Elo Masing, Jacob Thompson, Mihailo Trandafilovski, Drew Wilson and Raymond Yiu, with creative direction from Mihailo Trandafilovski. Reflecting the philosophy of Fuse Arts, these two events bring together artists working in different disciplines in the development of new works of art. The proceeds of ticket sales go towards supporting the South London Gallery and its award winning education programmes for children, families and young people.

Performances by the Kreutzer Quartet and Lontano Ensemble are the outcome of a unique collaboration of musicians coming together to musically map the borough of Southwark with new compositions written in response to this inner city landscape.

Opening this distinctive programme of events on Tuesday 23 March is the Kreutzer Quartet, musically responding to a range of contemporary works of art. The programme includes works by Jim Aitchison, Gloria Coates, Jeremy Dale Roberts, Fabrice Fitch, David Gorton, Haflidi Hallgrimsson, David Matthews and Paul Pellay as well as premieres of works by Laura Bowler, Elo Masing and Mihailo Trandafilovski.

Thursday 25 March sees Odaline de la Martinez, the BBC Proms’ first female conductor, lead musicians from the Lontano ensemble. They perform compositions by Drew Wilson, Odaline de la Martinez, Jacob Thompson and Raymond Yiu. These compositions are complemented by new works resulting from six workshops with A-Level music students at City of London Academy in Southwark led by composer, singer and pianist Juwon Ogungbe.

http://www.fusearts.org/projects/goin-home-southwark-walks-2010/