Seminar #4
Classical Music Orchestral Course
7th to 19th of July 2023
String instruments participants with a Classical music training will study a blend of repertoire by Western and non-Western music composers, thus developing new technical skills and a sense for the style re-quired by music inspired from other cultures, such as Persian, Indian, Chinese, tago, bluegrass and Irish fiddle, etc.). In addition to learning repertoire for string orchestra and soloist, musicians will participate in chamber groups, masterclasses and workshops focused on entrepreneurship in music (developing a project, curating programs, grant writing). Led by concert violinist Irina Muresanu, the session will guide the young performers towards the repertoire of the world and towards acquiring and developing the essential career skills necessary for the 21st century musician. This session will culminate in several public performances.
Irina Muresanu / Violinist
Irina Muresanu is an associate professor of violin and strings at the University of Maryland School of Music. An internationally renowned concert violinist, she continues to fearlessly stretch the boundaries of performance and instruction through her keen interest in the digital humanities and the development of new technologies.
Discover: https://www.irinamuresanu.com/
Recording Music Orchestral Course
20th to 27th of July 2023
The Recording Masterclass will emphasize training the musicians into the process of recording eclectic styles of music on professional projects, with the special focus where they can develop their skills for this kind of activity. During the masterclass, the participants will be introduced to the specific skills and techniques required on a recording stage. Participants will have opportunities to join some of the recording sessions led by our in-house conductors, produced for international composers and producers.
Karen Ní Bhroin / Conductor
Karen Ní Bhroin, whose career on both sides of the Atlantic is attracting attention wherever she conducts, is one of Ireland’s leading young conductors. During the 23/24 season, Karen will make debuts with The Irish Chamber Orchestra, Irish National Opera, Luminosa String Orchestra, as well as returning to Manchester Camerata and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London. In recent seasons she has made many debuts across Europe and North America, receiving many re-invitations working with BBC Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, TRNC Presidential Symphony Orchestra (Cyprus), National Symphony Orchestra (Ireland), Winston-Salem Symphony, Blackwater Valley Opera Festival, and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. Creator of And Other Duties, Karen is on a mission to change conducting education: to teach the things that are not usually taught. The 2023 recipient of a Taki-Alsop Mentee award, Karen has studied and worked with Marin Alsop, Neil Thomson, JoAnn Falletta, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Nathalie Stutzmann.
Discover: https://karennibhroin.com/
Hybrid Music Orchestral Course
10th to 16th of September 2023
‘5/4 Tango’ Ensemble was created at the initiative of Maestro Ludmil Angelov, a world known pianist with Bulgarian origin. Tango 5/4 Ensemble includes few other excellent musicians as the Serbian violinist Jovan Bogosavlievic, guitarist Tsvetan Nedyalkov, Margarita Kalcheva (double bass) and the first Bulgarian bandoneonist Stoyan Karaivanov, who is only 25 years old. The Ensemble mainly is focused on performance of the tango music but also on the performance of the music by Astor Piazzolla.
'5/4 Tango' Ensemble
The outstanding musicians of Tango 5/4 Ensemble, who will be acting as leaders and mentors of the Hybrid Music Masterclass will take the participants on a musical journey through the world of Tango. They will emphasize and work on contemporary tango music written by Astor Piazzolla. Performing the Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, they will embrace a wide variety of aesthetics and interpretation techniques. The Ensemble plays original compositions and arrangements, combining different backgrounds and experience in various performances. The final concert is scheduled for 15th of September in the Concert Hall at the National Music Academy ‘Pancho Vladigerov’ in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Discover: https://www.facebook.com/five4tango/
Film Music Orchestral Course
17th to 21st of September 2023
The Film Music Masterclass will give to the participants a real-life experience of collaborating with media composers and bringing original music written for film to life, working in a professional recording studio and understanding the requirements of producing professional level performances under a tight deadline.
Alastair King / Conductor / Composer
Alastair King will lead the Masterclass around the collaboration between our selected students and a few young talented composers, who will contribute to the project by coming and working at our purpose-built studio in Skopje. During the masterclass the composers will be able to work with the orchestra on a new piece, rehearse and record this short piece during their time on the course. In addition the performers will get a chance to play existing film music that has been especially arranged for them. He is one of the leading orchestrators and conductors in the UK who orchestrated over 100 film, TV and video game projects including Wonder Woman, Harry Potter, The Martian, Downton Ab-bey and Doctor Who. He regularly collaborates with some of the leading media composers working today. Alastair regularly conducts the Chamber Orchestra of London (COOL) and has conducted many other orchestras and choirs including the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, London Session Orchestra, Metro Voices, RSVP Voices, BBC Philharmonic, the Bach Choir, the Choir of the King’s Consort, BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales and the Vienna ORTF Orchestra.
Discover: https://alastairking.me.uk
Carte Blanche Orchestral Course
11th to 19th of October 2023
The ‘Carte Blanche’ Orchestral Course is dedicated to the jazz music. One of the leaders of the Course is the professor Vladimir Nikolov, who will educate the students about the secrets of making jazz music. Alongside the students, he will work on one of his compositions. This work is a featurette of arranging gestures in the worldwide pop and jazz orchestral projects that surpassed the compositions with their expressiveness. By releasing them from the foreground (usually a pop or jazz band with soloists), one can discern that these gestures contain their own drama and development, but they still hold a magic connection to the original music.
Based on this model, the compositions were further refined so that we recognize their initial purpose, but gradually, through the 11 movements of this suite, they become the main story with a special character. What was ‘out of focus’ is suddenly in front. Musical styles are organically intertwined in what becomes this suite’s trademark. One could hear jazz, Balkan and African folk dances, elegic backgrounds of dance music, film music, as well as contemporary classical movements with a chamber touch. Through rehearsals and recording of this piece the participants will gain valuable knowledge and experience in performing contemporary music based on rhythm and harmony, popular music and jazz, without having to deal wit the challenges of playing ’behind’ a rhythm section.
Vladimir Nikolov / Composer
Vladimir Nikolov is a composer whose works cover a wide range of musical languages and genres, using backgrounds in classical music and jazz as point of departure. He has been 'behind the scenes' of worldwide orchestral projects as arranger for some time now, while also frequently performing as conductor, pianist and guitarist with renowned soloists and ensembles. He was born 1979 and raised in Skopje, Macedonia. He started music at the age of 14, beginning with the guitar. Soon after, he enrolled in classical guitar studies, graduating with an original composition. Meanwhile, Vladimir began cross-over composing and arranging, mentored by Ilija Pejovski.
After departing for the Netherlands in the autumn of 2002, he started jazz composition and arranging studies at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. He finished his Master's studies in 2005 with focus on symphonic writing. As composer and arranger, Vladimir worked with ensembles such as the Metropole Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, Heritage Orchestra, BBC Radio Orchestra. Among the collaborative artists, he worked with: John Clayton, Randy Brecker, Vince Mendoza, Chaka Khan, Jules Buckley, Donny McCaslin, Jacob Collier, to name but a few. He’s a co-leader, composer/arranger of the ensemble Nikolov-Ivanović Undectet, with which he published two studio albums. In the words of JazzTimes, this is one of the most creative large ensembles in Europe, while Downbeat said that the music of this ensemble contains rhythmically complex, harmonically evocative compositions, all impeccably arranged. The ensemble won a prize at the Made in New York Jazz Competition in 2019. He also orchestrated and arranged music for several film projects, among which 2012 Oscar winner “The Artist”. His compositions and arrangements have won numerous international prizes, including four first prizes for original compositions and five first prizes for arrangements.
Discover: https://vladimirnikolov.com/biography/
Carte Blanche Orchestral Course
11th to 19th of October 2023
The Orchestral Course, “After the Wildfire,” promises to be a groundbreaking experience that blends the talents of renowned composers Arve Henriksen and Jan Bang. Conducted by Dzijan Emin, and featuring the FAME’S Institute Orchestra, the piece will make its debut on October 19 at the Skopje International Jazz Festival. Henriksen and Bang, who first shared a stage at the 2009 Skopje Jazz Festival, continue their collaborative journey, which has seen Bang in various projects, most recently with Hamid Drake’s Turiya project honoring Alice Coltrane. “After the Wildfire” is a complex ensemble of eight compositions featuring an eclectic mix of instruments such as trumpet, sampler, kaval, zurla, and voice. Adding to the diversity are percussion virtuoso Ingar Zach, Macedonian singer Vera Josofovska Miloševska, and kaval players Robert Angelovski and Andrej Trajkovski. Commissioned by Oliver Belopeta and the Skopje Jazz Festival, the project has received substantial support from Tono, Nopa, Music Norway, the Fund for Performing Arts, and Komponistenes Vederlagsfond. This Orchestral Course is not just a concert; it is a symbiosis of musical cultures, artistic innovation, and worldclass talent.
Jan Bang / Composer / Producer
Jan Bang (b.1968) is an internationally acclaimed Norwegian musician, composer, record producer and Professor. Bang is the artistic director of the internationally renowned Punkt festival, which in addition to the mother festival in Kristiansand has visited 27 cities internationally, including London, Tallinn, Tokyo, Prague, Mannheim, Dusseldorf, Montreal, and Paris. Bang is one of Norway’s most accomplished and influential producers and the kind of musical innovator and bridge-builder who consistently manages to balance progressive thinking with popular appeal. He is always looking for ways of moving music and people forward, and by creating new meeting places and musical intersections. He is one of the leading figures in the development of the live sampling method and hasextensive experience in leading complex and often interdisciplinary artistic projects, for example as the co-Artistic Director of the internationally-acclaimed PUNKT Festival, The installation The Height of the Reeds, commissioned by Opera North as part of 2017 Hull City of Culture in the UK as well as a record producer/composer/performer with a vast range of artists including Arve Henriksen, Nils Petter Molvær, Sly & Robbie, Ensemble Modern, Sidsel Endresen, Jon Hassell, David Sylvian, Eivind Aarset, Hamid Drake, and David Toop.
Discover: https://janbang.org/
Arve Henriksen / Composer
Born in 1968, Arve Henriksen studied at the Trondheim Conservatory from 1987-1991, and has worked as a
freelance musician since 1988. Henriksen has worked with a vast array of musicians, including Jon Balke
Magnetic North Orchestra/Batagraf, Edward Vesala, Jon Christensen, Marilyn Mazur, Nils Petter Molvær, Arild
Andersen, David Sylvian, Jon Hassell, Hope Sandoval, Laurie Anderson, John Paul Jones and Ryuichi Sakamoto.
He has composed and commissioned music for festivals, films and documentary programs, and has a
discography counting over 180 records in total on various record labels. Arve Henriksen has been the artist
in residence at Moers Jazzfestival 2006, OIOI-festival in Bergen 2008 and at Molde Jazz Festival 2009. From
2004-2006 he was a part of the European Jazz Launch project. He has received Norsk Jazzforums Buddy
Award 2005, Radka Toneffs Memorial Award 2007, Paul Acket Award at the North Sea Jazz Festival 2011 and
DNB and Kongsberg Jazzfestival’s Musician Award 2011.
Discover: https://arvehenriksen.bandzoogle.com/
Ingar Zach / Composer
Ingar Zach is known for his research in sound production and alternative techniques in contemporary percussion.
During his career he has developed a unique style using the Gran Cassa as the main source of
sound exploration where he employs transducers with various objects to make the drum vibrate. He works
in the field of contemporary music and is regularly touring worldwide and recording with his fixed ensembles;
Dans les arbres, Huntsville and O3 alongside his solo- and collaborative projects. As a composer he is
active in his regular ensembles, and he is continuously working with developing his solo work. In recent
years he is composing for ensembles like Ensemble MusikFabrik, Quatuor Bozzini, Speak Percussion, Pinquins
and Ludus Gravis. His solo work is used in different genres, such as film, dance, and art performances. Ingar Zach is currently a PhD candidate in artistic research at the Academy of Music in Oslo.
Discover: https://ingarzach.com/