New Classical Featured Artist – 08/28/23 – 09/10/23
In this week’s playlist, we feature performances and compositions by North Macedonian pianist and composer Natasha Stojanovska! She has received numerous prestigious prizes and honors, including the American Prize. Having left her native country to continue her education in the United States, she was selected to be a member of the studios of Roberta Rust at Lynn University’s Conservatory of Music and Alexander Toradze at Indiana University South Bend. Stojanovska continued on to pursue a Doctorate of Musical Arts at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University with James Giles. Some of Stojanovska’s most recent achievements include solo piano recitals at the Dame Myra Hess Memorial concerts, broadcasted by the WFMT Radio Station and the Henry Fogel Presents Concert Series, both in Illinois. She joined Kosmologia Project and performed a solo piano recital accompanied by art videos at The Princeton Summer Festival and The Ear Taxi Festival. During her studies at Northwestern University, she proudly represented the Bienen School of Music at the Gilmore Piano Festival.
She began composing at the age of 8 and gave her first public solo recital when she was 10. At the age of 9, she wrote her first piano work, Candles Suite. Her compositions have been performed at numerous festivals including Days of Macedonian Music in Skopje; “The New Music Festival in Florida; and Music Across the Atlantic with the ensemble Concept/21. A truly multicultural composer, she writes music that combines folklore with extensive classical training, conveyed in her lively compositional voice. Her new album, Uncommon Voices, was largely inspired by her mentor and friend, the late Carmen-Helena Téllez, who produced this recording. Stojanovska’s passion and dedication to the music of Eastern Europe has been clear in her career as a performer for the past 20 years. Very recently, she realized it was important to record repertoire that, up to this point, had been undervalued. Women composers from Eastern Europe, over the course of history, have lived and worked alongside male composers who have received wider recognition. She realized people tend to compare their music to male composers from their cultural region, such as Maria Szymanowska and Frederic Chopin, or Zara Levina and Sergei Rachmaninoff. However, to name one example, Chopin was in fact inspired by Maria Szymanowska. With this album Stojanovska wishes to showcase the originality and maturity of this extraordinary repertoire, raising awareness and appreciation towards pieces that deserve to be included in standard piano repertoire.
You’ll hear Natasha talk with host Salvador all about this album, her background, and even her connections to Indiana. All this when you connect with Classical Music Indy Streaming’s New Classical Channel.
