Natasha Stojanovska

North Macedonian pianist and composer NATASHA STOJANOVSKA (born 1987) is the recipient of numerous prestigious prizes and honors, including the American Prize. Having left her native country to continue her education in the US, she was selected to be a member of the studio of Georgian pianist Alexander Toradze. Stojanovska continued on to pursue a Doctorate of Musical Arts at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University with James Giles. She recently represented the Bienen School at the Gilmore Piano Festival.

As a pianist, Stojanovska has performed solo and chamber music recitals in esteemed concert halls around the world. Her own works have been performed at major festivals and venues in Europe, Australia, Canada and the United States. She has received artistic guidance from world-renowned pianists including Robert McDonald, Andre Watts, Jerome Lowenthal, Emanuel Ax, Gary Grafmann, Menahem Pressler, Garrik Ohlsson and Yosip Yermin. She has served as a composition and piano consultant for Metropolitan Opera soprano Renée Fleming’s highly praised song project with jazz artist Patricia Barber.

Distinctive and exuberant, Stojanovska’s compositional voice is deeply cross-cultural with roots in folklore and uses sonorities similar to Eastern European music, but incorporating folk elements and ideas unique to her native country. She strives to bring the rich tradition of Macedonian musical culture into the mainstream of world music, and to explore the depths of her own emotions. Her works include pieces for solo instrumental, vocal and chamber music ensembles. She began composing at the age of eight and gave her first public solo recital when she was ten. At the age of nine, 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 Concet/21. A truly multicultural composer, she writes music that offers an inimitable combination of the heritage of folklore with extensive classical training, conveyed in her very communicative compositional voice.

The creative motivation for her release is greatly inspired by her mentor and friend, Carmen-Helena Téllez, producer of this recording. Stojanovska’s passion and dedication to the music of Eastern Europe has prevailed 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 was deeply moved when she realized how people tend to compare their music in terms of emulations of the achievements of their contemporary male composers from their cultural region, such as Maria Szymanowska and Frederic Chopin, or Zara Levina and Sergei Rachmaninoff. A thrilling surprise emerges when the correlation between these composers does not match general assumptions. For instance, Chopin was in fact inspired by Maria Szymanowska, and not many people are aware of it. With this album Stojanovska wishes to showcase the originality and maturity of this extraordinary repertoire, hoping to raise awareness and appreciation towards pieces that deserve to be included in standard piano repertoire.

Stojanovska is currently completing her Doctorate Degree dissertation whilst maintaining an active performing career.