Piano Duo Concert by pianists Mimoza Keka and Jovana Trajceva on September 16th, in the exquisite hall of Jana Deyla Conservatory in Prague, Czech Republic. The pianists performed works by Liszt, Brahms and Schubert. The concert is supported by the Ministry of Culture and the entrance is free.
The piano-duo performs regularly since 2018, their first appearance for the benefit concert for SOS Children’s Village Skopje, a project by Mimoza Keka. Since then, the duo has toured in Paris and Rome, performing a piano duo recitals in Teatro Marcello and the American Cathedral, as well as played a yearly New Years’ Concerts in the Chamber Hall of the Philharmonic in Skopje in 2019 and 2021, where in 2021 they toured in the cultural centers in the country – with two concerts in Skopje and one in Kumanovo.
The Festive Rhapsody
is back again this winter!
The New Year’s Concert of pianists Mimoza Keka and Jovana Trajcheva continues this year with a piano-duo recital entitled Festive Rhapsody no. 3 on December 17th 2022, starting at 8 PM at the Chamber Hall – Skopje Philharmonic. The pianists performed a programme from the piano four-hands literature.
Mimoza Keka and Jovana Trajcheva perform numerous recitals throughout the country and abroad. In 2022, they performed a piano-duo recital at the Jana Deyla Conservatory in Prague, they also performed at the Concerti del Tempietto and Les Dimanches Musicaux festivals in Rome and Paris, as well as for the SOS Children’s Village Skopje with a recital entitled Autumn Fairy Tale. In 2019, their Festive Rhapsody began and in December 2021 they performed a series of concerts under the title Festive Rhapsody No.2, concluding it with a concert at the Chamber Hall – Skopje Philharmonic.
Live perofmance at the Philharmonic Hall in Skopje
The weekend on September 3rd and 4th 2022, pianists Francesca Orlando and Mimoza Keka, both students of Prof. Lilya Zilberstein, performed concerts in Skopje and Bitola following their piano-duo recital in Bristol
The pianists performed in the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle in Skopje and in the Palace of Culture – Officers’ Hall in Bitola.
– It was a great pleasure to perform in front of the audience, excellent connoisseurs of classical music, including the ambassador of the EU in our country, His Excellency David Geer, who took the time to attend the event. – We played beautifully selected programme for piano four-hands, where in the first half we performed the Sonata in D major KV 381 (I. Allegro, II. Andante, III. Allegro molto) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, followed by the Sonata for piano four-hands (I. Prelude, II. Rustique, III. Final) by Francis Poulenc and the Slavonic Dances op. 72 no. 2 Starodávný/Dumka & no. 7 Kolo by Antonín Dvořák. In the second half we performed Fantasie in F-minor for piano four-hands by Franz Schubert, followed by the Petite Suite (I. En bateau, II. Cortège, III. Menuet, IV. Ballet) by Claude Debussy and Libertango by Astor Piazzolla.
Born in Florence, Francesca Orlando is a British-Italian pianist who has performed internationally both as soloist, accompanist and chamber musician across many European cities including London, Copenhagen, Budapest, Malta, Florence and Rome. Since her debut recital in Florence, at the age of fourteen, she has performed extensively in acclaimed concert venues such as the Wigmore Hall, St James’ Piccadilly, the Royal Academy of Arts, London, St George’s Hall Bristol and as soloist with Exeter University Symphony Orchestra, Bristol Symphony Orchestra and ‘Orchestra Filharmonica Mediterranea’. She has been performed in numerous music festivals across England including Petworth Music Festival, Bloomsbury Festival, Farley Festival and Dartington International Summer School as duo partner with renowned pianist Steven Osborne. Francesca was awarded an Open-Academy Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music, where she completed her undergraduate and postgraduate studies in solo piano performance under the tutelage of Prof. Joanna MacGregor and Diana Ketler respectively. She has studied with Nicholas Walker and is currently under the tutelage of Prof Lilya Zilberstein at MdW, Vienna and Elisso Virsaladze at “Scuola di Musica di Fiesole”. Featuring high in numerous competitions, in 2021 Francesca received first prize in ‘Premio Crescendo’, Florence, and ‘Concorso Internazionale “Citta di Massa”. During her studies she was awarded highly commended, in the Lilian Davies Beethoven Sonata prize alongside the Edna Bralesford prize, William Northam Prize and Mozart Concerto Prize in 2017 at the Royal Academy of Music. Francesca has also a strong love for song accompaniment, receiving masterclasses from Richard Stokes, Joseph Middleton, Michael Dussek and Ian Ledingham. She is currently teaching as Italian vocal coach at the Royal Academy of Music and in April 2022 accompanied baritone Charles Cunliffe in the semi-finals of the at highly-acclaimed singing competition, ‘The Kathleen Ferrier awards’ in Wigmore Hall, London.
Pianist Mimoza Keka, born in Skopje, earned acclaim as a recitalist, chamber musician, piano accompanist and recording artist with her numerous projects and concerts across the country and abroad. Since studying at the Faculty of Music in Skopje with Prof. Todor Svetiev and Prof. Lilya Zilberstein, obtaining a Bachelor of Music (2015) and a Master of Music Arts (2017), as well as being awarded in 2021 with a PhD in Music Arts, Mimoza has launched into a successful concert career as a solo artist, with concerto appearances, solo recitals and chamber concerts. In 2022 she published her book “The use of digital technologies in quantitative analysis of piano performance” available at Amazon.com as well as she published her first solo album named NON-FUNGIBLE, available on all streaming platforms.
Mimoza has collaborated with distinguished conductors including Sasha Nikolovski-Gjumar, under whose baton she performed the Piano concerto no. 2 from Camille Saint-Saens, As a chamber musician she joined the Ensemble for contemporary music Contempora from SOKOM. Furthermore, she has enjoyed performing recitals in many European Cities including Paris, Rome, Bristol, Milan, Trieste, Siena, Punta Ala, Sovicille, Montrond-les-Baines, Sozopol, Sarajevo, having performed at Concerti del Tempietto in Rome, Les dimanches musicaux in Paris, at the International Francophone Festival Soleil in Sozopol, Bulgaria, Siena Summer Festival, as well as in 2022 she performed a solo recital in New York City, at Gallery MC. In 2019 she participated in TEME Project (Transnational European Music Entrepreneur) held in Trieste and Camerino, Italy, as a part of the program Music Moves Europe. Mimoza has also performed in a number of master classes with highly acclaimed pianists as well as having accomplished professional trainings at prestigious music academies including Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy with maestra Lilya Zilberstein from 2015 to 2017.
On Wednesday, June 15th, Mimoza Keka performed a Piano Recital at Gallery MC, New York City
Pianist Mimoza Keka, born in Skopje, earned acclaim as a recitalist, chamber musician, piano accompanist and recording artist with her numerous projects and concerts across the country and abroad. Since studying at the Faculty of Music in Skopje with Prof. Todor Svetiev and Prof. Lilya Zilberstein, obtaining a Bachelor of Music (2015) and a Master of Music Arts (2017), as well as being awarded in 2021 with a PhD in Music Arts, Mimoza has launched into a successful concert career as a solo artist, with concerto appearances, solo recitals and chamber concerts. In 2022 she published her book “The use of digital technologies in quantitative analysis of piano performance” available at Amazon.com, as well as she published her first solo album named NON-FUNGIBLE, which is available on all streaming platforms.
Piano Recital NYC Mimoza Keka
Mimoza has collaborated with distinguished conductors including Sasha Nikolovski-Gjumar, under whose baton she performed the Piano concerto no. 2 from Camille Saint-Saens, conductor Sasho Tatarchevski, as well as conductor Bisera Chadlovska with whom she has an active collaboration at the Faculty of Music in Skopje. As a chamber musician she joined the Ensemble for contemporary music Contempora from SOKOM. Additionally, she has active engagements playing piano duo with pianist Francesca Orlando. Furthermore, she has enjoyed performing recitals in many European Cities including Paris, Rome, Bristol, Milan, Trieste, Siena, Punta Ala, Sovicille, Montrond-les-Baines, Sozopol, Sarajevo. Mimoza has performed at Concerti del Tempietto in Rome, Les dimanches musicaux in Paris, International Festival Akordeon Art Plus in Sarajevo, at the International Francophone Festival Soleil in Sozopol, Bulgaria, Siena Summer Festival, having performed in the renowned hall of Palazzo Chigi Saracini in Siena, Italy (2015, 2016, 2017), Festival international de piano Jeunеs Talents in Montrond-les-Baïnes, France, as well as she participated in the spring concert season of the Bristol Music Club in Bristol, United Kingdom. In 2019 she was chosen to participate as one of the ten participants of TEME Project (Transnational European Music Entrepreneur) held in Trieste and Camerino, Italy, a project approved and supported by the European Commission and part of the program Creative Europe and Music Moves Europe. In April 2022 Mimoza took part in the initiative “Europe for Ukraine” of Amelia Ray, and participated in the recording of the original song of Amelia Ray “Hands in Hearts”. Mimoza has also performed in a number of master classes with highly acclaimed pianists and has participated in professional trainings at prestigious music academies, including Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy with maestra Lilya Zilberstein from 2015 to 2017.
ABOUT THE WORKS BY MACEDONIAN COMPOSERS
This recital program with its creative and modern character, includes the fundamental piano works from the 18th through the 20th century and continuing to the 21st century – classical and contemporary/modern music, combining compositions by contemporary Macedonian authors.
The performance of such a recital program enables the listener to get acquainted with the style of composing of the contemporary Macedonian composers from the second half of the 20th century until today. The program is set in a way that allows a historical overview of the composed piano works: the Suite for Piano solo op. 27 by Tomislav Zografski, published in 1960, followed by the Nocturnes on themes of Macedonian folk songs for piano by Dimitrije Buzarovski published in 2004.
The suite as a musical form was especially important in the Baroque era and was used by the composers Francois Couperin, Georg Philipp Telemann and Johann Sebastian Bach, but with the advent of classicism it fell out of use. Tomislav Zografski with the Suite for Piano Solo op. 27 won the 1st prize at the first competition for classical music in 1960 in Skopje.
Regarding the Nocturnes by Dimitrije Buzharovski, this cycle of compositions was written in the musical form Nocturne, which was particularly significant in the 19th century and was a one-piece composition for solo piano, first used by the Irish composer John Field and actualized by Frederick Chopin. In fact, the very title Nocturnes means the form, which in translation means night, evening, i.e. a composition that was performed at evening parties from the 18th century. The Nocturnes on themes of Macedonian folk songs are a fundamental work for piano by the composer Dimitrije Buzarovski, who through the actualization of this musical form, returns to the original tradition, by using themes of Macedonian folk songs.
Live Performance of Benjamin Britten’s Piano Concerto
Watch this live music video recorded at the Philharmonic Hall in Skopje, performing Benjamin Britten’s piano concerto as part of my doctoral dissertation. The video captures the essence of the performance and the hall’s ambiance adds depth to the music, creating a captivating experience for viewers. Benjamin Britten’s Piano Concerto, a masterpiece of 20th-century classical music, combines intricate melodies and rhythmic brilliance. Composed in 1938, it showcases Britten’s innovative approach, blending lyrical elegance with vibrant orchestration, leaving an indelible mark on the classical repertoire.
