Simon Trpčeski, a pianist with a resolutely classical training, is a musician with an insatiable curiosity; and if the beautiful repertoire from the so-called learned Western traditions fascinates him, this source alone is not enough to quench his thirst for artistic experiences. He has long been interested in the rich traditions of his native Macedonia, and a few years ago he decided to confront them in order to make them his own and to share them with the widest possible audience. With the help of ethnomusicologists from the Marko Cepenkov Institute of Folklore and artists from the Tanec Ensemble, he immersed himself in the essence of this immense repertoire, working on it and acquiring an intimate knowledge of it. From this approach, the challenge is to reappropriate a part of the freedom, in order to restore to the instrumental gesture all its spontaneity, all its verve.
The composer Pande Shahov, the quintet’s arranger, gives free rein to a sound imagination that is open to the world, somewhere between classical techniques and traditional practices: Is it classical, is it jazz, is it folk? It’s…. Makedonissimo!