Peter Machajdik (1961 - )

Slovaquie

About the artist

Peter Machajdík is a composer of chamber, orchestral and electro-acoustic music. He often takes very simple materials and a simple mode of expression, and creates a vibrant and challenging sonic palette. His music, commonly characterised as emotive, imaginary and hypnotic, has been performed to international audiences on five continents for over twenty five years and has been featured at festivals such as Inventionen in Berlin, New Work in Calgary, Early Music Festival in Boston, LakeComo Festival, Ostrava Days, Nuovi Spazi Musicali in Rome, Young Euro Classic in Berlin, Hörgänge at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, Bolzano Festival, Sagra Musicale Malatestiana in Rimini, Audio Art Festival in Cracow, Contrasts in Lviv, Melos-Ethos Festival, and the Bratislava Music Festival. Machajdík has worked with many leading orchestras and ensembles, including the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, I.J.Paderewski State Philharmonic Orchestra, Berg Orchestra, Slovak Chamber Orchestra, Lublin Philharmonic, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Cluster Ensemble, Ensemble Metamorphosis, and soloists such as harpists Floraleda Sacchi, Kristan Toczko and Klára Bábel, clarinetists Martin Adámek and Guido Arbonelli, violist Sasha Mirkovic, harpsichordists Elina Mustonen, Sonia Lee and Asako Hirabayashi, flautists Rebecca Jeffreys and Alex Griffiths, double bassist Dritan Gani, and oboist Piet Van Bockstal to name just a few. His work has been championed by conductors such as Benjamin Bayl, Pawel Przytocki, Anu Tali, Florian Ludwig, Maria Makraki, Ondrej Olos, Peter Breiner, Peter Vrábel, Petr Kofron and Hakan Sensoy.Since 1985, works created by Peter Machajdík have been performed and exhibited at numerous performance spaces, museums, galleries, and festivals, including Inventionen, Berlin New Work Festival, Calgary Hörgänge, Vienna young.euro.classic, Berlin Nuovi Spazi Musicali, Rome, LakeComo Festival, Melos-Ethos, Bratislava, Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie, Regensburg 5 Giornate per la Nuova Musica, Milano Logos Foundation, Ghent Institut Unzeit, Berlin De IJsbreker, Amsterdam Musica Nova, Sofia Festival de Jazz et Musiques dAujourdhui, Mulhouse Kunstverein Wien, Vienna Bremer Kunstfrühling, Bremen Review of Composers, Belgrade Audio Art Festival, Cracow, as well as at venues in the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, the USA and Canada, Denmark, Switzerland, Portugal, Uruguay, Ukraine, the Czech and Slovak Republics, and the United Arab Emirates.Peter Machajdík first became internationally recognised after the success of his multi media work Intimate Music featuring one of the most innovative vocalists and percussionists David Moss at Inventionen 1994 in Berlin. His prolific output has since been performed and broadcast around the world, placing him in the front rank of todays composers. His major works include Double Bayan Concerto, Nellautunno del suo abbraccio insonne for Italian harpist Floraleda Sacchi, both Kyrie and Domine for mixed choir and tubular bells, As the Wind in the Dunes for strings, and Namah for string orchestra which was premiered by the excellent Estonian conductor Anu Tali at the Concert Hall of the Slovak Radio Bratislava in 2002, and was also a featured work at both the Epoche and Divertimento Musicale festivals in 2006.Machajdík has been a freelance composer and sound artist since 1992. He has received numerous commissions and awards from, among others, the Kulturfonds Foundation, Russolo-Pratella Foundation, International Visegrad Fund, Slovak Music Fund, Czech Radio, German Accordion Society, and Bratislava Music Festival. In 1992 he was invited to live and work in Berlin as a guest of the prestigious DAAD Künstlerprogramm. He was also the composer in residence at Schloss Wiepersdorf, Germany, at Künstlerhäuser Worpswede, Germany, and at Künstlerhaus Lukas in Ahrenshoop on the German Baltic coast. In 2006 he was awarded the Jan Levoslav Bella Prize, the most significant classical music award in Slovakia.Machajdíks compositions may be heard on Decca/Universal, Albany Records, Amadeus Arte, Musica slovaca, Czech Radio, ReR Megacorp, Azyl Records, Slovak Music Bridge, and Pavlik Records.Machajdíks interest in other performing arts and in collaborations led him to compose numerous works for film, theatre, modern dance companies and visual artists. He was co-founder of the Transmusic Comp., which have championed mixed-media, free improvisation, electronic music and performance work since 1990s. Transmusic Comp. have performed in Austria, Germany, Hungary, in the Czech and Slovak Republics. In the late 1970s and early 1980s Machajdík had smuggled some of his compositions to the famous American minimalist duo George Cup Steve Elliott, who used his music in most of their video works.Machajdík has lectured on new music, led workshops, and curated festivals of contemporary music. His music has been broadcast many times on radio and TV all over the world.Machajdík often chooses to compose his works in solitary places. His compositions draw on several sources of inspiration, especially from the polyphony and modal harmonies of early music. In recent years Machajdíks works have been typified by both economy of material and stringency of method, thereby demonstrating that what may be simple musical language can nevertheless be powerful. Also elements such as controlled use of dissonance, sustained sonorities, inconspicuous melodic motion and frequent use of minor tonalities apply to Machajdíks compositional style. Most of his compositions have a meditative character. 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More information

Musical Talents:

Composer, Publisher, Teacher

Prizes:

1989 CONCORSO INTERNAZIONALE LUIGI RUSSOLO DI MUSICA ELETTROACUSTICA, Varese, Italy1992 Artist in Residence, DAAD Berliner Künstlerprogramm, Berlin, Germany1999 Artist in Residence, Künstlerhaus Schloss Wiepersdorf, Germany2003 Artist in Residence, Künstlerhäuser Worpswede, Germany2004 Artist in Residence, Künstlerhaus Lukas, Ahrenshoop, Germany2005 Ján Levoslav Bella Prize, Slovakia2011 Artist in Residence International Visegrad Fund, Prague, Czech Republic2013 Artist in Residence, Judenburg, Austria2016 and 2018 Stipendium from the Slovak Arts Council, Slovakia_________________________

Qualification:

Prof.

Web:

Official Web Site

CONTACT

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