Simon Trpceski

Hailed by the Seattle Times as “the best thing to come out of Macedonia since Alexander the Great,” Macedonian pianist Simon Trpčeski has established himself as one of the most remarkable young musicians to have emerged in recent years, performing with many of the world’s greatest orchestras and delighting audiences worldwide.

Mr. Trpčeski has enjoyed successful performances around the globe, in recital and in collaborations with conductors such as Maazel, Jurowski, Tortelier, Pappano, Ashkenazy, Dutoit, Alsop, Dudamel, Petrenko, Morlot and Noseda. In North America, he has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and the Colorado, Seattle, Baltimore, Toronto and Phoenix symphony orchestras, and he has performed recitals in cities including Seattle, Toronto, San Francisco, Portland, Atlanta, Vancouver and New York. His 2008-09 season includes debut performances with the Chicago Symphony and Pittsburgh Symphony and a return to the Daytona Beach International Festival with the London Symphony. In September 2008, he performed at the United Nations headquarters on the occasion of the closing of the sixty-second session of the U.N. General Assembly, at the invitation of the session’s President, H.E. Srgjan Kerim.

Mr. Trpčeski has performed extensively in the United Kingdom, including regular appearances with the London Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, and London Philharmonic; last season saw his seventh return to Wigmore Hall. Other European engagements have included a recital debut on the main stage of the Concertgebouw and orchestral engagements with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic, DSO Berlin, NDR Hamburg, Strasbourg Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Swedish Chamber Orchestra. In Asia and Australia, Mr. Trpčeski has performed with the New Japan Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Sydney and Melbourne symphony orchestras and on tour with the New Zealand Symphony.

Mr. Trpčeski has received much praise for his EMI recital recordings. The first, featuring works by Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, Stravinsky and Prokofiev, received both the Editor’s Choice and Debut Album Awards at the Gramophone Awards; the second was an all-Rachmaninoff disc which received unanimous praise from critics; the third an all-Chopin disc which was equally applauded, and in 2008, he released an all-Debussy disc which once again gathered widespread critical acclaim. The Independent on Sunday called it "subtle, clever, imaginative pianism of the very highest quality.”

Born in the Republic of Macedonia in 1979, Simon Trpčeski has won prizes in international piano competitions in the U.K. (London International Piano Competition 2000), Italy and the Czech Republic. From 2001 to 2003, he was a member of the BBC New Generation Scheme, and in May 2003, he was awarded the Young Artist Award by the Royal Philharmonic Society. A 2002 graduate from the Faculty of Music of the University of St. Cyril and St. Methodius in Skopje, where he studied with Professor Boris Romanov, Simon currently teaches as a faculty member at his alma mater.