COMPOSER - OFFICIAL WEBSITE - PETER MACHAJDÍK

With a gift for unexpected colour, clear musical form, melodic expressiveness, immediacy and playfulness, the music of award winning composer Peter Machajdík has gained the attention and warm appreciation of audiences and musicians around the world. His works, commonly described as emotive, imaginary and hypnotic, have been presented on five continents for over twenty five years and have been featured at festivals such as Inventionen in Berlin, New Work in Calgary, Early Music Festival in Boston, Melos-Ethos Festival, LakeComo Festival, Young Euro Classic in Berlin, Ostrava Days, Nuovi Spazi Musicali in Rome, Hörgänge at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, Bolzano Festival, Audio Art Festival in Cracow, Crusell Music Festival, Contrasts in Lviv, Melos-Ethos Festival, Odessa Dialogues, and the Bratislava Music Festival. Working with unusual methods, he often takes simple materials and a simple mode of expression, and creates a vibrant and challenging sonic palette.

Machajdík's music has been performed across the globe by orchestras, ensembles and soloists including the Lublin Philharmonic, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra, I.J.Paderewski State Philharmonic Orchestra, Slovak Chamber Orchestra, Cluster Ensemble, Ensemble Metamorphosis, NeoQuartet, Berg Orchestra, Mucha Quartet, Quasars Ensemble, VientoMarero Duo, harpists Floraleda Sacchi, Kristan Toczko and Klára Bábel, clarinetists Martin Adámek and Guido Arbonelli, violist Saša Mirković, harpsichordists Elina Mustonen, Sonia Lee and Asako Hirabayashi, flautists Yeeun Kim, Alex Griffiths and Rebecca Jeffreys, double bassist Dritan Gani, and oboist Piet Van Bockstal, among others. His work has been championed by conductors such as Benjamin Bayl, Anu Tali, Ivan Buffa, Florian Ludwig, Leoš Svárovský, Miran Vaupotić, Paweł Przytocki and Hakan Sensoy. Music of Peter Machajdík has also been heard in Kristina Paulin's choreographies for the soloists of the Hamburg Ballet, the Vorpommern Ballet, and the Slovak National Theatre.

Machajdík has been awarded a 1988 Luigi Russolo Composition Prize, and the 2007 Jan Levoslav Bella Composition Prize for his string quartets. In the 1990s, he carried out studies in master classes and workshops with Vinko Globokar, Dick Raaijmakers, Clarence Barlow, Konrad Boehmer and Victor Wentink. He was awarded a Fellow of the DAAD Artist-in-Berlin Program in 1992, and was the recipient of the 2016, 2018 and 2020 Slovak Arts Council Fellowships. His work has also been supported by grants from the the Visegrad Foundation and SOZA, and with funded artist residencies at Künstlerhaus Lukas in Ahrenshoop, Schloss Wiepersdorf, Künstlerhäuser Worpswede, and the Center for Contemporary Art in Judenburg. His work is well documented in recordings on Bandcamp, Youtube and SoundCloud. His catalogue of chamber and orchestral music, choral and theatrical works, continues to expand through his steady stream of commissions and collaborations.