Simon Trpčeski

Due to illness, our jury member Leif Ove Andsnes has been forced to cancel for tomorrow´s Final. We are happy to announce that his replacement will be the Macedonian pianist Simon Trpčeski.

Macedonian pianist Simon Trpčeski has established himself as one of the most remarkable musicians to have emerged in recent years, performing with many of the world’s greatest orchestras and captivating audiences worldwide.  Mr. Trpčeski is praised not only for his impeccable technique and delicate expression, but also for his warm personality and commitment to strengthening Macedonia’s cultural image.

Mr. Trpčeski is a frequent soloist in the UK with the London Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, the Philharmonia and Halle, the Royal Liverpool and the London Philharmonic orchestras. Other engagements with major European ensembles include the Royal Concertgebouw, Russian National and Bolshoi Theatre orchestras, NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, DSO and RSO Berlin, WDR Cologne, MDR Leipzig, Tonkünstler Orchestra in Vienna, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and the Rotterdam, Strasbourg, Royal Stockholm, Helsinki, Oslo, Royal Flanders and St. Petersburg philharmonic orchestras.

With the special support of KulturOp — Macedonia’s leading cultural and arts organization — and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Macedonia, Mr. Trpčeski works regularly with young musicians in Macedonia in order to cultivate the talent of the country’s next generation of artists.

Born in the Republic of Macedonia in 1979, Simon Trpčeski has won prizes in international piano competitions in the United Kingdom, Italy and the Czech Republic.  From 2001 to 2003, he was a member of the BBC New Generation Artists, and in May 2003, he was honored with the Young Artist Award by the Royal Philharmonic Society.  In December 2009, the President of Macedonia H.E. Gjorge Ivanov honored him with the Presidential Order of Merit for Macedonia, a decoration given to foreign and domestic dignitaries responsible for the affirmation of Macedonia abroad.  Most recently, in September 2011, Mr. Trpčeski was awarded the first-ever title “National Artist of the Republic of Macedonia”.

Mr. Trpčeski is a graduate of the School of Music at the University of St. Cyril and St. Methodius in Skopje, where he studied with Professor Boris Romanov.