The Thessaloniki State Orchestra appeared on Saturday, May 17, 2025 for the first time in its history in the city of Skopje. The concert featured the celebrated Macedonian pianist, Simon Trpčeski. It was a gathering that promoted friendship and cooperation between two cultures. The concert was enthusiastically received, as the audience in Skopje filled the Macedonian Philharmonic Hall, and at the end expressed their enthusiasm with a standing ovation. The President of the Macedonia, Gordana Silianovska, was in attendance and she warmly congratulated the performers after the concert, while also making a statement that the event "enthusiastically captivated the audience and demonstrated the enormous power of art as cultural diplomacy."

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Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski last appeared here in 2013, performing at the Singapore International Piano Festival and with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. His most recent solo recital, presented by Altenburg Arts, showed that time has not dimmed the memory of an artist who has very personal ideas about music, married with a transcendental technique that invites superlatives. Trpceski has the ability to persuade, winning the listener over with beauty of tone and no little force of personality.

There were five encores in total, by Prokofiev (Scherzo Humoristique, Op. 12 No. 9), Rodion Shchedrin (Humoresque), a Macedonian folksong (Don’t Sell Y our Estate, Koljo) and lovely duets by Debussy and Brahms with two of Singapore’s young talents Maxim Oswald-Lim and Theodore Penn Hur. It was simply charming.

Macedonian pianist Simon Trpčeski is now a regular guest at Slovenian concert halls. That is why it is easier to draw a complete picture of his musical personality, which is broad. The concert was relatively short, but it was extended with the pianist's encores. The program primarily focused on romantic miniatures, but the pianist's post-concert presentation at the piano turned into a modern, watercolors of modernity. The latter can be considered the pianist's basic stance. Trpčeski seems primarily a poet of the piano.

The highlight of the evening was the Austrian premiere of Alberto Ginastera's Concierto argentino performed with intensity by Macedonian pianist Simon Trpčeski. Ginastera penned this concerto in 1935 at the age of 19 but withdrew it from publication shortly after its premiere. The work resurfaced decades later, offering a glimpse into Ginastera's early exploration of Argentine folk themes within a classical framework. Trpčeski's virtuosic performance captured the concerto's youthful exuberance and rhythmic complexities, forging a dynamic interplay with the orchestra. From the percussive, cluster-chord opening, he confidently fused bravura with dance-like abandon, his octave passages precise and his glissandi flashing. The cadenza of the first movement was a masterclass in dynamic control, nuanced pedalling and clarity of voicing, with Ginastera’s jagged motifs sculpted into a narrative arc of mounting tension.

The orchestra responded, providing a lush, rhythmically taut backdrop, leaning into the danza-like second movement with swinging elasticity which made their rendition of the prior Sierra feel square by comparison. After being called to the stage multiple times, Trpčesk offered an understated rendition of the well-known Danza de la moza donosa, the second of Ginastera’s Danzas Argentinas, as an encore, dedicating his performance to Hindoyan's wife, soprano Sonya Yoncheva.

Simon Trpčeski has recorded all of Rachmaninoff’s concertos as well as much of his solo keyboard output, and that experience was manifest in his no-holds-barred performance Thursday night. Launched with a punchy opening fanfare by Hrůša and the orchestra, Trpčeski leaped into the unbridled virtuosity of the opening movement, bringing the requisite power and panache as well as relaxing into the aching lyricism of the second theme.

The Macedonian pianist is a theatrical presence at the keyboard but he undoubtedly has the chops, tackling the fistfuls of notes with blazing speed and command, and putting across the youthful impetuosity of this score. Trpčeski artfully drew out the limpid theme of the Andante, and the final movement was as fast and exciting as one could ask, with Hrůša and the orchestra providing equally galvanic support. As well as matching his soloist’s fiery style, Hrůša illuminated details one rarely hears in this work, such as the bassoons’ singing line under the piano in the slow movement.

The vociferous ovations brought Trpčeski back out for a solo encore by his compatriot, Dimitrije Bužarovski (with Hrůša taking a seat at the back of the stage to hear it as well). “Ne si go prodavaj, Koljo” is an arrangement of a Macedonian folk song, beginning in a spare and introspective manner with a sudden jazzy breakout in the middle before returning to the subdued melancholy of the opening. The pianist played Bužarovski’s music with great nuance and sensitivity.

In his debut in Chile, Macedonian pianist Simon Trpčeski approached the leading role in a surprising way, resulting in a fresh, even novel interpretation, which was enhanced thanks to the good chemistry that existed between him, Bortolameolli and the orchestra. Trpčeski displayed a very polished keyboard technique, but always allowed the material to shine through clearly.

Pianist Simon Trpčeski has built an international reputation with his thoughtful and authentic musicianship. Trpčeski made his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2008, and especially in recent years, he has become something of a regular soloist with the ensemble. In his more than two-decade career, Trpčeski has constantly worked to expand his repertory and improve and deepen his playing. “I have always strived for development — to be a better person in general and hopefully that would make a better musician out of me,” he said.

Trpčeski has shown that he has guts, as well as sensitivity, two great qualities that he expresses not only on the keys, but with his whole being. There is no denying that he is likable, the guy. And generous, too. Indeed, he heard the request for an encore and responded to the audience by performing twice rather than once through a Macedonian dance and a waltz by Edward Grieg. Add to that a very fit OSM, an enthusiastic orchestral direction and a highly communicative pianist and you have the keys to a real ovation; not the kind that Montrealers give to everyone so that they can tell themselves that they were right to come, but rather the kind that are irrepressible and come from the guts.

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Soloist Simon Trpčeski performed the Emperor Concerto to an enthusiastic audience. The beloved second movement was especially appreciated for its model interpretation. His ability to connect with listeners and the orchestra was noted. For an encore, he played Tchaikovsky's Autumn Melody, a piece dedicated by the pianist to peace.

The Milwaukee Symphony will open its Classics season Sept. 27-29, with a program that includes Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1, featuring Macedonian pianist Simon Trpčeski. MSO Backstage writer David Lewellen spoke to Trpčeski by phone recently. He shared: "I’m very happy that the Milwaukee Symphony chose Rachmaninoff’s first concerto, because it’s not often played and it’s my very favorite of the Rachmaninoff concertos. It will be my first time in the new hall, and I’m happy to open the season. The concerto is fresh and full of energy. It’s a showcase for Rachmaninoff as he was developing as a musician. Despite his youth, there’s lots of unexpected maturity in the choice of musical material and the orchestration, the instrumental colors and combinations."