Vlad's music features 'vivid contrasts' (London Financial Times) and was described as 'powerfully expressive and modern from within' (Music Today Bucharest). His compositions have been recieved with great enthusiasm accross Europe and beyond.Born in Romania in 1985, Vlad started composing at the age of 7. Shortly he was noticed by Dan Voiculescu, and the respected Romanian composer admitted him to his composition summer school in Brasov. There, Vlad composed Triptic for violin and piano which was subsequently recorded and broadcast on Romanian Radio and Television, performed by the composer.
Until the age of 16 Vlad wrote various chamber and orchestral works, including a violin concerto. In 2002, after being admitted to the Menuhin School as a violinist, he wrote Night Music string quartet, which was awarded the Gold Medal at the George Enescu Competition by a panel which included Krzysztof Penderecky and Stefan Niculescu. The work was premiered at the 2005 Enescu Festival and recieved great critical acclaim.
In 2004, he started studying composition formally at the Royal College of Music with Richard Causton, and then Jonathan Cole. In 2007 he was selected to be one of the 6 young composers to take part in the Britten-Pears Programme, where, under the supervision of Oliver Knussen, Colin Mattheus and Magnus Lindberg, he composed Ocean Wing for chamber orchestra, which was premiered at the Aldeburgh Festival in 2008. This resulted in an invitation to join Mark-Anthony Turnage's class. In 2010 he graduated with a Postgraduate Diploma in Composition.
In 2008 he wrote Transcent for solo piano, which was awarded the Clive Christian 'Sound of Perfume' Award. In 2009 he took part in LPO's 'Seven Minutes Soundings' Young Composer Scheme which resulted in a professional commission. Later in the year he wrote Microkosmos for the LSO Discovery Panufnik Scheme. The success of the work resulted in a commission from the LSO to write Halo for large orchestra, which will be premiered in March 2011. Other champions of his music have been Andrew Zolinsky, Antoine Francoise, Yuko Amoyal, Daniel Kyenzy, Ensemble Cercles, Britten-Pears Orchestra, European Union Chamber Orchestra, The Mercury Quartet, Ansamblul Profil.
Vlad believes in the active feedback between composition, improvisation and interpretation, an approach inherited from the tradition of George Enescu through his pupil Yehudi Menuhin. His performances on the violin display 'technical assuredness, balanced by interpretative willingness to push boundaries that can, and often does make sparks fly' (MusicWeb International).
His teachers have been Natalia Boyarskaya, Felix Andrievsky and Pierre Amoyal and he benefited from guidance in chamber music from Bruno Canino. Winner of Remember Enescu International Competition, The Tillett Trust and a Finalist of Young Concert Artist Trust, he has performed concerti and recitals that have included appearances at Wigmore Hall, South Bank Centre, The Sage Gateshead, Salle Flagey in Bruxelles, Kulturhaus Helferei in Zurich as well as Merkin Hall, Kaufman Center New York, as well as various festivals across Europe. He has recently toured with duo partener Dario Bonuccelli with a programme of the complete works for violin and piano by Franz Schubert.
He is a member of The Mercury Quartet, an dynamic ensemble that combines redentions of new commissions and classic works of the 20th Century (as seen in their collaboration with mezzo-soprano Linda Hirst in Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire at the 2010 Dartington Summer School) with their own live-composed works (as seen in their debut album, Mercury Acoustic released by Nonclassical Records and produced by Gabriel Prokofiev).
Future engagements include Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor with Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and Pascal Dusapin's Violin Concerto "Quad" at Dampfzentrale Bern. Vlad performs on a 1852 Rafaele ed Antonio Gagliano of Naples, kindly loaned by Mr. Hans van Swaay.
To hear a selection of Vlad's works, please visit www.myspace.com/vladmaistorovici