'makes sparks fly'
Musicweb International
 
'strikes a different note'
The Daily Telegraph
 

'full of atmosphere, a wonderful swirl of sounds'

The Classical Reviewer
 

A faithful performer of the masterworks of the past, Maistorovici does not stop at programming the established and familiar repertoire at major venues and festivals, such as South Bank Centre, Cadogan Hall, The Sage Gateshead, Musiekgebouw Amsterdam, Salle Flagey Bruxelles, Studio Ernest Ansermet Geneva, Kulturhaus Helferei Zurich, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Romanian Athenaeum Bucharest, Great Hall of the St. Petersburg Conservatoire, Merkin Hall New York, Verbier Festival, St. Prex Festival, Spoleto Festival, Enescu Festival, Sonoro Festival, in the company of orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Britten-Pears Orchestra, European Union Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerranée, Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Filarmônica de Goiás, Campos do Jordao Festival Orchestra, South Bank Sinfonia, New European Ensemble of The Hague, Young European Strings Camerata Bruxelles, Sinfonia Cymru Cardiff, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Nouvel Opéra Fribourg, Ensemble Contrechamps, Estonian Sinfonietta, Bucharest Radio Chamber Orchestra, Bucharest George Enescu Philharmonic, Bucharest Symphony Orchestra and all the major Romanian ensembles, as conductor or as soloist under the baton of conductors such as Neil Thomson, Clement Power, Jonathan Berman, Jonathan Bloxham, Michael Wendeberg, Thierry Fischer, Gottfried Rabl, Baldur Brönnimann, Gabriel Bebeșelea, Radu Paponiu, and many others.

 

His performances features ‘technical assuredness balanced by interpretive willingness to push boundaries that can, and often does, make sparks fly’ (Musicweb International), and as conductor he ‘masters the score in letter and spirit’ (National Heritage Institute). He has inspired, in collaboration with orchestras or as part of the London-based Mercury Quartet, over 20 new works by composers such as Mark Anthony Turnage (who composed a Romanian Rhapsody dedicated to Maistorovici), Jonathan Cole, Mark Simpson, Steven Daverson, Charlotte Bray, Edmund Finnis, Laurent Durupt, Diana Rotaru, Dan Dediu. With the same ensemble he has explored contemporary music improvisation with Mercury Acoustic, an album produced by Gabriel Prokofiev on the Nonclassical label. In season 2012-13 Maistorovici was appointed Solo First Violin of Ensemble Contrechamps in Geneva, where he performed the complete works for string quartet by Anton Webern. His passion and admiration for the rock band Queen has seen him venture further into the crossover genre with QUEENClassics, where ‘As bandleader, Maistorovici cuts a kind of Stephane-Grappelli meets-Brian-May figure’ directing ‘classic songs, superbly arranged by Maistorovici’ (Wales Arts Review). Since 2018 Maistorovici plays on and is the custodian of the 1751 Nicolò Gagliano violin kindly provided by the Rațiu Family Charitable Foundation.

 

'Catchy and sonorous' (Musical America), featuring 'vivid contrasts' (Financial Times) and 'clarity of expression' (Actualitatea Muzicală Bucharest), his compositions are distributed by Universal Edition and championed by world-class ensembles and artists. Informed by his vast experience on stage, they are as diverse as the artists and institutions that commissioned them: from the 'wonderful swirl of sounds' (The Classical Reviewer) of Halo (commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra and recorded on LSO Live), to the ironic dadaist R.E:M!X (commissioned by Bucharest International Week of New Music), to the rhapsodic Concert Transilvan (premiered by Dmitry Sitkovetsky and the New European Strings), Maistorovici 'strikes a different note' (The Daily Telegraph). In 2012 the Romanian Cultural Institute in London has opened the season with a concert entitled Night Music: the chamber works of Vlad Maistorovici. In 2014, under the directorship of Christian Badea, the project was revived at the Sibiu/Hermanstadt International Festival with site-specific video mapping, as part of an artist-in-focus series of concerts featuring Maistorovici as composer, conductor and violinist. In 2019, Maistorovici performed the Dutch premiere of Concert Transilvan and directed the Enescu Octet for chamber orchestra with the Young European Strings Camerata at the Diligentia Theatre Den Haag, in the opening of the cultural season connected to the Romanian Presidency to the EU Council. In 2023 Maistorovici conceived and conducted Metamorfosen: A Musical Journey into the World of MC Escher at the Tuinzaal of the Kunstmuseum Den Haag with the New European Ensemble and motion-reactive video projections by DeFrame, as part of the Escher – Andere Wereld 125th Anniversary exhibition of M.C. Escher, reuniting the music of Bach, Webern, Pärt and Maistorovici in ‘a musical/visual spectacle par excellence’, ‘a brilliant concept, brilliantly executed’, ‘a really enjoyable concert’ (ArtsTalk Magazine). In 2024 he composed B.A.C.H., passacaglia for solo violin, commissioned by the George Enescu Festival as the mandatory work at the George Enescu International Violin Competition.

 

Born in Romania (1985), he is a former pupil of the Carmen Sylva Art School. At age 16, with the support of Lory Wallfisch, he was offered a full scholarship at The Yehudi Menuhin School, where he continued his violin studies with Natalia Boyarskaya and Lutsia Ibragimova. He studied violin with Felix Andrievsky, composition with Mark-Anthony Turnage, Jonathan Cole and Richard Causton, and conducting with Patrick Bailey at the Royal College of Music London, and later violin with Pierre Amoyal on a Soloist Master degree at the Haute École de Musique Lausanne. He studied chamber music with Bruno Canino in Scuola di Fiesole Florence and has had influential violin masterclasses with Boris Kuschnir, Anna Chumachenko, Gordan Nikolich, Ivry Gitlis, Ida Haendel, Zakhar Bronn, Ferenc Rados at prestigious courses such as Verbier Academy or Keshet Eilon. He studied with Oliver Knussen, Colin Matthews and Magnus Lindberg in Aldeburgh, Giaccomo Manzoni in Florence and Dan Dediu in Bucharest as a PHD in Composition. He is a winner of the George Enescu Composition Prize, Clive Christian Composition Award, Golden Medal of the Berliner International Competition, The Tillett Trust Performer Platform, Young Concert Artist Trust and Remember Enescu International Competition. He has given violin and composition masterclasses at the Lilla Akademien Stokholm, Dartington International Summer School, Geneva Conservatoire and Bucharest National University of Music. In 2015 he has founded vibrate!festival with pianist Diana Ionescu, an event that brings together world-class innovative classical artists, reaching out to a wide audiences through eclectic repertoire and cross-discipline projects in alternative spaces.