'makes sparks fly'
Musicweb International
'full of atmosphere, a wonderful swirl of sounds'
The Classical Reviewer
'strikes a different note'
The Daily Telegraph
'As bandleader, Maistorovici cuts a kind of Stephane-Grappelli-meets-Brian-May figure' (Wales Arts Review), while his compositions 'strike a different note' (The Daily Telegraph). Romanian violinist-composer-director Vlad Maistorovici performs internationally in repertoire ranging from Bach to Turnage, through Enescu and Queen. His music is championed by world-class ensembles and artists.
As concert violinist, Vlad Maistorovici's performances display 'technical assuredness, balanced by interpretative willingness to push boundaries that can, and often does make sparks fly' (Musicweb International on his Wigmore Hall debut). A faithful interpreter of the concertos and chamber music of the great composers of the past, Maistorovici does not stop at performing the established 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, 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 European Union Chamber Orchestra, New European Ensemble of The Hague, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, South Bank Sinfonia, Sinfonia Cymru Cardiff, Bucharest Radio Chamber Orchestra, Bucharest Symphony Orchestra, Cluj Philharmonic, Timișoara Philharmonic or Ploiești Philharmonic, as a director or as a soloist under the baton of conductors such as Neil Thomson, Gottfried Rabl, Michael Wendeberg, Thierry Fischer, Baldur Brönnimann, Clement Power, Tiberiu Soare. He has inspired, as a soloist 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 violin concerto 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 classical music improvisation in 'Mercury Acoustic', produced by Gabriel Prokofiev's and released on his Nonclassical label. In season 2012-13 Maistorovici took up the position of First Solo Violin of Ensemble Contrechamps in Geneva, where he performed the complete works for string quartet by Anton Webern and extensive 20th and 21st Century repertoire. Maistorovici plays on and is the current custodian of a 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 championed by world-class ensembles and artists. Informed by his experience as performer, his works 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 under the baton of François-Xavier Roth), to the ironic dadaist R.E.M!X (Vis cu vampiri) (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 inaugurated their 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 a Vlad Maistorovici artist-in-focus series of three concerts that also saw him perform Brahms and Ligeti horn trios with Martin Owen and Dario Bonuccelli. In 2019, Maistorovici performed the Dutch premiere of Concert Transilvan and directed the Enescu Octet with the Young European Strings Camerata at the Diligentia Theatre Den Haag, in the opening of the Romanian Presidency to the EU Council.
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 gained a full scholarship at The Yehudi Menuhin School, where he continued his violin studies with Natalia Boyarskaya. He studied violin with Felix Andrievsky and composition with Mark-Anthony Turnage and Jonathan Cole 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 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.
Together with pianist Diana Ionescu he has founded in 2015 vibrate!festival in the city of Brașov, Transylvania, an event that explores ways of refreshing the listening experience of classical music. Bringing together world-class innovative artists from all across Europe, the festival reaches out to a wide audiences through eclectic repertoire and cross-discipline projects in alternative spaces.