Vlatko Stefanovski & Miroslav Tadic: What A Duo!
By Miche Archetto
These are two virtuoso players from former Yugoslavia, Vlatko Stefanovski and Miroslav Tadic with their rendition of the traditional Macedonian folk song “Jovano Jovanke”.
The bio on Miroslav’s website reads:
“Guitarist, composer and improviser Miroslav Tadic completed his formal music education in the United States after studying in Italy and his native Yugoslavia.
He has performed and recorded in a wide variety of settings and musical styles, ranging from music of the Baroque and Classical periods to Blues, Jazz, Rock and World music. Tadic’s performing and recording credits include projects with Mark Nauseef, The Los Angeles Opera with Placido Domingo, London Symphony Orchestra, MDR Leipzig Symphony, The Philharmonic Orchestra of Monte-Carlo, Howard Levy, Joachim Kühn, L. Shankar, Markus Stockhausen, Dusan Bogdanovic, Vlatko Stefanovski, Teofilovic Brothers, Wadada Leo Smith, David Torn, Maria João, Jack Bruce, The Grandmothers of Invention, Theodosii Spassov, Kudsi Erguner, Djivan Gasparyan, Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri and Ustad Ashish Khan, among others.
Tadic has recorded worldwide and his music can be heard on CMP Records, M–A Recordings, Third Ear, Avalon, Croatia Records, ENJA, Nine Winds and Sony/BMG. He performs regularly in Europe, North and South America and Japan.
In recent years Tadic has concentrated on developing an approach to improvisation which combines and juxtaposes musical material drawn from many diverse sources, including Baroque, European classical and North Indian classical music, Flamenco, Eastern European folk traditions, Blues, Jazz, and Rock. He is noted for his pioneering work in applying the elements of classical and flamenco techniques to the electric guitar.
He has composed solo and chamber music which is published by Les Editions Doberman-Yppan. Tadic has written music for numerous experimental film, dance and theatre works and most recently completed music for Croatian feature film “Seventy Two Days” by Danilo Serbedzija.
Since 1985 he has been a professor at the prestigious California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles.”
The bio on Vlatko’s website reads:
“Vlatko Stefanovski was born in 1957 in Prilep / Macedonia in a theatrical family. He started playing guitar at the age of 13. In his late teens he formed the group LEB I SOL which became one of the most important names in the music scene of former Yugoslavia. LEB I SOL had released 14 albums and had toured around the world.
Since the mid- nineties Stefanovski has developed a very successful solo career. He has recorded remarkable solo releases, like “Cowboys & Indians”, “Sarajevo”, “Vlatko Stefanovski trio”, “Kula od karti”, “Thunder from the blue sky” etc. The collaboration with Miroslav Tadic,
on the albums “Krushevo”, “Treta majka”, “Live in Belgrade”, and “Live in Zagreb” put a new light on Vlatko’s acoustic guitar work, and his further exploration of the Macedonian traditional music.
In the last several years he has played and recorded all around the world with many top artists like Tommy Emmanuel, Stochelo Rosenberg, Gibonni, Jan Akkerman, Theodosii Spassov Stefan Milenkovic, Kudsi Erguner, Bojan Z., Manu Katche, Toni Levin, and many others. His recent work also includes music for films, theatre and ballet.
As a soloist Vlatko has performed and recorded with numerous orchestras and enesmbles, like London Simphony Orchestra, MDR Leipzig Simphony Orchestra, Monte Carlo Philcharmony Orchestra, Tonkunstler orchestra from Vienna, Simphonieta Orchestra from Sophia, Slovenian philharmony orchestra – Ljubljana, Student symphony orchestra from Skopje – Macedonia, FoolCool Jazz big band, RTV Ljubljana Big Band, Croatian HTV big band, RTV Srbija Big band etc.
Stefanovski is well known for his unique guitar technique and tone. With his Vlatko Stefanovski Trio he has performed around the world. In 2007 Stefanovski was honoured a Doctorate honoris causa in the fields of art at the University St. Kiril and Metodij / Skopje. He lives in Skopje/Macedonia with his family and owns a well-equiped project studio named ‘Esoteria Sound Studio’”
We have featured already a video of Vlatko playing with Tommy Emmanuel here on acousticguitarvideos.com.
Author: Robert Harris
