Gala opening of Ohrid Summer Festival 2025

Edwin Outwater- conductor

Edwin Outwater is redefining the concert experience as a groundbreaking conductor, curator, and producer, known for his dynamic approach and genre-blending collaborations. Working with a wide range of artists from Metallica to Wynton Marsalis, Renée Fleming, and Yo-Yo Ma, Outwater’s creative vision and ability to seamlessly navigate between musical worlds has made him one of the most sought-after conductors, with the legendary Michael Tilson Thomas aptly describing him as “one of the most innovative conductors on the scene today.”

Outwater currently serves as Music Director of San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he leads their ensembles and oversees the institution’s bold artistic initiatives. From September 2024, he takes on an additional role as Principal Guest Conductor and Curator of BBC Concert Orchestra, from 2007-2017 he was Music Director of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony.  Outwater’s recent high-profile engagements include appearances at major orchestras including New York Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Royal Philharmonic and his collaborations extend to stars such as Diana Ross, Beck, Trey Anastasio, Leslie Odom Jr., Lang Lang, Sting etc. As producer and Musical Advisor for National Symphony Orchestra’s 50th Anniversary Concert at the Kennedy Center, he shared the stage with artists including Audra McDonald, Christian McBride, and Common.

He debuted at the BBC Proms in 2022 alongside Cynthia Erivo and has since returned to lead standout performances. His international presence has extended to top-tier orchestras including Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony, Mexico City Philharmonic, and Brussels Philharmonic, as well as key Canadian symphonies in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, and beyond.

Since 2021, Outwater has been the lead conductor for Stewart Copeland’s Police Deranged for Orchestra concerts, conducting major ensembles such as San Diego Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, and Utah Symphony. He also spearheaded the ’Coltrane: Legacy for Orchestra’ project, which premiered with the Toronto Symphony in 2024, and will soon be performed with the BBC Concert Orchestra and Boston Symphony.  His work on the GRAMMY-winning Philharmonia Fantastique with the Chicago Symphony and collaborations with Metallica’s Kirk Hammett on Portals highlight his versatile musicianship.

Claire Huangci-piano

The American pianist Claire Huangci continuously captivates audiences with her “radiant virtuosity,artistic sensitivity, keen interactive sense and subtle auditory dramaturgy” (Salzburger Nachrichten).

With an irrepressible curiosity and penchant for unusual repertoire, she proves her versatility with a wide range of repertoire spanning from Bach and Scarlatti via German and Russian romanticism to Bernstein, Amy Beach, and Barber.

Claire’s 24/25 season is peppered with exciting projects, starting with a new collaboration on Alpha Classics. Following a highly acclaimed Mozart concerto album with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, she will release an all-American solo disc titled MADE IN USA.

Kicking off a string of international orchestral engagements, Claire will return to the Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra, Porto, Iceland, Vorarlberg, Nordwestdeutsche, and Pacific symphony orchestras, and debut with the Basel, Hannover, Bremen, Bochum, and Milwaukee symphonies. In solo recitals and with international orchestras, Claire Huangci has appeared in some of the most prestigious halls such as Carnegie Hall, Suntory Hall Tokyo, Paris Philharmonie, Frankfurt Alte Oper, Dortmund Konzerthaus, Munich Prinzregententheater, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerthaus, and Salzburg Festspielhaus. She is a welcome guest of renowned festivals including the Lucerne Festival, Rheingau Musik Festival and Klavier Festival Ruhr. Her esteemed musical partners include the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Munich Chamber Orchestra and Basel Chamber Orchestra, together with Carl St. Clair, Elim Chan, Michael Francis, Howard Griffiths, Pietari Inkinen, Jun Märkl, Cornelius Meister, Sir Roger Norrington, Eva Ollikainen, Alexander Shelley and Mario Venzago. Born in Rochester New York, Claire displayed an early penchant for piano and was invited to the White House in 1999. She studied with Gary Graffman and Eleanor Sokoloff at the Curtis Institute of Music before moving to Hannover for further studies with Arie Vardi. She rose to international prominence with top prizes at several major competitions, including European and US Chopin competitions, ARD Music Competition, Geza Anda Competition, and Grand Prix of the Paris Play Direct Academy. Since

then, she has led a number of orchestras in various concerto repertoire. Claire is a proud ambassador of the Henle Publishing House, and Artistic Director of the Erbach Kammerkonzerte series.

NI Philharmonic of Republic of North Macedonia

Eight decades of continuous music making. Eight decades of love, passion, incredible energy, artistic togetherness. Eighty years of wonderful journeys together with brilliant music minds- thousands of soloists and conductors that have brought life to the works of the great music masters- giving the audiences over the years a plethora of emotions, creations, harmonies, melodies, rhythms. This is the first and only symphonic orchestra in the Republic of North Macedonia, and with that the only permanent representative of the symphonic creations of Macedonian composers. During the last few decades, the orchestra has significantly rejuvenated and with this process a new elan and enthusiasm have dominated the work processes. Tоday the Macedonian philharmonic is an orchestra with high instrumental qualities that brings to the stage and inventive repertoire that over encompasses both the traditional music literature as well as complex new works by contemporary composers. The orchestra was formed on 24 November 1944 soon after the end of WWII and just 11 days after the liberation of Skopje. In the home of composer Todor Skalovski one of the pillars of Macedonian music culture, a group of musicians hold their first meeting with the intention of establishing the first State orchestra and lay the ground for the first cultural institution of its kind in liberated Macedonia. From its modest beginnings over the past eight decades, the Philharmonic has created unforgettable concerts performing the words of classic and contemporary composers and taking great pride in being an ambassador for the works of Macedonian composers.

Programme:

L. Bernstein: Symphonic dances from “West side story”

G. Gershwin: Rhapsody in blue

D. Imeri: Pajdushko