Vlatko Stefanovski – guitar, North Macedonia

Vlatko Stefanovski is Macedonia’s finest rock, pop and jazz musician, virtuoso guitarist and founder of the “Vlatko Stefanovski Trio” and one of the founders of the group “Leb i Sol” in which Stefanovski was a guitarist, composer and writer of texts. During theri 20 years on stage “Leb i Sol” published 12 studio albums, a double compliation and music for theatre, film and TV series. Stefanovski’s first solo appearances were in the early 1990’s and together with Bodan Arsovski they published the first Macedonia CD- with the music from the rock ballet “Zodiac”. In 1994 Stefanovski recorded his first solo album “Cowboys and Indians” and worked on the project “Saraevo” for a theatre play written by his brother Goran Stefanovski and directed by Slobodan Unkovski for the Theatre in Antwerpen. He also composed the music for Stole Popov’s film “Gipsy Magic” and released the soundtrack from the film in 1997. The title song of the soundtrack “Gipsy Song” becomes an instant hit in the Balkans.  Vlatko is part of the project “Balkan horses” which brings together some of the most established musicians from the region including Teodosij Spasov (Bulgaria), Kostas Theodoru (Greece), Krasi Zhelzakov (Bulgaria), Hakan Bersher (Turkey), Emil Bukur (Romania), Sanja Ilic (Serbia), Stojan Jankulov (Bulgaria) and Tamara Obrovac (Croatia). In 2001, he releases the complation “Kino Kutlura” which compiles themes from five films: “Gipsy Magic”, “Sky hook”, “Three summer days”, “Selfdestruct” and “The road to the sun”.

At the beggining of 2002 at the invitation of the Croatian director Vicko Ruic, Vlatko composes the music for his second movie “Serafin, the lightkeeper’s son” and during the summer he tours with his trio, with Miroslav Tadic, Gibonni etc. In 2004 Stefanovski and Tadic record the album “Treta Majka” with Teodosij Spasov joining them on several songs.

Vlatko Stefanovski has always been interested in different music generes which has led to his numerous collaborations with artists from all of the former Yugoslavia countries including the band “Film” and artists like Zheljko Bebek, Vasko Serafimovski, Oliver Mandic, Bojan Zulfikarpashic, Vanja Lazarova, Vlado Janevski, Gibonni and many more. During his long and fruitful carreer he has been awarded numerous prizes such as the Yugoslavian variety prize,  Life achievement award for long-standing artistic achievements in Macvdonia, the e “Sterijino pozorje” award for his music in the theatre play “The liberation of Skopje”, three “Golden Gramophone” awards at the festival “Mesam’ 87” and  the City of Chicago Charter.