The Duo SoliPse featuring flutist Elena Stojceska and guitarist Romain Petiot will perform Friday evening at St. Sophia Church within Ohrid Summer Festival.

They will perform works by Mauro Giuliani, Claude Debussy, Astor Piazzola, Ravi Shankar, Maurice Ravel, Miguel Liobet and Miroslav Tadic.

The Duo SoliPse formed in 2011, performed in various cities and festivals in France, Czech Republic, Italy, Russia and Bosnia and Herzegovina,  such as the festival of Arromanches, the “Maskfest” festival in San Marino, the “Forfest” festival in Kromeritz, international festival “Sarajevo winter”, the Scriabin museum in Moscow, the Château de Bosmelet, Châtellerault, the Festival of Sagonne, La Semaine classique au Lavoir, at the Royal museum of fine arts in Brussels and different venues in Paris and Paris region.

The flute/guitar chamber music formation has drawn interest among composers since Astor Piazzolla and his Histoire du tango. Hence, the Duo SoliPse tend to play essentially XXth and XXIst century music including pieces by composers Doïna Rotaru, Massimiliano Messieri, Toru Takemitsu, Vincent Airault, Laurence Sherr or Edison Denisov. On the other hand, the Duo SoliPse is inclined towards folk inspired music from Béla Bartók, Dusan Bogdanovic, Miroslav Tadic, Ravi Shankar…

They premiered the piece Liebes-Lied by Massimiliano Messieri in 2016, piece composed and dedicated to duo SoliPse, as well as A dream within a dream for flûte, guitar, voice, woodblock and live electronics. American composer Laurence Sherr dedicated his Capriccioso for flûte and guitar to Duo SoliPse.

Flutist Elena Stojceska won First Prize at the 2004 AudiMozart Competition in Rovereto, Italy. Other successes in international competitions include top prizes at National Flute and Chamber Music Competitions in Macedonia (and former Yugoslavia), as well as in France at the European Competition of Music, Buffet-Crampon and Gaston Crunelle-Lucien Wurmser flute competitions.

Stojceska has appeared as soloist with the Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra, Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano and Trento, Paul Kuentz Orchestra, Orchestra of Auvergne, Bacau Symphony Orchestra and French flutes orchestra.

She has performed recitals and chamber music concerts at important venues in France, Italy, Great Britain, Turkey, Luxembourg, Holland, Macedonia, and has taken part in Festivals throughout Europe, including W.A.Mozart Festival in Rovereto, Skopje and Ohrid Summer Festivals, Maskfest Festival in Bologna, Festival d’Arromanches, Festivals in Luxembourg, Netherlands, Croatia and Bosnia.

Recipient of scholarships from Open Society Macedonia, French Government, Albert Roussel Foundation, Ministry of Culture of Macedonia, Stojceska studied in France and Italy with Pierre-Yves Artaud, Peter Lukas Graf, Vincent Lucas, Aurèle Nicolet and Irena Grafenauer among others.

She currently resides in Paris and teaches at the Livry-Gargan Conservatory as well as the Paris Center Conservatory – CMA W.A. Mozart.

French guitarist Romain Petiot is a prize winner of several competitions such as Guitarmania competition in Almada, Portugal and Guitar Art Festival in Belgrade, Serbia, as well as finalist of the Robert J. Vidal competition in France.

He has performed recitals and chamber music concerts in France, Italy, Czech Republic, Portugal, Russia, Bosnia and Spain and was invited at divers Festivals such as Automne Musical of Châtellerault, or Arromanches music festival, Maskfest in San Marino, the Sarajevo winter festival and by the French cultural institute of Valencia, Spain.  Romain premiered and recorded pieces for solo guitar from composers Laurence Sherr, Vincent Airault and Massimiliano Messieri.

He graduated with honors at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris “Alfred Cortot” and obtained a master for pedagogy from Paris Conservatory (CNSMDP). He studied with Alberto Ponce and Judicaël Perroy and attended masterclasses with David Russell, Zoran Dukic, Lorenzo Micheli, Pavel Steidl and Carlo Marchione among others. Romain was born in 1987 and currently resides in Paris where he teaches at the l’Haÿ-les-Roses Conservatory.