His works as composer exhibit a wide spectrum of genres and styles: from opera to oratorio, vocal to instrumental, songs, choir works, ensembles and solos, music theatre pieces, applied music for theatre and film, and educational works for choirs exploring choir improvisational techniques (The Silesius Etudes).
His opera, ‘Sinking’, was premiered by the Dutch National Opera Academy in 2013 January. His pieces were performed by Capella Amsterdam, Asko|Schönberg Ensemble, Amadinda, Hungarian Radio Symphonic Orchestra and Children’s Choir, Ensemble Royaal, MAE and many more on festivals such as Dag in de Branding (Den Haag), Greenwhich Early Music Festival, Making New Waves and IKZE. He received the Tenso Young Composers Award in 2014, for which his composition ‘War circles’ was premiered in Mechelen on Tenso Days and Lunalia Festival, by Zbor HRT (Croatian Radio Choir) and top quality local amateur choir, Musa Horti. Recent years, thanks to this award, he is focusing more on vocal and choral music. He has written many pieces for amateur choirs as well, (‘Re-Turning’ for The Gents, ‘Mass Comments’ for Haags Vocaal Ensemble and ‘Heroes’ for de.fundo male choir). His piece ‘Angelic Books’ were performed on tours of Meesters&Gezellen in 2018 and ‘Sometimes’ on Nl tour by Nederlands Studenten Kamerkoor in 2019. He is also a vocal and instrumental improviser (violin, keyboards, flute, percussion). He gained experience in conducting as the leader of the Chamber Choir of the Centre for Young Musicians, The Hague, and being the guest conductor of the National Boys Choir of Holland in 2017. From September 2018 he is the leader of the amateur male choir, de.fundo. He is also a mediator between composers and singers – after his excellent master research ‘Building Bridges Between the Contemporary Composer and the Classically-trained singer’. He gives a course in vocal composing and modern ensemble singing in the Royal Conservatory Den Haag. He is also the vocal coach in Young Composers Meeting Apeldoorn with Orkest Ereprijs. He is the singer, conductor, artistic leader and co-founder of ‘The Odd7’ , an innovative ensemble of 6 instrumentalists, where they perform also his compositions and arrangements. He is the founder and leader also of vocal sextet ‘The New Vocal Federation’, specialized in premieres of new vocal music. |
Georgi Sztojanov (1985-)
Composer, singer, conductor Originally from Bulgaria, grew up in Hungary, based in Den Haag, The Netherlands. He obtained his first master degree in composition from Liszt Ferenc Music Academy Budapest (2009). After obtaining his second MA in Composing from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague (2012), the multi-disciplined musician decided to follow a Bachelor program in singing (2012-16), with Sasja Hunnego in the same Conservatory, where he finished his singing studies with special distinction and a 9,5 on his MA final exam in 2018. He conducted an excellent research in ‘Building Bridges Between the Contemporary Composer and the Classically-Trained Singer’. He also studied conducting as a minor with Jos Vermunt. One of his specialties is performing modern music. In 2019 June he sang two of the main roles in Stockhausen’s Aus Licht, a 15 hour selection of the opera cyclus, staged by Pierre Audi in Dutch National Opera. As a preview of that opera-cycle, he performed in OperaForward festival the piece ‘Invasion-Explosion mit Abschied’ in Dutch National Opera in March 2018, about which The New York Times wrote: “It was the best Stockhausen live performance”. In April, 2017 he sang the Tenor solo in ‘De Materie’ by Louis Andriessen, with Asko| Schönberg ensemble, lead by Reinbert de Leeuw – in prestigious locations such as Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam, and Tivoli-Vredenburg, Utrecht. He sang many premieres of fellow composers, also in staged productions: the role of ‘ Tamino’ in the Silbersee production ‘Toverfluit’, ‘Medic’ and ‘Roderick Usher’ in Philip Glass: The Fall of House Usher with Opera2day, ‘As’ in ‘Who’s afraid of Orfeo?’ (Chiel Meijering), ‘Metaphrastes’ in ‘All rise’ (Jan-Peter de Graaff) and the ‘Tenor Cow’ in Koeien’ (Mischa Mengelberg/ Guus Jansen.) Another operatic role is ‘Marcellus/ Fossoyeur’ in ‘Hamlet’ (Ambrois Thomas) with Opera2day. He sang tenor solo in oratoric settings, such as Mozart: Requiem, Haydn: Die Schöpfung, Bach: ‘Magnificat’, Dvorak: ‘Svatebni Kosile’, Weil: ‘Das Berliner Requiem’. He participated in masterclasses with Nadine Secunde, Marcel Reijans and Frans Fiselier. Georgi is also an experienced choir singer (Laurens Collegium, World Youth Choir, Tenso Europe Chamber Choir). From September 2017 he is a member of the Groot Omroepkoor, Holland’s Radio Choir, where he gained a permanent contract in 2018. As a singer his experience is diverse: from bel canto to alternative, from early music to modern premieres, as soloist and in ensembles and choirs. 
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