Peter Machajdík

Biography

Peter Machajdík ['maxajɟik] (born 1 June 1961) is a Slovak composer of classical music, performer and sound artist. He was born and grew up in Bratislava, Slovakia. He left Bratislava in the early 1990s and settled in Kreuzberg, Berlin.
He has received critical acclaim for his chamber, orchestral, electronic, choral, and theatre works.
In the 1990s, he took part in seminars with Vinko Globokar, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Clarence Barlow, Konrad Boehmer, and others. In 1992, he was the guest of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program.
Machajdik has composed music in nearly all genres, including orchestra, band, chorus, chamber music, works for solo instrument, works for piano and organ, as well as liturgical works and hymns.
Moreover, he has created a number of graphic notations, including the Dialogue with... series which is based on letters received from composer colleagues with additional visual elements added. While in this series the written content of the letters may appear as audible text, other graphic notations are purely visual (like Wold). Others again contain notation or text describing elements to be performed (like Donauklang).
His music is published primarily by Musica Slovaca, Alea Publishing, Zimbel Press, and Edition Hudba.
Peter Machajdík's music often asks questions about the society in which we live. It calls for humanity and responsibility that human beings should have to each other and to the world. Machajdík's works, often considered as the counterpoint to the violence, intolerance, racism and greed of our age, are marked by a keen sensitivity to instrumental colour and texture.
Machajdik's orchestral works have been premiered by the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra, State Philharmonic Orchestra of Košice, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Pomeranian Philharmonic, Lugansk Symphony Orchestra, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Slovak Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Europea, Capella Istropolitana, Ensemble Metamorphosis, Cluster Ensemble, and many others.
He has also worked with Jon Anderson from Yes, harpist Floraleda Sacchi, cimbalom virtuoso Enikö Ginzery, vocalist & drummer David Moss, conductors Benjamin Bayl, Anu Tali, Miran Vaupotić, Florian Ludwig, Pawel Przytocki, Gum Nanse, Przemysław Zych, clarinetists Martin Adámek and Guido Arbonelli, and violist Sasha Mirković.
Film credits include Machajdik's scores for 4 Schüler gegen Stalin (2005), Wild Slovakia (2015) and Miloš and the Lynxes (2010). Machajdik has worked with choreographers and dancers such as Dorothea Rust, Studio tanca, Petra Fornayova, Tina Mantel, Lucia Kašiarová, and others.
A vegetarian and teetotaler, Machajdík lives in Berlin, Germany, and in a little Slovak town situated in a valley, surrounded by lofty hills.
He is currently Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Arts in Košice.

Music for theatre

Escaped Alone [music for the production of Caryl Churchill's play Escaped Alone under Eduard Kudláč's direction at the Slovak National Theatre] (2021)
Niekto príde" (Nokon kjem til å komme) [music for the production of Jon Fosse's play Nokon kjem til å komme under Eduard Kudláč's direction at the Žilina Theatre] (2021)
Bezzubata [music for the production of Miklos Forgacs's play Bezzubata under Eduard Kudláč's direction at the Žilina Theatre] (2019)

Sound Art and Graphic Notation

Donauklang [open instrumentation and duration assumed] (1989)
Dialogue with Stockhausen [open instrumentation and duration assumed] [1984]
Dialogue with Malcom Goldstein [open instrumentation and duration assumed] [1984]