altus 
new breath

The Altus Ensemble was born out of the project New Breath, an exciting initiative by the Centre for Education and Music (CEM) and the Macedonian Philharmonic, aiming at supporting contemporary music enthusiasts within the orchestras, by encouraging them to take on challenging repertoire and seek new audiences.  Another aim of the project is to provide essential stimulation for creating new works. Thus, the ensemble established a productive platform for ambitious programming which, together with the orchestra's symphonic repertoire, provides a varied kaleidoscope of musical concepts and cutting-edge quality musicianship. Their concerts concerts enabled long-overdue Macedonian premieres of seminal 20th-Century works, including important pieces by Schoenberg, Webern, Boulez and Berio. The audience welcomed these performances with evident enthusiasm, which encouraged the ensemble to seek even more demanding challenges for the projects ahead. Furthermore, music by Macedonian composers was programmed alongside the 20th-century classics, including works by Valentina Velkovska-Trajanovska, Jana Andreevska, Darija Andovska, Angel Spirovski, Filip Ivanov, Mihajlo Trandafilovski, Goran Načevski, Pande Shahov and Tomislav Zografski. Another important focus is on programming vocal pieces; so far the ensemble has worked with three of the best vocal soloists of the country: Gonca Bogoromova, Milena Arsovska and Ivan Naumovski. 

The conductor Pascal Gallois has also contributed to innovative programming of the orchestra; the Macedonian premiere of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians in the large symphony hall received very encouraging reviews, and was acknowledged by many as the most important event of the season.

In spite of being a new protagonist of the contemporary music scene, the ensemble has already performed at the most significant Macedonian festival, Ohrid Summer, as well as on international stages such as Mozarteum in Salzbourg, Austria for the DynamikFest and Les Musicales de Quiberon in France. The enthusiasm of the musicians involved, the evident sense of friendship and togetherness, and the flexibility in terms of innovative programming, have already set this ensemble on a path towards international acclaim; several unusual and impactful projects are already planned for the near future.