Vasko Dukovski, is a Shanghai based multidisciplinary performing artist and composer. He holds a clarinet professor position at the Nanjing University of Arts and has previously taught at the USDAN Summer Camp for the Arts, MAP program at the Juilliard School and Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College. Trained at the prestigious Juilliard School, Dukovski sees no boundaries in music and musical styles, but embraces all of it. 

 

Dukovski has collaborated with some of today’s leading composers such as Jonathan Dawe, Michael Hersch, Huang Ruo, Du Yun, Wang Lu, Richard Carrick, Gerald Cohen, Raphael Cendo, Nina Young, Iancu Dumitrescu, Alex Mincek, Kate Soper, John Corigliano, Eric Wubbles, Ricardo Romaneiro, John Adams, Gunther Schuller, Yehudy Weiner, Georg Friedrich Hass, Helmut Lachenmann, Philippe Hurel, George Lewis, Peter Kotik, and many others. In the past decade, Dukovski has commissioned/inspired a number of new works and premiered over three hundred new compositions.  An avid performer-composer and advocate of  contemporary classical and experimental music, Dukovski regularly performs with some of New York’s most respected ensembles including ICE - International Contemporary Ensemble, Argento New Music Project, S.E.M Ensemble, Bang on A Can All Stars, Talea Ensemble, Wet Ink, ECCE-East Coast Contemporary Ensemble, Metropolis Ensemble, Ensemble Pamplemousse, Mise-En Ensemble, Mimesis Ensemble, Nunc Ensemble, AXIOM, LPR Ensemble, The Knights Orchestra and others. In addition of being a front man of his world music quartet Tavche Gravche, he is a member of Either/OR Ensemble, Lost Dog Ensemble, Echappe Ensemble, Unanimity Sound Collective and MarKovStein Principle and others. 

 

Dukovski’s musical sophistication spans the continents, appearing in Europe, The Middle East, North Africa, China, extensively in the US and on regular basis in New York City in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, Jazz at Lincoln Center, BAM, Roulette,  Spectrum, LPR, Miller Theater at Columbia University, The Italian Academy, The Academy of Arts and Letters, The Met Museum and MOMA to name a few.

 

As a soloist, Dukovski made his New York debut with the New Juilliard Ensemble in 2006 and since then he has appeared with the Macedonian Philharmonic on multiple occasions including a Carnegie Hall Concert. In 2016 Dukovski appeared as a soloist with Ensemble LPR at the historic Naumburg Bandshell at New York’s Central Park performing Aaron Copland’s masterful Clarinet Concerto to a standing ovation. Mise-En Ensemble featured Dukovski as a soloist for two American premieres of Michael Jarrell’s - Essaim Cribles a Bass Clarinet/Contra Bass Clarinet Concerto as well Eclipse by Yan Marezs. In 2018 Dukovski appeared as a soloist with Échappé Ensemble giving the world premiere of Jonathan Dawe’s Astounding Angels.

 

Dukovski’s musical compositions thrive equally at the concert hall as much as in the art gallery, both as sound sculptures and installations. His multi-genre compositions have been performed in the United States, South America and Europe by world class performers and ensembles such as the Grammy-nominated Metropolis Ensemble, Either\Or Ensemble, Sfrzando Composers Collective, MarKovStein Principle and Tavche Gravche. In collaboration with the Macedonian Artist Ivanco Talevski, Dukovski‘s sound installations have been exhibited at PAFA- Pennsylvania School of Fine Arts, Napoleon Gallery, C.R. Ettinger Studio and the Print Center in Philadelphia. Dukovski’s recent commissions were by the Washington Square Music Festival in New York City and New Docta International Festival in Argentina. 

 

In 2021 Dukovski was awarded by The American Youth Musician Union for extraordinary dedication and achievement in the field of teaching music and promoting the development of professional advanced talent. Dukovski is a proud recipient of the 2015  “40 under 40 Successful Macedonians” by the United Macedonian Diaspora. A Nominee of the 2013 “Virtuosi” Award Ceremony in his native Macedonia, Dukovski is a Winner of the 2010 Arriaga Chamber Music Competition with Grneta Ensemble; III Prize Winner of the Andreas Makris Clarinet Competition in Fort Collins, Colorado; Special Prize Winner of the 2002 Jeunnese Musicales Clarinet Competition in Bucharest, Romania; Winner of the 2001 International Woodwind Competition in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria; 2003 Eubie Blake Honors Award recipient; and a II Prize Winner of the 2002 National Chamber Music Competition and 1996 National Clarinet Competition, both in his native Macedonia.

 

Dukovski's TV and Radio appearances began from an early age at his town’s local TV and Radio stations and since then he has appeared on WQXR-NPR, QKCR, The Jack Prize Radio Show, TRT (Turkey) , Brazilian National TV Station, Tunisian National TV Station, CCTV China’s National TV Station and Tianjin TV Station among others. 

Dukovski has recorded over 30 albums for Naxos - American Classics, New Focus Records, Deutsche Grammophon,  New World Records, Albany Records, Sono Luminus - Dorian, Tzadik, Chicken Madness, In a Circle Records, Evolver Records, Furious Artisans, INNOVA Recordings, Non Such and Parma Recordings. In addition Dukovski has recorded for a number of film scores and video games including Civilization VI the Theme of Macedon: The Ancient Era.

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Born in Ohrid, in the Republic of Macedonia, Dukovski began playing with sound at age five and started his musical education at the age of eight. His dedication to music and the clarinet earned him a Fine Arts Award from the Interlochen Arts Academy, which he attended before earning a Bachelors and a Masters Degree from The Juilliard Schools of Music as a student of Charles Neidich and Ayako.