Aleksandra Popovska

Aleksandra Popovska, born in 1975 and raised in Yugoslavia, is a Macedonian vocalist, composer, improviser, multimedia artist and teacher who has lived in the Netherlands since 2004. In the Balkans she is known as one of the pioneers of so-called extended vocal techniques: she uses her voice as an instrument, and her music runs from folk and pop to jazz and experimental live electronics.

She graduated from the Academy of Music in Skopje in 1997. During her studies she sang in a female vocal trio with Emilija Lale and Ana Kostova and worked as a session singer with almost every active Macedonian producer and composer of the time, among them Darko Dimitrov, Kokan Dimuševski, Valentino Skenderovski, Ilija Pejoski and Kire Kostov.

She sang on more than twenty albums in different genres with artists such as TB Tračeri, Arhangel, Karolina Gočeva, Erzana, Toše Proeski, Kaliopi, Igor Džambazov, Tijana Dapčević, Vrčak, Biba Dodeva and Adrian Gadža.

From 2000 she was the lead vocalist of the Dragan Dautovski Quartet, which performed in more than twenty countries. The quartet was known for complex rhythms and a lyrical approach to arranging Macedonian folk tunes, and the success of its albums Path of the Sun and Razboj sparked international interest in new Macedonian music. Her recordings also include Roots and Blossoms (2000), Raam o Lash with Zoli Soos (2005), Three Voices by Morton Feldman (2006), and Flame and And the Moon Shines On (both 2014).

After moving to the Netherlands she completed further studies there and in England in performance, production, applied composition and multimedia. She has written more than fifty compositions, often for soloists and small groups with electronic instruments and computers, and music for media performances, documentaries, animation, music theatre and video installations. She is also a visual artist with more than two hundred works; her painting "Snail Story" travelled the world as part of the project "Show Your Hope".