Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra

Summary  | Biography:

Biography::

The 80 member Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra is the first national institution established on December 24th 1944, 11 days after liberation of the capital of Macedonia, and the first Symphony Orchestra from which later many other significant music institutions stemmed in the young Macedonian state.

The first head-director of this orchestra was the composer Todor Skaloski, and Trajko Prokopiev was also directing many of the performances, both of whom are considered to be doyens of the Macedonian music art. After many performances on various types of occasions, the first Symphony concert was conducted by Todor Skalovski, the performance comprising the following pieces: Dances no. 1 and 4 by A. Dvorzak, the second and the third movement of the concerto for violin and orchestra by P. I. Chaikovski (soloist: Luka Riter) and the third symphony "Heroics" by L. V. Beethoven.

After multifold changes in its title and joining a few various institutions (the Macedonian National Theatre and the Radio Skopje), in 1960 the Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra eventually permanently constituted itself as an independent music institution.

After the disastrous earthquake in Skopje in 1963., the Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra, led by the worldwide famous conductor Igor Markevic left for a tour round Europe, which was bf major significance regarding the solidarity expressed toward the city in need by the peoples throughout Europe and the world. Since its establishment in 1944. till now, the Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the staple advocates of the music life in our country and an ambassador of Macedonian mjjsic art all over the world. Compared to the centuries-long and rich music traditions of, some other peoples, existence of the Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra can be taken as a pretty short period of existence, but for a country with a fairly complex and dynamic development full of turbulences such as Macedonia, the existence of the idea for a dignifying presentation of the Macedonian culture in this form is of utmost importance.

Beside regular performances in the country, the Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra has performed as guest in the countries of Middle and South America, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, Poland, former USSR, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey etc.

International communication is being cherished by having foreign conductors conducting in Macedonia as guests (Lovro Matacik, Karlo Ceki, Djemail Rasid, Jarmomir Noel, Igor Markevic, Oskar Danon, and more recently, Robert Gutter, Tadeus Kozlovski, Vjaceslav Blinov, Pavle Despalj, Ermir Krantja etc), vocal and instrument soloists (Aldo Cikolini, Halina Cerni-Stefanska, Henrich Schering, Leonid Kogan, Andre Navara etc). However, of utmost importance is the role of the Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra in advocating Macedonian reproductive artists and conductors and promotion of contemporary Macedonian music art.