Ohrid, 27 July 2023 (MIA) - The Chamber Orchestra of Jeunesses Musicales Macedonia “Sasha Nikolovski-Gjumar” and a book promotion for “The colors of my music” by Snezhana Anastasova-Chadikovska and Marko Kolovski will be showcased at the 63rd edition of the Ohrid Summer Festival on Thursday.

The Chamber Orchestra Jeunesses Musicales Macedonia (JMM) was established over 37 years ago as the main segment of JMM Summer music camp in Ohrid in 1986. More than 400 young musicians are a part of the orchestra, with artistic directors and conductors of the orchestra including F. Muratovski, G. Korunovski, S. Nikolovski-Gjumar, V. Nikolovski-Gjumar, M. Spasov, B. Canev, A. Remereit, B. Chadlovska, O. Kondratenko, Misha Katz, Gianluca Martinenghi, Elena Mitrevska.

In recognition of the achieved results, in 1995 the orchestra held a concert in Budapest for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the International Federation of Jeunesses Musicales. Having played over 100 concerts, the orchestra has received numerous positive reviews and acknowledgements, and their repertoire, in addition to the world classics, also contains the works of contemporary Macedonian composers.

For the past 37 years the orchestra has performed the final concert of the summer session at the Ohrid Summer Festival, and in recent years they have also performed at the Skopje Summer Festival and Bitola Summer Festival. In 2018, the orchestra was renamed after the Macedonian conductor Sasha Nikolovski-Gjumar.

This year the orchestra is composed of violinists Marijana Lazarevikj, Stojanka Peshikj, Bojana Mitkovska, Natalija Nikolovska, Darko Grozdanovski, Simeon Goshev, Bozhana Gosheva, Marija Ristovska, viola players Kristina Stojanovska, Bojana Sherovikj, Verica Ajtovska, chellists Magdalena Drmach and Aleksandar Ickovski, and the double bass player Andrej Jovanovikj.

Ivan Eminovikj will conduct the concerts, and Marija Tashevska will perform as a soloist.

Born in Skopje, Ivan began to study music at the age of 6, at State Music-Ballet School Centre "Ilija Nikolovski-Luj" in Skopje, where he completes the primary and high school music education. At the Faculty of Music in Skopje, Eminovikj studied orchestral conducting with Sasha Nikolovski-Gjumar and graduated in 2010 with a concert dedicated to prof. Kosta Trpkov. The same year he is awarded the “Tomislav Zografski” award for being the most accomplished student at the departments of conducting, composition, musicology and music theory and pedagogy.
In 2012 Eminovikj obtained his Master’s degree in orchestral conducting with honors, conducting the opera “Rita” by Gaetano Donizetti. As a pianist, he has performed many concerts in Macedonia and abroad and has received numerous prizes and awards at state and international competitions.

In July 2018 he conducted the Sarajevo philharmonic orchestra at the festival opening of “Bashcharshija nights” in Sarajevo. His artistic portfolio includes many productions of the Macedonian Opera and Ballet including “La Traviata”, “Nabucco”, “Carmina Burana”, “Giselle”, “Rigoletto”, “Cavalleria Rusticana”, “The Lady of the camellias”, Il Barbiere di Siviglia”, “Eugene Onegin”, “Adriana Lecouvrer”, ”Don Giovanni”, “Turandot”, Mozart’s Requiem and numerous concerts.

The soprano Marija Tashevska was born in Skopje where she finished her secondary music education at the State music and ballet center “Ilija Nikolovski-Luj” at the department for traditional music and dance. She discovered her love for opera singing during her final years of highschool, which she started to explore with prof. Gonca Bogoromova -Krapovski and continued singing at the Faculty of music in Skopje, first with prof. Slavica Petrovska-Galic, and now with prof. Goran Nachevski. Marija has taken part in several international festivals and competitions including “Polihimnia” in Skopje where she won firt place, and the international competition “Balkan romance song competition and festival” in Sofia, Bulgaria where she won third place.

In June 2021, Tashevska perfored her first recital with cellist Martin Janevska at the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle for Independence. She regularly performs at the “Free Wednesday” cycle of concerts organized by JMM as well as the “Musica viva” concerts at the Faculty of music.

In 2022, she was selected to perform at a traditional concert in honour of prof. Kosta Trpkov accompanied by the orchestra of the National opera and ballet. Throughout her education she has taken part in master classes led by acclaimed vocal soloists including Rame Lahaj, Yuri Mynenko, Blagoj Nacoski, Natasha Jovic and Mihajlo Arsenski.

The book ”The Colors of my Music” is a story of the life and career path of Snezhana Anastasova-Chadikovska, an established pianist, piano pedagogue, musical publisher, educator and organizer of cultural events.

By sharing her personal memories about the growth of her professional opus, and with musicologist Marko Kolovski offering an insight from another perspective- the two of them create a unique literary work that offers an enjoyable reading experience. The book is a colourful, rich, shining work, much like the painting “Hypostasis of life” by artists Venjamin Hadzi-Naumov used for the cover of the book that visually enhances its content.

The book promotion is set to begin at 7pm, and Chamber orchestra's concert at 9pm at the St. Sophia Church. ssh/sk/

Photo: Ohrid Summer Festival