“Growth rings” – permanent testimony in the archives of MRT for the growth and development of “Ohrid Summer”

The program of “Ohrid Summer” last night brought a wonderful story about the cooperation between the festival and the Macedonian Television, presenting the project “Growth rings”.
As one of the moderators of the evening, the famous musicologist Vikica Kostoska-Peneva, pointed out, it is a collage of recorded fragments from concerts and statements and personalities that have been incorporated in the development of this most renowned festival in the region.
– It is a kind of return and reminder of important artists and concert fragments, but also the memory of many people who with their actions were an integral part of the creation and development of the festival, and all this found a suitable space in the programs of the Macedonian Television. This event enriches the program of “Ohrid Summer”, through television fragments we bring some of the most important concert achievements from the past to the festival audience and reveal a small part of the crossroads between the two institutions that last more than 50 years continuously and are being upgraded, said Kostoska -Peneva.

Moderator Vesna Maljanovska, music journalist at Macedonian Television and scientific researcher in the field of music and television said that this is a story of unique values, hard work, energy, commitment and love, a story of pride and tradition whose years began to form in the distant 1964.
-Macedonian television through the years of its existence confirms the importance in the construction of the visual Macedonian cultural heritage. He started his own program in 1961. The first music shows were broadcast live, and the first archived music shows produced by MTV date back to 1964. This year, two music shows were recorded, one with the title “Music Intermezzo”, and the other Concert of the wind quintet “Gewandhaus” from DDR from the Ohrid Summer Festival. And since then, under the gentle eyes of the saints in St. Sophia, television cameras will record the world’s top music names, exalting Ohrid at a crossroads and a harmonious cradle of well-organized events. By the end of the 60s of the last century, Macedonian television will record 21 music shows of which 14 of them are shows from the Ohrid Summer Festival, explained Maljanovska.

According to the director of the Ohrid Summer NI, Natasa Popovic, the Macedonian Radio and Television, as a renowned and established media house in the Republic of North Macedonia and recognizable in the wider region, is an important partner in building the success story of the Ohrid Summer Festival. The successful cooperation over the years, as Popovic says, contributes to the successful conduct of the event but also to building the artistic quality that “Ohrid Summer” has.
– What is especially important for us is the rich archive owned by the Macedonian Radio and Television, which remains as a permanent mark all the top concerts and all the sound names that performed on the festival stage, said Popovic.
The cooperation between the Macedonian Television and the Ohrid Summer Festival has been going on for more than fifty years.

Popovic announced that efforts will be made for the festival chronicle recorded by the Macedonian Television over the decades to get a digitized form and to remain as a permanent testimony to the beginnings, growth and development of the largest music and stage event in the country and beyond, the Ohrid Festival summer “.
-Our intentions are with joint efforts of the two institutions, what you saw as a collage of the unique concerts of “Ohrid Summer” over the years, but also everything else that is in the archives of Macedonian Television as material recorded at the festival, to get digitized form and to remain as a permanent testimony to the most beautiful cultural story that is woven in Ohrid every summer, added the director of the NI “Ohrid Summer”, Natasa Popovic.
Macedonian television counts nearly 500 shows with content from the Ohrid Summer Festival. The project “Growth rings” is inspired by the documentary film of the same name dedicated to “Ohrid Summer”, prepared by a journalistic team in 2000. The audience of “Ohrid Summer” last night had the opportunity to enjoy short excerpts from concerts of top world artists who in recent decades with their performances have left a strong mark on the festival such as Leonid Kogan, Andre Navara, Jose Carreras, Igor Oistrakh, Stefan Milenkovic, Simon Trpcevski, Georgi Bozhikov and others.