Under the arches of “St. Sophia” marked 35 years of existence of the Chamber Orchestra of JMM

In a relaxed sound environment, the Chamber Orchestra of the Musical Youth of Macedonia “Sasha Nikolovski – Gjumar” last night at the “Ohrid Summer” performed a series of admiring interpretations of works by Vivaldi, Respighi, Tchaikovsky, Holst, Dvorak, Brahms, Grig, Saraste, Ivanov and Heydrich .

The impressive music under the arches of the church “St. Sophia”, the subtle and precise performance of the program under the baton of maestro Borjan Canev are the result of strong inspiration, youth, creativity, and above all, the professionalism of young highly educated artists. The soloist of the evening was the young flutist Bogdana Bushevska who performed the composition “Gypsy Chants” by Pablo de Sarasate.

With this traditional concert, the JMM Chamber Orchestra celebrated its 35th anniversary. It was founded as the first segment of the JMM Summer Music Camp in Ohrid in 1986.

Thirty-five years, it is like building a house and you think that one or two floors are enough, but with the help of the great young masters, we have reached the 35th floor. The chamber orchestra is now a respectable soloist known worldwide, and I think that means more to those who have been part of it so far, and that is over 350 musicians. Many important and great memories, many socializing, socializing, learning from each other, building a career …. Many of them are already respectable and very famous Macedonian musicians, not only here, in the Macedonian Philharmonic and the National Opera and Ballet, but also abroad, said the President of the Musical Youth of Macedonia, Aleksandar Gerasimovski.

The conductor of the evening, Borjan Canev, said that a special program was made for the concert on the occasion of the jubilee, which is a sublime of all the past years, of all Macedonian conductors who led the camps of this chamber ensemble in Ohrid, starting from the founder, Fimcho Muratovski, through his students, Gorjan Korunoski, Sasha Nikolovski-Gjumar, Vanja Nikolovski-Gjumar, Canev himself, Miroslav Spasov, Elena Mitrevska, Oleg Kondratenko ….

– We were very motivated, and to be honest, my heart is full of emotions. I hope that this will continue in the future as well, because at the root is the future. These young people need help. As always, the Musical Youth of Macedonia is one of the few that does that, and of course “Ohrid Summer” as an institution that gives them support to be able to realize what they plan, added maestro Canev.

As a sign of gratitude for the overall support given by the National Institution “Ohrid Summer”, the Musical Youth of Macedonia last night presented a plaque to the director of this institution, Natasa Popovic.

– It is a great pleasure to encourage and support young musicians because music is life for artists. The support and cooperation with the Chamber Orchestra of the Musical Youth of Macedonia lasts for three and a half decades and of course they will continue, said Popovic.

This ensemble is the first and only of its kind in Southeast Europe and is composed of students at the Faculty of Music in Skopje, but also guest musicians from other countries. More than 350 young musicians were part of this unique ensemble that over the years has imposed itself on the music public not only as a necessity, but also as a performing ensemble with high professional qualities.