Aleksandar Vojneski is a young violinist whose music education began when he was seven years old in the National Music and Ballet School “Ilija Nikolovski- Lui” in Skopje. His first years of studying the violin were crucial for him not to only develop a huge love towards playing music, but to also choose that his life path would be dedicated to playing the violin.
He is currently studying violin at the Music Academy in Ljubljana, Slovenia, from where he shared with us a part of his impressions of studying abroad, as well as his experiences from his music journey through the years.
- What was your journey that led you here?
-After finishing the elementary music education, I went on to the music high school National Music and Ballet School “Ilija Nikolovski- Luj” in Skopje, in prof. Biljana Veskovska’s class. At the same time, I complemented and upgraded my knowledge and playing technique in the private music school “Pianoforte” in Skopje, with prof. Marina Chado and their collaborator, prof. Vladmir Markovikj, Ph.D. from Belgrade. All the while, I partook in many competitions and music events in our country, as well as in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Italy, Russia… and all of them positively influenced my development, education, experience and knowledge, and they left different impressions on me. However, the one that left the biggest impression on me was the international competition “Eugen Cuteanu” in Timisoara, Romania. I can say that it was the moment when my love towards the violin grew stronger and that stimulated me to go on.
- From what you are saying, it took a lot of patience and discipline to achieve that level of success.
– I will repeat that I was lucky to have wonderful parents who made working with such amazing professors possible, because in this field of work there needs to be a strict schedule and intensive preparations. That is what my days looked like before important performances and competitions. Practice at school, practise at home, and practice at “Pianoforte”. All of that according to a strict set schedule. I have always viewed the international competitions as a way to show the effort put into the preparations, but also as a way for creativity to be expressed in the performance, in order for it to be recognized by a wider audience as well as a wider circle of experts in the field.
- According to your experience, can we say that we can acquire a high quality violin training at home?
– Of course that we can. As anywhere, high quality violin training is available in Macedonia as well. The important elements of this training are the quality of the professors, the personal will to improve and not settle for mediocracy, finding more terminals to help in the upgrading and raising the standard of studying, and a whole lot of personal effort.
- Has the music academy in Ljubljana lived up to your expectations?
– Ljubljana is a city with enormous history and development in the field of music and culture. Here, it is an everyday occurrence for there to be many music events organized. My expectations for the music academy in Ljubljana, although very high, I can safely say that they have been excelled. Quality professors and students from different countries and cultures, a constant support from the academy for developmental opportunities in your field of study- in my case instrumental- violin. Here, I can again say that the preparation I had at home, in Macedonia, and the collaboration with the professors from “Pianoforte” set a very high standard for what to expect and receive, and what my starting position was.