Self-taught
violin maker from North Macedonia wins international
fame
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[November 05, 2019] VELES,
North Macedonia (Reuters) - Svetozar Bogdanovski built
his first violin 35 years ago for his son Kostadin, then
aged seven, who had expressed interest in taking
lessons.
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Today Bogdanovski's violins are priced at 60,000 euros ($67,000)
apiece and are sold worldwide, while Kostadin is an
internationally acclaimed violinist. His younger sister Frosina
is also a professional violinist.
"I had to create the conditions for him (Kostadin) to develop.
The first condition was having a good instrument, which I
couldn't afford," Bogdanovski told Reuters.
Bogdanovski, a resident of Veles, a town in North Macedonia
about 50 km (30 miles) south of the capital Skopje, ended up
giving up his job as an artist to devote himself fully to making
violins.
His wife Marija - a professor of violin - and fellow artist
Tatjana Miseva also joined him in the new business, which has
now built more than 700 instruments, some of them copies of
instruments made by famous Italian masters such as Guarnerius.
Bogdanovski uses maple wood for the bottom of his violins and
spruce wood for the top, all exclusively from ancient Bosnian
forests. The wood is first dried, then soaked in saltwater for
several years before the building of the instrument begins.
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"Each violin has something specific and unique. That's why no two
are the same, even though each instrument looks just like any other.
They differ from each other just as people do," he said.
Among the international prizes he has accumulated, Bogdanovski is
especially proud of an award one of his instruments won in Italy
against competition from craftsmen descended from violin masters of
Cremona.
He also twice won the prestigious annual award of the Violin Society
of America, in 2008 and 2012. American Rachel Barton, Serbian Robert
Lakatos and Greek Jonian-Ilia Kadesa are among prominent violinists
using his instruments.
(Reporting by Ognen Teofilovski and Reuters TV; Editing by Gareth
Jones)
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