Few musicians in our region have bequeathed us such a rich cultural heritage as Vlatko Stefanovski. In this exclusive interview for CorD, we discuss his creative journey, accolades, cooperation with greats of world music, his new album, memoirs, and the concerts with which he will mark the 50 anniversary of his career.

Few musicians in our region have bequeathed us such a rich cultural heritage as Vlatko Stefanovski. In this exclusive interview for CorD, we discuss his creative journey, accolades, cooperation with greats of world music, his new album, memoirs, and the concerts with which he will mark the 50 anniversary of his career.

Vlatko, we congratulate you on the massive achievement of a 50-year musical career! When you look back, how would you describe your journey from the beginning to your current status as one of the region’s most influential musicians?

— I don’t like to talk about successes. Listing successes is unrewarding and pathetic. I would refer to my fascination with what I do. I’m still fascinated by music and the guitar as an instrument. I’m thrilled that I’m able to perform, to travel, and that I’m in relatively good health and can thus still be active. Success isn’t something that feeds me, it’s something that comes despite me.

Other people decided that I should succeed, specifically the audience. What’s important to me is that I see that same boy who was obsessed with the idea of making doing music when I look back. I can still see him sitting in the yard in Skopje’s Taftalidže neighbourhood, trying to produce expensive sounds on a cheap instrument. And that discipline of making bands at that time was so exciting! Create a band with your generation and try to perform in public. Not just to stay in a garage or a shed with your ideas, but to perform at school, in the city, in the country, not to mention playing abroad. That’s what feeds me, not successes. If I start listing the albums we recorded, the kinds of tours we had, everywhere we’ve travelled, that gets boring.

Success isn’t something that feeds me, it’s something that comes despite me. Other people decided that I should succeed, specifically the audience

And carving out your own place under the sun, for your craft, for your love and passion, that’s success. My friend Miroslav Tadić says: “When I fly on a plane and find myself surrounded by strangers, and when someone asks me what I do for a living and I say that I play the guitar and make a living from it, that’s success”! A man should be proud of that status. Success is being satisfied with what you do and what you’ve achieved in life. A little girl neighbour of mine asked me a while ago: “Uncle Vlatko, are you happy?” I thought for a second and said, “that’s a difficult question, but I can say that I’m satisfied, and that’s enough.” Happiness is an illusion. One sad news item that you read in a newspaper or one stupid message is enough to upset your equilibrium. Perhaps you have a fine balance for a while, but then comes a time of imbalance, the dynamics of life. You don’t have comprehensive insurance on that balance, or on happiness. And it is in that poetic sense that happiness is an illusion.

Music is a universal language. What is it to you?

— For me, music is the quickest link to connect with the universe, with some cosmic balance. Perfect harmony exists in the universe, in that chaos. Music can also be chaos. From notes, tones and sounds. Organising that chaos, those frequencies, and making that organisation of sounds say something to us and mean something emotionally. Frequencies that touch my heart, that’s music.

You stated recently that the neck of your guitar familiarises you with the universe, but also with people…

— In looking at that neck for over 50 years, I’ve been seeking balance, meaning and solutions. I believe that a man who is engaged in metal crafting, say someone who makes a tool, is also seeking meaning in his tools.

The painter looks at the canvas and seeks meaning when he paints, or while he paints. I believe that all creative people seek meaning through their work, and also search for answers to those countless questions that surround and burden us.

You were born in Prilep, where you stayed until the age of three. You say that it’s thanks to this that you “have a permit” to play the blues. How does industry inspire musicians?

— Yes, I found that connection because Prilep is a tobacco city, Tobacco Road. That thought crosses my mind by chance… I’ve been in Seattle, in Philadelphia, in New York, and in Rotterdam. I’ve also been in Rijeka, in Pula. I think young people are a little frustrated in those industrial cities and big cities. They are buried under physical pollution, but also social pollution. In their search for salvation, they form bands to express their frustrations. It’s much nicer to cause a din on your amp than to drift the tyres of your car. It’s also better for the environment, for the neighbourhood, and for our mental and spiritual state.

Let’s turn to Robert Johnson, Paganini, Bach, Jimi Hendrix and his Purple Haze. Why are top performers throughout music history said to have made pacts with dark, demonic forces?

— You mentioned Robert Johnson and Paganini. And I will mention a detail from the Milorad Pavić novel Dictionary of the Khazars and the hero of that book who talks about the devil’s ‘prstomet’. The Devil’s ‘prstomet’ is a sixth finger, an imaginary one, of course. It is the finger that helps you to be the fastest and best. Someone from my band once said “You have the devil’s sixth finger” because I can reach some rather difficult musical phrases and parts on the guitar neck. We all try to reach something that’s unreachable. To go to the next level and climb, like in a video game. But not everything is about virtuosity… We came into this world to grow spiritually. If we don’t grow spiritually, nor can we grow professionally. That’s accepting life as it is, accepting the people around you, changing the things you can change, and coming to terms with those things that you can’t change. As I enter my elder years, I realise that a person shouldn’t rely too much on cognitive reasoning, on that which is imposed on us by reason. Rational judgement doesn’t help in art, but rather mental restlessness, or peace, or inner passion. That inner impulse, to hunt down some things, to head after them, to realise them. On yes, I have a wicked idea, and I’ll solve it by consulting intuition, talent, respecting all obstacles I come across and trying to evade or overcome them. Spiritual growth is what follows us, what is given to us. And it’s good that this is the case…

You’ve recorded almost 40 albums. The album Kao Kakao exploded back in 1987. What was it like to create during those years?

— That had a very strong impact, strong energy. Powerful inspiration. And a bit of survival. The struggle to be or not to be. When it comes to the album Kao kakao, it was a creative explosion and the salvation of the group Leb I Sol…

Is a formal music education essential for someone who has talent and practices hard?

— When it comes to formal education, my late brother, Goran Stefanovski, the famous Macedonian playwright and professor, would say: “I can’t teach you to be an artist. I can teach you a trade. And what you will make yourself is up to you, the artist”. I’m not an opponent of formal education, although I didn’t receive a formal education in music. That’s why I needed a lot longer to master something. Those who have a formal education can reach a solution by plane, while I had to walk, through thorns, which isn’t recommended. But there’s no recipe to become an artist. If you want to become a craftsman, there is a methodology. And you have to provoke yourself if you want to become an artist, to call out yourself. I recommend that young people don’t wander; that they go to school, learn the basics of music, harmony, melody, counterpoint, to read notes.

You launched your solo career in the middle of the 1990s. How did you find the courage to take that step after the great success of the band Leb i Sol?

— I found it restrictive in the band. I couldn’t sell some crazy, unusual ideas to my colleagues at that time. And I decided to head off the beaten track, into the unknown, to go astray. Even if I failed. I also tried various things out of curiosity, trying to make something that wasn’t expected of us. Well, that’s a double-edged sword – it’s either a hit or a miss. In terms of material security in the 1990s, that was a critical juncture for me. I got married, had a baby. And I started thinking about a solo album that would be completely unpredictable, as an experiment. There was no certainty of success, quite the opposite. That was an extremely uncertain risk. You can’t always play like that. But, at some point, you have to pluck up the courage to do something stupid, unexpected, different. You have to be ready for that. As Salvador Dalí said, the most important thing is to disgrace yourself. You can’t follow the beaten track and play it safe. In art? No way! All the greats took the riskiest roads.

It used to be important to record a good album, to have a tour, to generally deal with me; to be good, not to say the best. And even in a social sense, not only in our musical environment, to have a good attitude towards things. It wasn’t politicians on the front pages, but rather musicians

I need to be able to recognise talent and sincerity in someone’s music. I don’t need someone’s ingenuity; their calculated dexterity. Honest, innocent awkwardness is dearer to me; something that’s been made for the first time. Just like the Beatles. Every creation of the Beatles is a universe in and of itself. That’s because they experimented and took lots of risks. There are followers of trends and there are trendsetters. The critics had no idea what Jimi Hendrix was doing with his guitar. They weren’t mature enough back then to understand what he was doing. Nobody sounded or looked like Hendrix. And the audience followed him like sheep to a shepherd. And now everyone is pretending to be clever. Now everyone indulges the audience. That’s not art; that’s the worst mistake. The audience must love who you are, because you’re a trendsetter. The audience can’t tell me what I will play. On the contrary, I will tell them what they should listen to.

If art is meant to testify to the time in which the artist lives and creates, is it necessary for the artist to be a moral person; to advance along a path of virtue?

— Never confuse the work with the artist. That’s because an artist can be a rascal, a gambler; he can be Dostoevsky, he can be indebted, promiscuous. If you boil Miles Davis down to a man who used cocaine, who walked around with a gun and furiously drove his Ferrari around New York… His work is great, but his character was what it was. If you boil John Lennon down to a man who was addicted to heroin, then you’re totally mistaken.

An artist is just a human, with all the human frailties, faults and fears. I tried to keep my private life out of the media. The media are inquisitive; they would love to rummage around one’s bedrooms and closets. That’s not really my cup of tea. Of course, values exist that it isn’t good to humiliate, disrespect and compromise. Love, freedom – those are the main two words. Freedom of spirit, body, movement. Love for plants, animals, people, children, the universe. Love, universal love.

You’ve received numerous accolades and awards for your contribution to music throughout your career. You performed in 2013 with the London Symphony Orchestra (Miroslav Tadić and Teodoski Spasov). Could you share your impressions of that with us? What does it mean for an artist to find himself in the same group as the likes of Deep Purple and Pink Floyd?

— I must admit that it meant a lot to me. While I was waiting to appear on stage, I once again saw that 11-year-old boy that I once was, sitting in the yard, playing an acoustic guitar. The road was long, and I again looked to that little boy who was yearning not for success, but for music, for the guitar; to create something beautiful and to experience that artistic satisfaction.

If the Himalayas exist, if the Mount Everest of artists or musicians exists, it was right then that I climbed to its summit. There are few people who haven’t had a formal education and perform with that orchestra. There are almost none.

How did it come about that the members of Kings of Strings met? How did the idea of teaming up come about?

— That was a great adventure; three guitarists from different backgrounds. One Westerner, Tommy Emanuel, a country and western fingerpicker; one gypsy jazz musician from the Netherlands, Stochelo Rosenberg, a genius on the gypsy jazz guitar; and little old me, the boy from Skopje’s Taftalidža neighbourhood. And those are moments when you cross instruments, exchange life and musical experience, worldviews; when you share taste and knowledge. When you see how people conduct them selves and how much they practice during the day. That was all a big school for me.

Concerts commemorating the 50th anniversary of your career have been announced to take place in Skopje on 14th December, in Belgrade on 16th December and in Zagreb on 18th December. What are you preparing for us?

— I will try to channel my entire life’s journey for that one evening. I won’t make a documentary about myself, I’ll simply invite the friends who’ve made my career and life more beautiful over the years, and who’ve helped me realise some dreams. That will be an acoustic concert, and later an electric one. And they will be different. I’m not a fan of major spectacles, I don’t like too many lights and stage attractions. I love the magic to happen between the people on stage.

I need to be able to recognise talent and sincerity in someone’s music. I don’t need someone’s ingenuity; their calculated dexterity. Honest, innocent awkwardness is dearer to me

Too much emphasis is placed on production today. Well, I’m not going to watch someone’s light show. Pink Floyd did that 35-40 years ago, when they turned a light show into art. Everything is so predictable today. All those scanners, monitors behind the scenes, fireworks and pyrotechnics – it’s all been seen before. I need to see a man on stage who knows something and who feels something. Give me a little knowledge, skill and a bit more emotion. If you can throw me some emotional medallion, I’ll thank you. The concerts that have been most moving to me in my life had precisely that human dimension. Ray Charles in Skopje, a few string players from the Macedonian Philharmonic. His voice and his piano. Pure emotions.

You’re currently preparing your new album, Muscle Memory. Will we hear any of that during the concert?

— Oh yeah, hopefully the album will have been released by then, as I’m approaching the end of production. It will be very interesting. I have some neck-breaking guitar playing, some wondrous stuff.

For the people who follow me, for my fans, it will be a rich chocolate cake of an album. I want to give them a special treat, and to treat myself to a cake for the anniversary.

You’re also preparing memoirs that you plan to publish soon. Will they also come after the jubilee?

— The toughest part will be submitting the material to the publishers, who are pressuring me. I’m almost done, with just a few details left for me to finish. Yes, the memoir follows the jubilee that I’m not celebrating, but rather commemorating. That’s nonetheless an achievement, roaming around forests and mountains for 50 years, around various gigs.

That’s an impossible mission, especially in the Balkans, with its closed roads, borders, roads under construction. Sometimes there’s electricity and sometimes there isn’t. That’s 50 years of serious travel. It’s miles; as they say, it’s not the age, it’s the mileage.

We’re witnessing a veritable flood of tribute bands. How important is it for young people to create original, authentic music? How would you encourage them on that path?

— Bands got old, some died. Only the Stones provide solace… However, on the other hand, all symphony orchestras are actually tribute bands … to Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Stravinsky. And those are tribute gigs and I have nothing against the artistic ones. The problem is that there are increasingly more quick offers with ideas of quick profit. Fast food, fast music. I would hereby encourage young people to borrow phrases and learn from others, from vinyl records, from CDs, from YouTube.

For me, music is the quickest link to connect with the universe, with some cosmic balance. Perfect harmony exists in the universe, in that chaos

But I would encourage them to make new music. The world doesn’t need copies; we need originals. I don’t need someone to perform Dire Straits for me – I saw them play live. Okay, musicians need work and that should be understood. On the other hand, it takes courage and audacity to make original music. And to compel listeners to buy it, to seek it out. I know that’s terribly difficult, but it’s also very sweet. If you manage to offer that audience your taste, your music, and they accept it, then that’s a very sweet victory.

In cooperation with Austrian company Thomastik-Infeld, guitar strings branded with your name and surname will be produced. You are the first artist in these lands to receive this honour…

— I will receive Infeld Strings, Vlatko Stefanovski Choice. I’m really looking forward to that! When I enter the guitar shop, I’m like a pubescent boy from the suburb of Taftalidže. When I see all these toys that I have enough of, but you never say that you have enough. Neither guitars, nor pedals, nor cables, nor amplifiers. That’s always a desire for something more.

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The 1964 Framus Hootenanny 12-string guitar, played by Lennon and George Harrison during the recording of “Help” in 1965, was considered lost for 50 years. It resurfaced and was sold at New York’s Hard Rock Cafe for $2,857,500.

Previously, another of Lennon’s guitars, a Gibson acoustic, sold at auction for $2.4 million in 2015.

Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection

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Sixteen-year-old Serbian violinist Lana Zorjan has been awarded the International Classical Music Award (ICMA) – Discovery Award 2024, also known as the Oscar in the world of classical music.

“Born in 2008, the young Serbian violinist Lana Zorjan has already garnered domestic and international awards and is experienced on the stage with around 300 concert performances. Her notably natural handling of the violin is evident even in highly virtuosic pieces. She conveys a musical personality and has the gift of transmitting her joy of music-making to the audience,” states the rationale for the award given by an international jury of 19 music critics.

The first musician from Serbia to receive the Oscar in the world of classical music, Zorjan began playing the violin at the age of four.

She comes from a family of artists, as her father is an opera singer and her mother is a violin professor.

Photo: Lana Zorjan/facebook 

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Record sales increased by 11.7% to 5.9 million units, marking a 16th consecutive year of growth, according to data from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) trade group.

Topping the list of best-selling records is Taylor Swift with her album “1989” (Taylor’s Version), followed by The Rolling Stones with “Hackney Diamonds.”

While over four-fifths of recorded music is listened to via streaming, vinyl records are making a comeback, with fans viewing them as collectables and a superior sound medium.

The post Vinyl Record Sales in the UK Reach Highest Level Since 1990 appeared first on CorD Magazine.

Cecilia Bartoli’s exceptional career in the world of classical music has brought her numerous prestigious awards and honours, such as several Grammy Awards, multiple ECHO Klassik Awards and the Polar Music Prize, but also the high distinction that is the Order of Cultural Merit of the Principality of Monaco.

Speaking in this exclusive interview for CorD Magazine, the Europa Nostra president stresses that the Venice Manifesto, which was presented in the stunning setting of the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista in Venice, will inspire and guide Europa Nostra’s action over the course of the next decade and beyond. “Today, more than ever, we need to recognise and celebrate what can bring Europe’s citizens and communities closer together. Culture – arts and heritage – are prime vectors for promoting stronger cohesion and social inclusion within our societies. We need to combat fragmentation and even hostility through solidarity and mutual support. It is for this reason that our Venice Manifesto insists that the concept of “European citizenship”, which constitutes the very foundation of the European project, cannot be reduced to its political or economic dimensions.”

Madam Bartoli, it was in May 2022 that you became the new President of Europa Nostra, the European Voice of Civil Society that’s committed to Cultural Heritage. What does this role mean to you?

— As a European citizen and someone who has dedicated most of my life to art and cultural heritage, I feel extremely privileged to have been appointed President of Europa Nostra. I accepted this honour with the greatest pride. I am also delighted to continue pursuing the work of the previous president, Plácido Domingo, for whom I have great respect, and to work hand in hand with our Executive President, Hermann Parzinger, who is an eminent heritage scholar and practitioner from Germany.

Europa Nostra is an organisation that inspires me and enriches my own work. In return, with my multifaceted experience as a performer, producer, facilitator and cultural manager, I hope to contribute to further focusing and amplifying Europa Nostra’s vision and action for the future.

What does “being European” mean to you?

— I was born in Italy, the birthplace of opera, and surrounded by music throughout my youth. Growing up in Rome allowed me to inhale the magical beauty of cultural heritage in its various forms, from architecture and sculpture to music and poetry, on a daily basis. Italy’s magnificent landscapes – its islands, mountains and plains, villages and towns, fearsome volcanoes, rugged coastlines and shiny white beaches, ancient vineyards, olive groves and canals, endless shades of blue in its lakes and surrounding seas – form part of my own cultural inheritance, to which I am intimately attached.

I am delighted to continue pursuing the work of the previous president, Plácido Domingo, for whom I have great respect, and to work hand in hand with our Executive President, Hermann Parzinger, who is an eminent heritage scholar and practitioner

This is also the case to the same extent with my country’s handicrafts, folklore or our exquisite gastronomic heritage, as well as with our more recent achievements, such as high-speed railways, elegant fashion or legendary films. This heritage profoundly marked my thinking, my feelings and my personality. Over the years, I have been fortunate to add additional cultural layers, mostly European ones, to my native one: Spanish, French, Swiss, Austrian, Monegasque and many more. They made me love and value Europe’s shared heritage, which is so utterly diverse, while at the same time so profoundly interwoven. I love Vivaldi and Handel as much as Mozart and Bizet. All this make me feel European and proud to be so. And I strongly believe that many people in Europe feel the same way.

Together with Europa Nostra, you promote the multiple values of cultural heritage as a vital resource for bridging Europe’s past, present and future, and for shaping a better quality of life for Europe’s citizens and their communities. At this time that sees Europa Nostra commemorate its diamond jubilee, what do you see as being the key priorities of the federation’s future action?

— I was so pleased last September to join Europa Nostra’s large pan-European family of members and partners in Venice for our European Cultural Heritage Summit. This was the perfect occasion to celebrate our 60th anniversary and to also reflect on present and future challenges to our action.

The choice of Venice was a deliberate one: this uniquely historic city is, in many ways, so emblematic of the mission of Europa Nostra. Historically, Venetian culture, in all its aspects, spread across Europe and the world. The city itself epitomises both the uniqueness and amazing beauty of Europe’s heritage, but also reflects its fragility and vulnerability, due to the many challenges it faces today.

Europa Nostra, as the largest European network of civil society organisations active in the field of cultural heritage, celebrates and champions cultural heritage as a strategic resource for a better future for our Europe. Cultural heritage is the foundation of the entire European project; it is the essence of what it means to be European. If we want to achieve a more sustainable, more inclusive and more beautiful Europe, we must place culture and cultural heritage at the very heart of our strategies and priorities. Europa Nostra’s task is to become an even more forceful advocate of this key message, together with our many partners gathered around the European Heritage Hub project that is being funded by the European Union. This project includes the creation and empowerment of our new heritage hubs in Krakow, Athens, Lisbon, Nicosia and Venice, with further ones to follow.

It was during the European Cultural Heritage Summit in Venice that Europa Nostra presented its Venice Manifesto, which introduces and promotes the concept of “European cultural citizenship”. Can you tell us more about this important initiative?

— The Venice Manifesto, which was presented in the stunning setting of the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista in Venice, will inspire and guide Europa Nostra’s action over the course of the next decade and beyond. Today, more than ever, we need to recognise and celebrate what can bring Europe’s citizens and communities closer together. Culture – arts and heritage – are prime vectors for promoting stronger cohesion and social inclusion within our societies. We need to combat fragmentation and even hostility through solidarity and mutual support. It is for this reason that our Venice Manifesto insists that the concept of “European citizenship”, which constitutes the very foundation of the European project, cannot be reduced to its political or economic dimensions. We really need to promote the concept of “European cultural citizenship”, which will help strengthen the much-needed sense of belonging to a wider European community and will foster the sense of togetherness that will help us successfully combat and overcome forces that could serve to divide Europe and its citizens.

Europa Nostra is active all over Europe, including in Serbia. What is your message to all people who care for cultural heritage in our country and in the wider Western Balkan region?

— Your country and your region are so rich in cultural heritage: built and natural, tangible and intangible. This heritage reflects millennia of European history and today represents the strongest possible anchor within the wider European family. Therefore, taking good care of this heritage and making it more widely known is crucial for the participation of your country and your region in the process of creating a space where the European spirit, which is based on our shared cultural heritage, is palpable.

Like in all countries, we are naturally aware that your priceless heritage is also often endangered by different types of threats. We stand ready to support all those who are committed to saving this heritage, for the sake of present and future generations.

Rossini is maybe the most European figure who – indirectly – won a European Heritage Award this year and should serve as a role model for all of us!

We are delighted that the integrated conservation of the Bač Fortress received one of our Grand Prix awards back in 2018, when we celebrated the European Year of Cultural Heritage. I am delighted that the person who was responsible for the coordination of this outstanding project, Slavica Vujović, has recently been appointed the new President of Europa Nostra Serbia. We wish her and the entire team of Europa Nostra Serbia, led by Secretary General Vesna Marjanović, every success in pursuing the pioneering and visionary work that was led during the last 25 years by Professor Irina Subotić, who was also a highly regarded Vice-President of Europa Nostra and has become an Honorary Life Member of Europa Nostra.

Last but not least, let me highlight the key role played by our Secretary General, Sneška Quaedvlieg-Mihailović, who was born and raised in Belgrade. She has spent more than 30 years working tirelessly, passionately and forcefully to enlarge and strengthen Europa Nostra’s network all over Europe, including in your region. At this moment when we are celebrating the 60th anniversary of Europa Nostra, we are indebted to her leadership and unwavering commitment to the Europe of Culture and the Europe of Values, which are at the core of the mission that’s promoted by our organisation.

It was in Venice that Europa Nostra, together with the European Union, presented this year’s European Heritage Awards/Europa Nostra Awards, which are considered the European Oscars of Cultural Heritage. One of those awards went to Italian musicologist Sergio Ragni in recognition of his many decades of dedication to the life and work of famous European composer Gioachino Rossini. Being a celebrated opera singer and performer of Rossini’s works, this award certainly warmed your heart?

— All winners of our European Heritage Awards warmed my heart and the hearts of so many of our members and partners who had the privilege of attending Europa Nostra’s award ceremony at the iconic Palazzo del Cinema on the Lido in Venice. These winners cover so many aspects of our heritage: from architectural gems to archaeological treasures; from magical gardens to stunning coastlines and other examples of cultural landscapes; from museums and handicrafts to our musical heritage and other aspects of Europe’s intangible heritage.

Of course, I was particularly happy to see Sergio Ragni appearing on the stage to receive his own award in the category of Heritage Champions.

Rossini is not only one of my favourite composers, who also propelled my career forward from the very beginning, he is also a truly European figure: as a musician, as someone who furthered talent, as an influential arts administrator and a respected figure with connections to the most important political figures of his day. His music was played all over Europe – but also in North America and Russia! – it united artists, audiences and all kinds of social layers in a spirit of community and enthusiasm. Rossini is maybe the most European figure who – indirectly – won a European Heritage Award this year and should serve as a role model for all of us!

I am so happy for this high European recognition for Sergio Ragni, whose work with and for Rossini I have admired for many years. He has done this out of pure passion for decades, and has invested large amounts of money and time into this – while making it all available for free to the general public. Go and visit his museum in Naples, or consult his editions of Rossini’s letters and writings when you have a chance! I very much hope that our European Heritage Award will give further visibility to the work of Sergio Ragni and his Rossini collection, leading to a lasting solution to make this work and collection more widely accessible to all musicians, scholars and Rossini lovers today and in the future.

Your own passion for reviving forgotten operatic treasures is wellknown. You’ve explored a wide range of musical styles and historical periods. Are there any uncharted territories or projects you’d like to explore in your future career?

— It has indeed given me great joy to give new life to forgotten musical gems that I found in archives all over Europe, by bringing them to new audiences of the 20th and 21st centuries. At the same time, I want to share with people what I learned about the lives of great composers and singers of those times, such as famous 18th-century castrato singer Farinelli, and the unique 19th century opera diva and multifaceted artist Pauline Garcia-Viardot and her incredible family, who changed so much of Europe’s cultural and social life.

Classical music builds on communion, giving and taking, shades and colours, soft and differentiated sounds. Classical music exhilarates, providing joy and comfort

Of course, there are today also new projects that occupy my mind, but they sometimes take years to materialise or get discarded along the way. But what I would like to explore in the future – in collaboration with Europa Nostra, among others – is a new project in which music is utilised to further social inclusion in deprived areas. We cannot talk about our common heritage without exerting greater efforts to make sure future generations are aware of it, with a particular focus on those who are not brought to European culture automatically through their upbringing or schooling. They will be among the ones who must continue to care for our heritage when we are gone.

Your exceptional career in the world of classical music has earned you numerous prestigious awards and honours. How important are such public acknowledgements to an artist?

— For me, public recognition is a sign that my voice has been heard, and that the things I feel passionate about and find worthy of bringing to public attention have reached an audience and also met with their enthusiasm. In this sense, they are encouraging and I am most grateful for them.

But it is absolutely vital to awaken the interest of young people in culture, and to help them in their professional career. The Cecilia Bartoli – Music Foundation does this through projects like the CD label „mentored by Bartoli“, or the opera academies we just launched in Monte-Carlo.

Your dedication to educating and mentoring talented youngsters is admirable. This will not be the first time that you’ve been asked how you see the future of opera and classical music in general, in our world of new media and modern technologies?

— I always say that, having survived more than 400 years until now, opera will surely survive a little longer. And classical music is, of course, far older and more diverse. I invite people to open their hearts and minds and take their time to discover it. It is such an immensely wide and varied field that everyone will find something in it that fascinates or moves them!

In light of the great many challenges that have confronted, and continue to confront, Europe and the world, what are your hopes for 2024?

— I hope people will listen to and play more music, especially classical music. Classical music builds on communion, giving and taking, shades and colours, soft and differentiated sounds. Classical music exhilarates, providing joy and comfort. I also hope that people will, more than anything, listen to one another carefully and respectfully.

Photo: Uli Weber/Decca

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The audience will consist of young people, gathered around the community centers in which they socialize on daily basis, finding a refuge and a place that offers professional care, advice and often even employment, thanks to the inclusive programs, launched by a number of local Serbian and also some multinational companies.

The basic idea behind the Notes from the Heart programs, started by Simić back in 2009, and aimed at addressing different types of marginalized groups – from elderly or economically disadvantaged to refugees and people with handicap, is to use this carefully crafted programs, and by sharing joy and empathy through music and art, deliver the message that their audiences are not alone in facing the challenges they struggle with on daily basis. The simple and efficient recipe for making these program reach beyond pure entertainment lies in the paradoxical and unjust fact that show business often gets much bigger media attention than the challenges people are facing on a daily level, and that this attention can be focused into pressuring the institutions to more speedily address and solve their problems, which are often otherwise shelved by the bureaucracy. Notes from the Heart have assisted in this way on occasions such as World Child Cancer Day or World Autism Day and many. many others, achieving tangible improvements in issues related to the specific target groups.

Besides musicians, their concerts were often enhanced by special appearances of actors, ballet dancers, magicians or Clown Doctors – an organization Simić has been collaborating with from their very inception in Belgrade – an initiative launched in Serbia by Bridge of Life and Edward Wayne and inspired by the life and work of Patch Adams. These “Clown Doctors” as they call themselves are absolute magicians in the art of bringing back grins to the faces of children who forgot how to smile, due to prolonged stays at hospitals and grave illnesses they have succumbed to. Besides children, they also work with members of the medical staff and event with parents, for which this kind of encouragement makes an enormous difference.

A special feature of these “November Notes” will be the complimentary tour of the Museum of Illusions, as one of Belgrade’s favorite attractions for the young. The Museum has also invited the biscuit factory Bambi from Požarevac to join the event by providing gift-bags as special sweet treats for the audience, but we trust their favorite gifts will prove to be the photos and selfies in which they will find themselves “hanging upside down from the ceiling, turning up as Midgets and Giants in the enchanted perspective room or being multiplied by hundreds in the Great Hall of Mirrors”

To quote Mr. Simic himself – “Serbia is a home to tens of thousands of people dealing with various forms of disabilities and with ways that these different handicaps reflect to their health, their socio-economic status and the quality of their daily life. This is why with every initiative that we use to highlight their problems or remind people of their hopes and dreams, it is not only them that we are helping, but also all of us, as we all in our special and personal ways deal with the cruelty of the times we live in, and the only way to address this serious mutual challenges is to give chance to empathy, love and solidarity.”

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One of the most iconic rock and pop bands of all time, The Beatles, have unveiled their latest track, “Now And Then”, crafted from an old demo recording and enhanced using artificial intelligence to feature the vocals of the late John Lennon.

“It’s John’s voice, crystal clear. It’s quite emotional. We’re all playing here; it’s a genuine Beatles recording. I think it’s thrilling to produce Beatles music and release a new song the public hasn’t heard in 2023,” remarked Sir Paul McCartney.

The Beatles’ YouTube channel premiered a short film titled “Now And Then – The Last Beatles Song” ahead of the song’s release.

Directed by Oliver Murray, the 12-minute clip offers exclusive footage and remarks from band members, Lennon’s son Sean Ono Lennon, and film director Peter Jackson, who helmed the documentary series “The Beatles: Get Back”.

In the video, Jackson elucidates how his team managed to isolate instruments and vocals from recordings using artificial intelligence, including the original “Now and Then” tape which Lennon had recorded as a home demo in the late 1970s.

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Holiday left employment as a maid to pursue work as a dancer in Harlem nightclubs. At one of those clubs, she was asked to sing. She quickly began singing in many of the Harlem nightclubs and soon established a following of admirers, despite having had no formal musical training.

Holiday’s career began to grow, thanks in part to the interest of John Hammond of Columbia Records, who organized her first recording with Benny Goodman in 1933. She debuted at the Apollo Theater in 1935 and began recording under her own name in 1936.

Holiday toured extensively in 1937 and 1938 with the Count Basie and Artie Shaw bands. While on tour, Holiday was often subjected to discrimination.

Holiday won five Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Nesuhi Ertugan Jazz Hall of Fame in 2004

Perhaps Holiday’s most notable collaborations were with legendary saxophonist Lester Young, who gave Holiday her moniker “Lady Day.” Together, they created some of the most important jazz music of all time. Of her groundbreaking vocal style and delivery, Holiday once said, “I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That’s all I know.”

As both a vocalist and a songwriter, Holiday penned God Bless the Child and Lady Sings the Blues, among others. Her interpretation of the anti-lynching poem Strange Fruit was included in the list of Songs of the Century by the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Holiday’s autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, was written in 1956. She won five Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Nesuhi Ertugan Jazz Hall of Fame in 2004.

Holiday, known for her deeply moving and personal vocals, remains a popular musical legend more than fifty years after her death. Despite personal obstacles, Holiday inspired many with her vocal gifts and continues to be recognized as a seminal influence on music.

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Any overview of the beginnings of the Belgrade Philharmonic simply must start with one of the most important Serbian composers and conductors, Stevan Hristić, who initiated and founded the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, and soon became its artistic director and chief conductor. The first official concert was held on 13th June 1923, but this institution initially recorded modest results, though it was entirely dependent on the enthusiasm of volunteer musicians.

Hristić’s successor, conductor Lovro Matačić, contributed to raising the Belgrade Phil’s performance levels, and thus its reputation. During his tenure, the orchestra’s repertoire included Wagner’s Parsifal and works by Stravinsky, Shostakovich and other Slavic composers. It was also then that cooperation was established with orchestras in the region: the Zagreb and Slovenian Philharmonic, and the Belgrade audience received its first opportunity to hear the Philharmonic perform under conductors Dimitri Mitropoulos and Josef Krips, with pianists Alfred Cortot, Carlo Zecchi, Nikolai Orlov and Nikita Magaloff, violinist Georg Kulenkampff, cellists Pierre Fournier and Enrico Mainardi, as well as vocal artists Zinka Kunc, Bahrija Nuri Hadžić, Melanija Bugarinović, Nikola Cvejić and Josip Rijavec.

Following the halting of operations during World War II, the Philharmonic held its first postwar concert on 7th November 1944, just eighteen days after the liberation of Belgrade. Respected and influential composer and conductor Oskar Danon took over the leadership of the ensemble, and the Belgrade Phil’s repertoire reflected important events of the time – ceremonies, congresses, anniversaries, but also various formal state events.

A new page in history was inscribed in the year 1951, when the orchestra gained official autonomy, was renamed the Symphonic Orchestra of the People’s Republic of Serbia and received a new chief conductor in Krešimir Baranović. During the decade of his tenure as artistic and administrative director, the orchestra solidified itself as an ensemble, established regular performances and performed in cultural centres, schools, cinemas, and even factory halls nationwide throughout Serbia, as well as making guest appearances abroad. It was during this period, in 1958, that Zubin Mehta, great friend of the Belgrade Philharmonic, conducted the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra for the first time, as the laureate of that year’s Liverpool International Conducting Competition.

Baranović was succeeded by Živojin Zdravković, whose name is associated with some of the most successful years in the century of the Belgrade Philharmonic, when it became the country’s most important ambassador of culture and a bridge between East and West. It was during this period that the Belgrade Phil hosted great artists, such as conductors Rafael Kubelík, Igor Markevitch, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Karl Böhm, Leopold Stokowski, Kirill Kondrashin, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Zubin Mehta, John Barbirolli, Rudolf Kempe, Charles Dutoit, Neeme Järvi, Aaron Copland, violinists Yehudi Menuhin, David Oistrakh, Isaac Stern, Henryk Szeryng, Leonid Kogan, Gidon Kremer, cellist Andre Navarra, pianists Arthur Rubinstein, Maurizio Pollini, Sviatoslav Richter, Aldo Ciccolini, Gina Bachauer, Emil Gilels, Yvonne Loriod, flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal and others. Next came more international guest appearances and tours, while significant recordings were made by the orchestra for local record labels, and subsequently for world-renowned record labels like Philips, Decca and Electrola.

Maestro Gabriel Feltz, Chief Conductor Of The Belgrade Philharmonic

I have been collaborating with the Belgrade Philharmonic for seven years and I’m very happy in Belgrade. As the chief conductor of this orchestra, I have one important message: the Belgrade Philharmonic is a cultural treasure of Belgrade and Serbia and it deserves all forms of support, at all levels. The orchestra’s musicians are special people who give their all, displaying every emotion and all of their talent in an effort to preserve their prowess that is of incalculable importance to the culture of a country. I also think the call to hire a new director of the Philharmonic should be implemented as soon as possible, because that will determine the future of this orchestra.

I am very proud of the concert season under the heading ZAuVek [FORaCENTURY / FOREVER], dedicated to commemorating the jubilee, during which we will celebrate the centenary from September 2023 to June 2024. It is particularly important that we will also be celebrating this century of the philharmonic’s pride in the most important European centres, because one of the main events of the centenary jubilee is a European tour of Austria and Germany. The Belgrade Philharmonic will perform in Vienna’s famous Musikverein, which is a great success and a privilege reserved for the best orchestras, then subsequently in Stuttgart, Viersen and Wiesbaden, from 4th to 10th November. At a time when even the greatest orchestras aren’t touring, this is a great success for the Belgrade Philharmonic and I joyously look forward to leading this tour, during which we are performing together with our wonderful Nemanja Radulović.

From the celebratory season, I would single out the first performance on 15th September – the concert “For Tasa” and the performance of Gustav Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 3, which runs for a hundred minutes. Ever since I arrived at the Belgrade Phil, I’ve wanted us to perform one great work in Belgrade, and that will happen on 19th January, 2024, with Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass in B minor, the Hohe Messe, and the guest performer will be the famous Czech Philharmonic Choir of Brno. The Philharmonic performed an entire opera for the first time this season – Puccini’s Tosca – and next season, on 7th June, that will be Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. Last year’s philharmonic marathon, during which we performed all Beethoven symphonies in Novi Sad and Dortmund in just one day, turned out to be a fantastic idea, which is why we will have mini festivals in the new season – all Rachmaninoff’s concertos for piano and orchestra will be performed by the Belgrade Phil on 15th December, together with pianists Marie-Ange Nguci, Olga Scheps and Anna Fedorova. Another exclusive is that the Belgrade Phil will perform all four Brahms symphonies, for the first time that’s been done in the world, on 5th April.

The wars of the ‘90s represented one of the darkest and most difficult periods in the history of the Belgrade Phil, but the new millennium brought this institution under the leadership of Ivan Tasovac, as director, who would soon elevate its status to that of a symbol of high artistic quality and modern organisation. His most important collaborators along the way were his chief conductors, firstly Uroš Lajović, then Dorian Wilson, Muhai Tang and, since 2017, Gabriel Feltz. Outdoor concerts, the highest-attended classical music concerts in the Balkans, have served to demonstrate that the modern, reformed ensemble of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the most successful institutions of culture in the country and around the region.

A large number of renowned international artists perform with the Belgrade Phil today, such as conductors Jiri Kout, Zubin Mehta and Bruno Weil, pianists Nikolai Lugansky, Denis Matsuev, Nicholas Angelich, Elisabeth Leonskaja and Barry Douglas, violinists Ivry Gitlis, Sarah Chang, Renaud Capuçon, Vadim Repin, Sergei Krylov and Nemanja Radulović, cellists Gautier Capuçon, David Geringas, Sol Gabetta, Mischa Maisky, Maja Bogdanović and Narek Hakhnazaryan, as well as many other artists, while the orchestra’s repertoire continues to be expanded and enriched constantly.

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When she was just a little girl, her singing tutor predicted that she would emulate the career of then famous opera singer Zinke Kunc, because she had such a wondrous voice that it was somehow natural for her to become an opera singer. That’s also what her mother and sister thought, but Bisera quickly fell in love with jazz and soul music and soon discovered American jazz singer Sarah Vaughn, who she never stopped loving and listening to. And it was all over for Verdi, Puccini and the rest. She had discovered music as love, as passion, as the only direction to determine her life.

“Music was, for me, a replacement for imagination; the notes carried me to a world of the most beautiful colours, to the blueness of the sea and the greenery of the grass. What I would give to be able to paint what I feel in music!”

She says that she was a poor pupil in school, in contrast to her older sister Senka, who was an excellent student who’d been exempted from taking the matriculation exam and completed her studies in economics. Bisera, in the meantime, was just looking to ensure she achieved a passing grade to advance to the next year.

“Since the time I first became aware of myself, only music existed for me. It still means everything to me today.”

The Veletanlić sisters inherited their talent from both parents.

“Both my mum and my dad sang beautifully. They sang Bosnian songs in the house, because my dad, Mehmed, who we nicknamed Meho, was originally from Bosnia, and they also sang Slovenian songs, because my mum, Rozalija, was originally Slovenian. We called her Rozika. I remembered how the four of us all sang my mother’s favourite song: ’A stone, another stone, turns in the water, only youth is mine, never to return.’”

Bisera is humorous, sometimes cynical in a refined way, and well intentioned, but she is above all an emotional person. You will struggle to coax her into talking about her own successes. And instead of her, it was one of her acquaintances from Belgrade who testified to me that, at the very beginning of her career, Bisera had sung in Germany, primarily in the clubs of American officers, where she wonderfully mastered her craft while working with exceptional musicians. One evening, that same Belgrader, who had been listening to Bisera and enjoying her song, was addressed by a black man, who said: “I hate her. I hate her because she sings and moves like a black woman!” And that was one of the greatest compliments she ever received.

Bisera has long been ranked among the best vocalists in the former Yugoslavia and across Europe. She’s also a distinctive individual whose career has been led by a choice of certain hit songs, setting high criteria for herself. Born in Zagreb, she grew up in Sarajevo and Sisak, then forged her career in Germany and Belgrade. That which she acquired in the home became enduring values.

Both my mum and my dad sang beautifully. They sang Bosnian songs in the house, because my dad, Mehmed, who was nicknamed Meho, was originally from Bosnia, and they also sang Slovenian songs, because my mum, Rozalija, was originally Slovenian

“The way I was raised in the home is also reflected in my life today. It was a classic upbringing that my parents instilled in me and my sister Senka. There are moments from our shared life that I will always remember: on Sundays, we all sat together at the table for lunch and to talk. My parents were pure people, and I mean pure on the inside, because it’s a given that they were clean on the outside. That was passed on to us and we thank them for that. Regardless of how much that doesn’t matter today, sounding dull and naïve to some, sometimes even ridiculous, I’m delighted that I was raised by such pure and honest people, and that I am the way I am. I’m a happy and wealthy person who had parents of differing religions who loved each other in Zagreb, had two daughters, and gave them wonderful names. I am proud of them and of the upbringing I received from them. No matter how difficult it has been to live in accordance with my own principles over recent decades, I haven’t abandoned that which represented my life and artistic choice. Fortunately, I have wonderful friends in Belgrade with whom I have great mutual understanding and with whom I share similar emotions.”

Just as she remembers Sunday lunches, so she also recalls summer holidays with her parents. And one holiday in particular:

“I went to the seaside with my mother, who took her pupils to Zaostrog [a Dalmatian resort town].

A seamstress made me a new bathing suit. In that same Zaostrog, at the same time, my sister was also having her summer holiday. On one occasion, my mother and I sat on the shore and watched Senka surrounded by friends, she was beautiful. The boys were teased her and at one point pushed her from the jetty into the water. I ran, leapt over the jetty and jumped in to save my sister, who actually knew how to swim. But I didn’t know how to swim. I slammed into the water like a stone, sank to the bottom and floated back to the surface. And that was how I learnt to swim.”

Her parents didn’t make announcements about what vocations they wanted their daughters to choose, though Bisera assumes that, like most other parents, they wanted their children to be doctors or something similar in the domain of secure professions. They didn’t remonstrate later, but at the time they weren’t exactly thrilled that both of their daughters had chosen to be singers. Bisera knew immediately after completing economics secondary school that she wouldn’t go on to study at university, because that would just mean wasting time when she was someone who had already chosen her life’s calling.

“I’m surprised I even completed school, given how much I used to skip classes. I would flee school, go to the banks of the river Kupa, play a small transistor radio that I got, blaring music, lying on the grass, with no one to see me… The whole world was mine!

“There was a popular radio show during those years called ‘Mikrofon je vaš’ [the microphone is yours], which provided talented young singers throughout the then Yugoslavia with a chance. When they arrived in Sisak, I signed up and sang, and choose nothing less than the Lullaby of Birdland [a jazz standard]. I was only capable of singing the chorus in English, but beyond that it was difficult to understand what I wanted to say. Listening to me was famous composer and conductor Miljenko Prohaska, who praised my musicality, but the language in which I’d sung was unclear to him!”

Despite her English then being ‘a little strange’, Bisera nonetheless won!

She opted for the more difficult path from the very start of her artistic career, belonging to a strong minority without whom top musical values would not have been created.

“I simply wasn’t interested in anything other than music. I was, and remain, a lover of sound, of music, and for me there was no pursuit of monetary wealth, trucks, houses… I wouldn’t have known what to do with all that. Of course, I have nothing against money, on the contrary, but I’m not one of those who will do anything to get money. While I remain alive, may things stay as they are today. For me to live with mental and spiritual wealth. That is the only wealth that makes a person truly diligent and eminent.”

The borders of Yugoslavia used to be illustratively described as extending from Triglav [the Slovenian mountain] to Đevđelija [the North Macedonian town of Gevgelija]. When Bisera became a measure of value in the domain of popular music from Triglav to Đevđelija, one TV Belgrade director wittily composed the success formula for every programme on domestic television, stating: “You must have Bisera, a cartoon and a BBC broadcast.”

Bisera was highly rated as a vocal soloist from the earliest days of her career, but not as much as she deserved. It was only after applying for a fourth time that she received the national recognition awarded when worthy artists become eligible for a state pension, with that additional monthly income popularly referred to as the national pension. She received a lifetime achievement award at the 2017 Nišville jazz festival in the Serbian city of Niš, while she’s also received two major awards over the last year: the lifetime achievement award of the Association of Jazz, Pop and Rock Musicians of Serbia, which was presented to her by jazz musician Jovan Maljković, the award’s previous laureate. Speaking at the time, he said that Bisera was the greatest singer he’d ever met.

No matter how difficult it has been to live in accordance with my own principles over recent decades, I haven’t abandoned that which represented my life and artistic choice

The second recent accolade is the Special Award of the Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment for her enduring contribution to the musical life of Belgrade. She received the award from new director of Kolarac Aleksandar Peković, who noted that Bisera is an outstanding artist who has had an extraordinary and lengthy career and has done a lot for the city and country with her music, especially for the temple of music and art that is Kolarac.

“I didn’t receive anything for 20 years, then I got two awards in one year. And I got scared. I thought about how they might be expecting me to depart soon, so they did something nice for me. These kinds of accolades would have meant much more to me if I had received them when I was at the peak of my career, when there was no end to my creativity. That would then have served as proof that my time and work were valued. No matter how much a lot of people didn’t understand what I was doing, they nonetheless felt what I wanted to say. But awards were lacking when I really deserved them.”

Bisera’s concerts and music tours are for musical gourmets, for connoisseurs, and they are worth remembering. She first learnt her craft in Germany and made three guest appearances in the countries of the former USSR, where singers from Yugoslavia would go to earn money, but in order to do so they would also try to butter up the audience to the max by singing songs that were originally in English or Serbian in the Russian language. However, Bisera didn’t butter up the audiences.

“I sang for them what I would ordinarily sing; I sang English, sang songs by Elton John and domestic compositions. And I went down exceptionally well.”

Still, a special illustration of her emotional charge was provided by the 2007 concerts that were held in honour of formerly very popular and beloved Yugoslav rock band Indexi. Those concerts were first held in Sarajevo and Zagreb, then in Novi Sad and Belgrade. Just remembering that time presents the danger that her blood pressure will spike and her eyes will water.

“After the war, that 2007 was the first time that I found myself in Sarajevo again. I arrived with terrible jitters, with images from 20 years earlier combining, emotions, scenes from the ‘90s passing through my head, I encountered some people who I hadn’t seen for such a long time. Accompanied by Bata Kovač on the piano, on the bass was Fadil, who had been in Indexi, and I sang Jutro će promijeniti sve [Morning Will Change Everything], which was a favourite song that was originally sung by Davorin Popović. While we were rehearsing that day for the evening’s concert at Zetra [an arena in Sarajevo], the music of Indexi was playing constantly. At one point, all of us, as many as there were of us, all hugged and started crying because we were hurting to heaven. And Davorin was looking down on us from heaven and his voice resounded. When the time came for me to head out on stage that evening, I filled myself up with all the necessary pills – for pressure, for nerves, for the heart… I appeared, bowed to the audience, and a shriek arose. I didn’t raise my head, keeping it bowed to the floor, because I felt myself starting to cry. And I start swearing at myself in the ghastliest way, to calm myself, and the applause didn’t stop. I somehow pull myself together and start singing. And when I sang, chaos erupted.”

With Vasil on stage, my blood cells work, I enjoy myself with him and his band. They are talented, educated, hardworking and I say they are gentlemen musicians

The Belgrade audience also presented a great sense of trepidation for Bisera for many years. She’d previously never had a solo concert in the city where she spent most of her life, and she especially had never performed at the Sava Centre, as she did that evening when she sang in honour of Indexi. And it ended up better than she could have even imagined. The audience gave her a standing ovation that seemed to never end. It was then that composer Kornelija Bata Kovač, who represented the integral spirit of Indexi, testified to me that, of all the concerts on that unforgettable tour, Bisera gave her best performance at that Sava Centre concert.

Today, less than a year after the death of this composer who left Bisera with some of her most beautiful and popular songs – Milo moje, Zlatni dan [My Dear, Golden Day] – Bisera can’t hold back the tears at the very mention of Bata Kovač’s name.

“It was tough for me to get over his parting. Very tough. He was a beautiful being. People like Bata are inimitable. Everything I would say about him is insufficient. I loved him like a brother, and he loved me, he was married to his wonderful wife Snežana, who pampered and looked after him like a baby. Unfortunately, he is no longer with us, and I will sing his songs for as long as I continue singing.”

Bisera also appeared as an actress in famous TV series Grlom u jagode [The Unpicked Strawberries]. Director Srđan Karanović had imagined her specifically playing the role of the girl with whom the main character, Bane Bumbar, would lose his virginity! And later again, when shooting the film Sjaj u očima [Loving Glances], precisely twenty years ago, Karanović invited Bisera to sing the film’s title composition and to act in one episode, as charmingly as only she can.

People forget about you even when you live here, and especially if you don’t. When you reach an age at which you’re less active, they simply strike you off. But that’s who we are: we aren’t capable of appreciating what we have, or of cultivating values

“The reason this exceptional Điđa film didn’t go down as well as it deserved among audiences was due to the fact that it is so beautiful, humane, tender, so pleasant and made with such high art, devoid of swear words and cheap stunts and gags. That film is a precise illustration of what I’ve said about the music that I love and that I don’t abandon.”

Her concerts over the last twenty years would have been unimaginable without the accompaniment of her nephew, composer and pianist Vasil Hadžimanov, and his band.

“He is my nephew without whom everything would be empty. When I say empty, I mean my singing accompanied by someone else who would be correct, but that wouldn’t be “it”. With Vasil on stage, my blood cells work, I enjoy myself with him and his band. They are talented, educated, hardworking and I say they are gentlemen musicians. Vasil will have a Kolarac concert with the RTS big band in June.”

There was a spot in Belgrade during the 1990s called ‘Plato’ [Plateau], in the area between the Faculty of Philosophy and the Faculty of Philology, where audience would come to listen to Bisera and Vasil’s band. Those were evenings that were awaited eagerly, with all spots filled, tickets having sold out in advance.

“There’s that slogan that something is attractive to audiences from the ages of seven to seventy-seven. Those evenings at the Plateau were intended for audiences aged from seven to ninety-seven. Every time when I would sing, some young people would come and beg me to go to the foyer of the college so that they could show me how they sing; for me to listen to them and tell them what to do. During the concert’s break, they would approach my table and overwhelm me with questions. They wanted to talk about music. I also recall some young female professors from the faculty also came, and we would socialise and chat. That was the dark ‘90s and yet we somehow held ourselves together, actually we were held together by the music.”

It is interesting to listen to Bisera talking about the world music scene, when she, for instance, describes the greatness of Stevie Wonder or so wisely interprets how Madonna gained worldwide fame.

“She is an example of someone who had had a wondrous career and didn’t deserve it. I knew she was a bad singer, but I only realised how bad a singer she really is after the Wembley concert where she sang live with Sting and the backing vocalists accompanying her. She really didn’t know where she was or what she was singing, and these people were playing and singing, masterfully of course, which only served to emphasise her ignorance even more. But I take my hat off to her for creating an institution out of nothing. She is proof that, in this business, when you’re capable, you don’t even need to know how.”

It was tough for me to get over the parting of Bata Kovač. Very tough. He was a beautiful being. People like Bata are inimitable. Everything I would say about him is insufficient. I loved him like a brother, and he loved me

Bisera has spent her entire life avoiding public places and scandals of any kind. She has only spoken to the media when she’s had a good professional reason to do so. She jokingly calls herself a free and prominent artist without a job.

Many people, even journalists, thought for years that she was somewhere else in the world; that she no longer lived here.

“People forget about you even when you live here, and especially if you don’t. When you reach an age at which you’re less active, they simply strike you off. I read how they wrote about great jazz musician Duško Gojković. I knew him personally and worked with him. He was a big name in the world of music, he performed with the best, but nobody cared about that while he was alive, and he didn’t live here but rather in Germany. Now that he has left this world, they write about him and seem to marvel in wonder at his biography. As if they are wondering whether it was really true. But that’s who we are: we aren’t capable of appreciating what we have, or of cultivating values.”

With an awareness of how uncertain a stake in life emotions are, Bisera doesn’t abandon hers, because they are the most secure link that she has with the music to which she has become attached. She shows them with her family and close friends, and once also showed emotions towards an unknown man, as was the case with assassinated Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić:

“I was invited to sing at some ceremony when he was already prime minister. We said our farewells and I gave him a big hug because I felt like he was one of my own. That was my only closer encounter with politics, with a politician. Zoran Đinđić was unique and special.”

Apart from music, Bisera has had another affinity for the past few decades: painting. She has had several solo exhibitions, and her paintings have been reviewed by writer and translator Silvija Monros Stojaković, who wrote: “Bisera is the only one who still endures from the bygone times of the pioneers of local music that is neither literally folk music nor the subsequent sociological phenomenon of turbo-folk. She is an original artist who is consistent to herself. That, among other things, is why she sometimes doesn’t sing… Periods without singing can sometimes last an eternity with this resplendent and enduring artist of ours, meaning she also resists…And when she can’t pour her colours into a song, Bisera will grab a canvas.”

Whatever she turns her hand to, Bisera turns it into a work of art. Just as her name is of Arabic origin, she is a synonym for something that’s the brightest, the most precious, the most beautiful.

The post Everything She Touches Turns To Art appeared first on CorD Magazine.

Of all the roles she’s played, she loved Tatyana from Eugene Onegin the most, and has even performed the role in four languages: Russian, German, Italian and Serbian. She also sang it at St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre, receiving critical acclaim with the statement that “such a Tatyana has never previously passed through Mariinsky Theatre”. Famous Russian opera diva and Bolshoi Theatre soloist Galina Vishnevskaya told her: “You know, Radmila, I never received such a critique!”

Francesco Siciliani, who spent 20 years as artistic director of Milan’s La Scala and is credited with having done the most to further the fame and repute of the likes of Maria Callas, Mario Del Monaco and Renata Tebaldi, once told Radmila, but also stated of her publicly in an interview, that she “most wisely managed her career”.

She could have gone abroad, with major opera houses having invited her to join them, but she only ever made guest appearances overseas and never considered remaining resident somewhere else:

“Wherever I went, I could hardly wait to return home. I couldn’t live without my Belgrade, without my neighbourhood that I’d departed from to go out into the world, and to which I always returned.”

Radmila turns 90 this January, and her appearance, demeanour and level of interest in everything occurring in the world of opera, and in her students, ensure that she remains greatly respected. This CorD Magazine interview also provides an opportunity for us to record some of the more important and interesting moments from her rich life.

Radmila’s father, Đorđe, who completed his secondary school studies at the agricultural high school and specialised in vine grafting, managed a nursery in Guča, the small Serbian town that would become famous 30 years after Radmila’s birth, with the establishing of the trumpet festival that is still held remains famous to this day. As the head of the family, he ensured that the members of the household didn’t lack basic things, while her mother, Darinka, cut short her studies at home economics school due to love, wed, and birthed and raised three children. The children were raised from an early age to work in and around the house.

When winter would come and all three of them would gather around their mother, she would sing to them with her divine voice, and Radmila’s older brother, Srećko, would also sing and had an exceptional voice, while Radmila would just open her mouth. She had her first concert in Guča, under the organisation of the Circle of Serbian Sisters, singing to the accompaniment of an accordion. She would also sing for Saint Sava shows at school.

Her father, who originally hailed from the village of Dučalovići in the foothills of Ovčar mountain, was a diligent and wise man whose words of advice have remained with her throughout her life.

“He would tell us never to ignore another person because of the work they do, because by doing so we will only degrade ourselves.” Then, ‘it is far easier to vanquish than to apologise’. And one more that’s worth remembering and sticking to: ‘before uttering a sentence, imagine that you have water in your mouth, so wait to swallow it and only then speak’. We spent the summers with our grandparents on the mountain, while we also had our own plot of land near Čačak, which we would work, and we also had a cow, so I dealt with all the work in the house and on the farm from early childhood. I only had my first proper summer holiday, and saw the sea for the first time, when I married Aleksandar and we went on holiday together.

Wherever I went, I could hardly wait to return home. I couldn’t live without my Belgrade, without my neighbourhood that I’d departed from to go out into the world, and to which I always returned

“I was eight or nine when I learnt to cook. My mother or maternal grandmother would start, explaining to me what to do next, and I would cook and take lunch to them in the fields where they were working. My mother had learnt to sew in home economics school and she sewed for us, and I also learnt to sew as a youngster. I was capable of sewing a costume for myself. Today I still have a sewing machine at home. My younger brother once said that we were ‘privileged children, because we had wonderful parents’. That is the greatest truth and the greatest fortune that we had.”

Among the many photos on the walls of Radmila’s apartment showing her playing various roles, one wall is also adorned with a large tapestry that represents an excellent artwork that she created herself.

“I mostly created that tapestry abroad, while doing guest appearances, working on it during breaks between performances. I also learnt to knit and crochet, while I even spun wool… My upbringing required that a woman know everything that needs to be done in the home. And even today, in these later years, I still do everything around the house, except that a woman comes once a week to wash the windows and doors, and to vacuum. I’m no longer able to do those rough jobs, but I’m accustomed to spending my whole life not being idle.”

Her father’s idea was for his daughter to complete teacher training college, as he was convinced that this was enough education for a girl. He also thought that she should immediately find employment and assist her brothers. Her elder brother graduated from the forestry faculty, while the younger one graduated in electrical engineering and worked as director of the power plant in Čačak.

I only had my first proper summer holiday, and saw the sea for the first time, when I married Aleksandar and we went on holiday together

“I got along wonderfully with my brothers. Unfortunately, during the time of the COVID pandemic, I lost them both in a short period of time. Dad struggled to come to terms with the fact that I’d chosen a different career than the one he’d intended for me, he was constantly afraid about that. He used to say: ‘When are you going to stop spinning in the sky? I’m always worried’. He didn’t like that I was flying by plane so much.”

Radmila Vasović (her maiden name) completed teacher training college in Užice. During the time of her schooling, in 1949, Belgrade hosted a major competition of cultural and artistic societies from across Yugoslavia. Radmila sang as a solo, in a duet and in an octet comprising teachers and pupils. And she won! She was then in her third year of studies, and one Professor Vasiljević, who already knew about her, offered her the chance to move to Belgrade to finish teacher training college and simultaneously become literate in music. That wasn’t possible, as she had a scholarship as a good student, and upon completing her studies she was supposed to move to Tutin to work as a teacher, because a large percentage of the Sandžak population was illiterate. That was a time when the state would decree where the people would work. And yet, given that she was already known as a rare singing talent, the prevailing attitude was that anyone who graduated in teacher training could become a good young teacher, while a talent like Radmila should receive additional schooling.

“Those who decided on my future nevertheless assessed that, instead of Tutin, it would be better for me to go to Belgrade and enrol in secondary music school, as I knew nothing other than how to sing, and only folk songs. Over the next four years, I completed both secondary music school and the Music Academy. And I almost abandoned my studies. I arrived for the enrolment exam, and while climbing the stairs I heard other candidates singing opera arias, and I had absolutely no idea how to do that. I’d heard about opera music in secondary school, but I didn’t know the notes and I didn’t know a single aria. I was heading for the exit when I bumped into a friend from Užice, who nagged me to go back and sing what I knew, and who advised me that when they ask me who I want to learn singing under I should say Nikola Cvejić. And that’s how it was. When I sang what I knew, a member of the committee told the pianist to give me octaves. And they immediately realised how far I was capable of going. They told me immediately that I was accepted and asked me which professor I wanted to be placed with. I of course gave the name of Nikola Cvejić (1896-1987), and that was the pedagogue who helped me the most and meant the most in my career. He and his wife Marija were my second parents. And in my later learning the most precious help to me was provided by pianist Zdenko Marasović (1925-1987).

The Belgrade period of her schooling began in 1951. She sang Mozart’s Requiem with the Academy in 1953, then entered the National Theatre in 1955. It was three years later that Radmila married Aleksandar Bakočević (1928- 2007), the then secretary of the Society for Culture and Education, and in 1959 she gave birth to a daughter, Margareta. She continued singing her roles until the seventh month of pregnancy. Margareta proved to be an excellent pupil. She’d wanted to study acting for a short time, but that was a phase that passed quickly. She graduated, then continued her studies and earned a doctorate in Spanish while she was in Switzerland, where she lived there with her husband, opera singer Slobodan Bane Stanković, with whom she has a daughter, Ksenija, who is also completing language studies. As Radmila’s husband forged his political career and spent many years serving successfully as the mayor of Belgrade, rumours could be heard suggesting he had also been responsible for her successes and accolades.

I learnt to make tapestries, to sew, knit and crochet. My upbringing required that a woman know everything that needs to be done in the home. And even today, in these later years, I still do everything around the house, except the rougher jobs

“He deserves the greatest credit for being always by my side. It sometimes happened that I wanted to withdraw from some contract, to take a little break and spend more time at home with the two of them. However, he always encouraged me to continue. He would say how I’d exerted a lot of effort, that I’d tormented myself a lot, and that was why I mustn’t quit. Perhaps I’d one day regret having missed out on something, and perhaps I’d blame him for having not supported me. I was lucky that my mother was always there to take care of Margareta. My dad once said: ‘I didn’t know that I married both a daughter and a wife! He’d wanted to say that mum was out of the house because of her granddaughter, but he didn’t get angry.”

Radmila and Aleksandar’s daughter was named after the character of Marguerite from the opera Faust, who Radmila portrayed. Her father had given her the name when he went to the municipality to register her birth. The young father had had another meaning for that name in mind. That’s because one of the most beautiful common flowers is known in French as ‘marguerite, and in Serbian as ‘white [white] Rada’, and in English as the common daisy.

She called her husband by the nickname Ale. She loved him dearly and appreciated his exceptional conduct and education.

“We were married for almost 50 years, until he departed, and we never fought. And when he was in the wrong, I would remain silent, and wait for some better opportunity to tell him that he was wrong. I’ve actually never had an argument with a single person. I’ve endured various lies, insults… One of my female colleagues claimed, speaking in front of 10,000 people during one of the Belgrade protests of the ‘90s, that my husband had arranged contracts for me over the phone! I didn’t react. After so many years, she contacted me around ten days ago to tell me that she’d been hugely mistaken about me. What was I supposed to say? To explain to anyone what this job that I dedicated my life to is like, how much time I invested in every premiere, every show, every guest appearance. That story about my husband being a politician and supposedly helping me was so nonsensical that I never wanted to comment on it. I remember on one occasion, in San Francisco, that a critic there wrote that he’d attended my show ‘The Troubadour’ just to see for himself how I’d got there, because it is known that my husband is a prominent Yugoslav politician. And he concluded the article by writing that he’d stayed until the end of the show solely because of me. That was the only time that any critic even mentioned my husband in the context of my work.

“And when it comes to the awards that I received, you should know that I began my career as Radmila Vasović and received my first awards as a young artist with that surname. At the end of the day, do you think it’s possible to influence people in a world ruled by such strict criteria?”

She was a recipient of all the most important awards in Yugoslavia: the October award, the 7th July award, the AVNOJ award, Vuk’s award… In the 1976-77 season. her Norma was proclaimed Italy’s best opera production. She also received awards in Spain, Japan and other countries.

My husband Aleksandar was always by my side, encouraging me to continue. He would say how I’d exerted a lot of effort, that I’d tormented myself a lot, and that was why I mustn’t quit. We were married for almost 50 years, until he departed, and we never fought

The first world opera great with whom she sang was Mario Del Monaco (1915-1982), who made his first guest appearance in Belgrade, in the opera Carmen, back in 1960. Radmila sang the role of Micaëla just a month after giving birth. Later, at the invitation of the Ministry of Culture, the Belgrade Opera was visited by the management of Milan’s La Scala, who awarded Radmila a one-year scholarship.

“I also sang with other greats and had only one goal – to give my all. Several of those foreign colleagues told me that I’d brought tranquillity to the piece. And it was important for me that we understood each other well, that we performed to the best of our ability. Friendships were born of that shared desire. I became friends with most of my colleagues and was accepted in their homes, by their wives. It’s generally the case in that world that if the husband is a singer, the wife goes with him. And vice versa. Together with Franco Corelli (1921-2003), who was the biggest opera star during those years, I sang Norma at La Scala, and that just happened to be for one New Year celebration. My husband came from Belgrade and we welcomed the New Year together, at Corelli’s house.”

When on one occasion she sang Norma in Lisbon, the audience had included the sister of a famous manager called Bingo, who told her brother that she was listening to a singer whom she thought belonged at the Metropolitan. Bingo authorised his agent in Europe to listen to Radmila sing, and that’s how she received an engagement at the world ‘temple of opera’.

It was while she was in America that she met famous Spanish tenor Placido Domingo (1941) for the first time. His wife, Marta, was also an opera singer, but she retired after becoming a mother because she didn’t want ‘other people to raise her children’. Radmila remained on friendly terms with him, and she would often say that he was her favourite partner. When he performed a concert in Belgrade in 2014, this ‘king of the opera’, as he’s dubbed for having performed more than 140 singing roles in his career, he’d looked around the crowded Arena and called out: “Rada, where are you?” And Radmila stood up and declared ‘here I am’, greeting him but remaining in her place. The audience applauded for her to go on stage, but she stayed in her place. She made her last appearance on the opera stage in 2004. She served as a professor at the Faculty of Music Arts in Belgrade, then became rector of the University of Arts. Together with Dr Branko Radović, the then dean of the Faculty of Philology and Arts in Kragujevac, she formed the Department of Musical Arts and the Department of Solo Singing, where she taught and was selected as an emeritus professor. She speaks about her students with pride, to whom she says she was ‘both a parent and a teacher’. She is also grateful to her collaborator at the Academy, pianist Mirjana Tumpej.

At a time when Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito showed great respect and appreciation in receiving top artists from various fields, Radmila was a welcome guest at receptions hosted by his and his wife Jovanka.

Tito would introduce me to his guests and would always say: ‘My comrade Radmila has never disappointed me, neither as an artist nor as a person!’ He liked to occasionally sit at the piano, to accompany me as I sang

“They both showed great interest in cultural events in our country and around the world. Jovanka prepared very carefully for every foreign visit and wanted to learn as much as possible about the history, tradition and culture of the country she would be visiting. Tito would introduce me to his guests at every reception and would always say: ‘My comrade Radmila has never disappointed me, neither as an artist nor as a person!’ He liked to occasionally sit at the piano, to accompany me as I sang. When I saw him at a reception for the first time after I’d given birth, he said to me: ‘Congratulations, I hope your son won’t be called Faust!’ I was proud that we had such a president.”

The Bakočević family received a gift from President Tito for New Year every year, in the form of a basket of drinks and a basket of tangerines.

Nonetheless, this great artist’s most beautiful and precious memories are linked to the opera scene. She spent a full 14 years singing as a guest performer at the Vienna State Opera. She spent a full 25 years making guest appearances at all Italian opera houses – from Milan’s La Scala to Bari in the south of Italy. She sang at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre for an entire month, while the temperature outside remained 37 below. She was healthy and didn’t even get the sniffles. She returned to Belgrade, spent one night at home and then travelled with the Belgrade Opera to make a guest performance in Cairo, where the temperature was 26 above.

When talking about the Belgrade Opera, which was among Europe’s four largest opera houses during that ‘golden age’, she notes with great respect that the greatest credit for that belonged to famous Yugoslav conductor and composer Oskar Danon (1913-2009). Fond memories connect her to world-renowned baritone Željko Lučić, who made his debut for the Opera of the National Theatre while she was celebrating 40 years working on that stage. As she herself says, “Željko is a wonderful man, humble, and I’m very happy for his success”. She also has wonderful memories of one incarnation of Norma that she sang in Paris, when she received a call in Belgrade one morning to travel immediately to Paris and replace Montserrat Caballé, who she was scheduled to sing that evening, but had fallen sick. The singer’s costumes were too big for her, so they brought the costumes of Maria Callas from the museum and she sang in them.

She never liked to see the word diva written alongside her name. She liked to boast about how she sang in factory halls, accompanied by accordion master Dušan Radetić (1923-1967), first singing for the workers a folk song, then a Canzone Napoletana, and finally an opera aria. And they rewarded her with unceasing applause.

“I’m an artist who had a job that she loved. I was lucky that my career was successful, that I had a wonderful family from which I emerged, a wonderful husband, that I have a great daughter and granddaughter, that I was a self-realised and satisfied woman.”

The post Woman Who Wisely Directed Her Own Career appeared first on CorD Magazine.

Few, however, can compete with that of the Titanic violin – the instrument played in April 1912, as the RMS Titanic sank into the North Atlantic Ocean after its fatal collision with an iceberg.

Today, the violin is held at the Titanic Museum in Tennessee, as part of their public display of artefacts and memorabilia from the ship.

But the story of how it got there is not quite so simple…

A wedding that never took place

The now-famous violin was crafted in Germany in 1910, and was gifted to Wallace Hartley of Colne, Lancashire, as an engagement present from his new fiancée Maria Robinson. An inscription on the instrument’s tailpiece read, ‘For Wallace, on the occasion of our engagement, from Maria’.

The sweethearts likely met in Leeds, where Hartley played as a musician in various institutions around the city. Having previously provided musical entertainment on the RMS Mauretania, Hartley was contacted shortly before the RMS Titanic departed from Southampton on its maiden voyage with a request that he become its bandleader.

After his initial reluctance at leaving his fiancée, Hartley agreed to join the transatlantic crossing, hoping to secure future work with some new contacts before returning for his June wedding.

Tragically, the wedding never took place. Four days into the crossing, the Titanic hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic ocean, and sank on the 15 April 1912, taking more than 1,500 passengers and crew members with it – Hartley included.

‘Gentlemen, it has been a privilege playing with you tonight’

In a depiction made famous by the 1997 film Titanic (see above), the eight musicians on board the ship continued to play amid the havoc, as women, children and first-class passengers were loaded hurriedly onto lifeboats.

At maximum capacity, the lifeboats barely had space for half the people on the ship, and as the wooden boats began to depart with seats still vacant, it soon became clear that many of those still on board the rapidly sinking cruise liner would not be saved.

As was his command, bandleader Wallace H. Hartley gathered his seven fellow musicians to play music in an attempt to calm the pandemonium and still people’s fears. Survivors of the ship report that the band played upbeat music, including ragtime and popular comic songs of the late 19th and early 20th century.

One of the popular myths surrounding the Titanic and its historic fate is that the band played the hymn ‘Nearer, My God, to Thee’ in their final moments. Some accounts dispute this, claiming that the musicians were last heard playing Archibald Joyce’s waltz, ‘Dream of Autumn’, before abandoning their instruments.

If the musicians were indeed playing music to the very end, it does seem likely that Hartley would have chosen the hymn as their swan song.

Hartley’s father, Albion, was the choirmaster at the Methodist chapel in the family’s hometown, and had introduced ‘Nearer, My God, to Thee’ to the congregation.

Hartley had also told a former colleague on the Mauretania that, should he ever find himself aboard a sinking ship, the hymn would be one of two pieces he would play in his final moments – a chilling foreshadowing of events to come.

Only three of the musicians’ bodies were recovered from the wreckage, including Hartley’s. A detailed inventory documents the personal effects that were found with him, including a gold fountain pen and silver match box, both engraved with his initials, and a diamond solitaire ring.

Rediscovered in an attic

Despite some reports to the contrary, there is no evidence that his violin was found strapped to his chest in its case. We do know, however, that it must have been recovered, along with a satchel embossed with Hartley’s initials, as a telegram transcript from Maria Robinson to the Provincial Secretary of Nova Scotia reads, ‘I would be most grateful if you could convey my heartfelt thanks to all who have made possible the return of my late fiancé’s violin’.

When Robinson died in 1939, her sister gave the violin to the Bridlington Salvation Army, who passed it on to a violin teacher. The teacher passed it on further, and in 2004 it was rediscovered in an attic in the UK.

Sceptics initially refused to believe that this could be the real thing, assuming that the violin would have been so badly damaged by water that it simply could not have survived.

However, after nine years of evidence gathering and forensic analysis, including CT scans and a certification by the Gemological Association of Great Britain, it was confirmed that this was, in fact, the violin that Wallace Hartley had played aboard the RMS Titanic.

Forensic experts certified that the engraving on the metal tailpiece was “contemporary with those made in 1910”, and that the instrument’s “corrosion deposits were considered compatible with immersion in sea water”.

Sold for nearly a million

On 19 October 2013, the violin was sold at auction by Henry Aldridge & Son in Wiltshire for £900,000 (equivalent to over £1,000,000 in 2022), a record figure for Titanic memorabilia. The previous record was thought to have been £220,000 paid in 2011 for a plan of the ship that had been used to inform the inquiry into the ship’s sinking.

The violin is irreparably damaged and deemed unplayable, with two large cracks caused by water damage and only two remaining strings. Its current owners are unknown, but believed to be British.

As for Hartley, he was buried in his hometown of Colne in Lancashire, at a funeral service that was attended by over 20,000 people, and included the hymn that will forever be associated with him, ‘Nearer, My God, to Thee’.

The headstone of his final resting place includes an inscription of the hymn’s opening notes, above a violin carved out of stone.

Source: classicfm.com, Main photo: dailymail.co.uk

The post The 110-year-old Titanic Violin That Miraculously Survived The Sinking Ship appeared first on CorD Magazine.

South Africa’s national anthem combines new English lyrics with extracts from the 19th-century hymn ‘Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika’ and the Afrikaans song ‘Die Stem van Suid-Afrika’,

‘Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika (Lord, Bless Africa)’ is the official anthem of the African National Congress, while ‘Die Stem van Suid-Afrika (The Call of South Africa)’ was the country’s national anthem during Apartheid.

When South Africa won the Rugby World Cup back in 1995, the songs were as usual heard alongside each other – and the powers-that-be decided to finally acknowledge both songs as national anthems. Two years later, they merged into one song.

Today, South Africa’s anthem is the only neo-modal national anthem in the world, meaning it is the only one that starts in one key and finishes in another.

What are the lyrics to South Africa’s national anthem?

South Africa’s national anthem features five of the most widely spoken of the country’s eleven official languages – Xhosa, Zulu, Sesotho, Afrikaans and English.

You can find all the lyrics below, along with an English translation beside each line.

Source: classicfm.com, Photo: Alamy

The post South Africa’s National Anthem: What Are The Lyrics And Why Are There Two Separate Songs? appeared first on CorD Magazine.

Created by The Music Lab, which is based in Harvard’s Psychology department, the test is part of several games on the lab’s website, including a tone deafness test.

The 20-minute test involves three stages, with each stage testing your ability in the following categories; Beat Alignment, Melodic Discrimination, and Mistuning Perception.

In each test section, quiz-takers are given two musical extracts to listen to, each with a slight variation. But can you tell the difference?

Grab a pair of headphones, find a quiet room, and why not take the quiz now.

Source: Classicfm

The post Find Out Your Musical IQ With Harvard University Test appeared first on CorD Magazine.