Unable to afford a violin for his then-young son, Svetozar Bogdanoski took matters into his own hands and painstakingly crafted the instrument on his own. Nearly 40 years later, Bogdanoski’s son is now an acclaimed violinist performing in Barcelona, Spain, and his line of handcrafted, award-winning violins are sought out by top musicians around the world.
“The talent that my son showed at an early age had to be accompanied by a good instrument. Since we couldn’t afford it, I got a crazy idea to make violins — one that would be perfect for him. That is how it started,” Bogdanoski, 69, said.
Based in a humble workshop infused with the smell of varnish and aged wood in North Macedonia’s Veles hill country, the self-taught luthier says he can spend months, even years, crafting a single violin.
Photo: AFP
First, the maple and pine are sourced from the forests of Bosnia and spend years drying before they can be sanded down, shaped and carved into a violin.
Bogdanoski estimates that between 10 and 15 percent of the wood he carefully selects and purchases actually makes the cut in the end. Then comes the complex process of piecing together the instrument and treating the wood, and later testing the violin to make sure the sound is pitch perfect.
“Our obsession, and the goal of our work, is not building violins. Millions of people do that,” Bogdanoski said. “It is about making a sound. That is an eternal search, just like the alchemist’s search for the philosopher’s stone.”
Trained as a painter, Bogdanoski says the art of crafting a violin is a creative pursuit that has little to do with the potentially large financial windfalls that come with making the classical instrument.
“Our work is not commercial, but creative,” Bogdanoski said, while refusing to disclose the price of his instruments.
“If there is commerciality, there is no art,” added his wife and work partner Marija, who is a retired violin teacher.
To date, they have won two awards from the prestigious Violin Society of America, which Bogdanoski said was “confirmation” of their excellence.
Along with the accolades, his violins have been played by prominent classical performers including Robert Lakatos of Serbia and Greece’s Jonian Ilias Kadesha.
However, even with the awards and a sterling reputation, Bogdanoski said crafting instruments capable of new, fresh sounds continues to inspire him.
“Even after three centuries of building instruments, besides the great Italian and Cremona masters, we still have space to search for and make different sound,” Bogdanoski said.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including