The general rehearsal of the Western Balkan Youth Orchestra, prior to the starting concert of the five day regional tour, in Pristina, Kosovo, June 21, 2022. Photo: BIRN In Tune: Young Western Balkan Musicians Ready for Regional TourXhorxhina BamiPristinaBIRNJuly 22, 202207:04 Thirty young classical musicians from all over the Western Balkans are readying for a five-day tour of the region, all members of an orchestra set up to overcome the prejudices that bedevil the region.
In a small concert hall at the Faculty of Music in the University of Pristina, Kosovo, Desar Sulejmani, an orchestra conductor originally from Shkodra, Albania, but now based in Germany, waits for 30 young musicians from all over the Western Balkans to rehearse for an upcoming five-day tour around the region.
The general rehearsals will take place the next day, on Thursday, July 21, just before the tour opens at the Bogdani Polis center in Pristina.
These 30 young musicians, the youngest being only 16 and the oldest 29, are members of the Western Balkan Youth Orchestra, WBYO, who have joined forces to overome the prejudices that come from a conflicted past via instrumental music.
“They see each other as musicians and feel welcomed. Being an artist comes from the heart, and their passion unites them,” Pierre Weber, director of the Pristina-based NGO Artium Eudora, which initiated the WBYO, told BIRN.
“The five-day tour starts in Pristina on Thursday and continues the next day in Skopje (North Macedonia), then in Novi Sad (Serbia), Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina), and ending in Kotor (Montenegro) on July 28,” he explains.
Members of the Western Balkan Youth Orchestra rehearsing for their regional tour at the Faculty of Music of the University of Pristina, Kosovo, July 20, 2022. Photo: BIRN
The concert in Pristina is the third concert the orchestra is holding physically, with the first in October 2021, in Pristina, and the second in May 2022, in Novi Sad, Serbia, where 60 young musicians from the Western Balkans played.
Due to its dependency on donors, the orchestra will hold its five-day WB6 tour with 30 members playing different string instruments. In August, 2022, the same 30 plan to tour five cities of Germany.
The executive director of Artium Eudora, Weber, a composer and pianist originally from Luxembourg but who has lived in the Balkans, mainly Kosovo, for around 20 years, told BIRN that the orchestra arose from the European Summer Music Academic, ESMA, organized by his NGO in Pristina since 2012.
Some of the current participants of the orchestra, who are from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia, have been part of the project since its start.
Western Balkan Youth Orchestra conductor Desar Sulejmani (C), during the general rehearsal prior to the start of the regional tour at the Bogdani Polis center in Pristina, Kosovo, July 21, 2022. Photo: BIRN
Dejan Cvetkovski, from North Macedonia, the oldest player in the orchestra, at 29, was one of the first to have started the orchestra, around 2017, when there were only six of them.
“If I hadn’t taken part, I would not have met these many musicians from all over the region,” Cvetkovski told BIRN, explaining how between rehearsals in June 2022, in Pristina, they have gotten closer with each other and understood different perspectives.
“We enjoy the rehearsal and after we meet, we talk about history,” he says, adding that “the language barrier has not been a problem. Personally, I understand Slavic languages and have been participating in ESMA for so long here in Pristina that I have started to understand some Albanian, too”. However, the official language for the rehearsals is English, so all members feel included.
Weber says that one of the main purposes of this orchestra is to “unite youngsters from the Western Balkans and overcome prejudices”.
“This is an opportunity to improve in their instruments, because they also rehearse individually and learn with professionals, as well as in a group,” Weber says. “An orchestra obliges the members to collaborate with each other in trust.”
Two members of the Western Balkan Youth Orchestra rehearse synchronization of their violins during the general rehearsal prior to the start of the regional tour at the Bogdani Polis center in Pristina, Kosovo, July 21, 2022. Photo: BIRN
Natasa Djakovic, 21, a Bosnian Serb from Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, who studies in Novi Sad, Serbia, agrees.
It is the first time Djakovic has joined the orchestra “by accident”, as she puts it, because her professor had suggested she join at the last minute after another player had a schedule clash.
“It has been great,” she says, adding that she is improving her skills as well as meeting new people. “There have been no negative reactions and the purpose of this is to unite all of us and it should not be a problem, on the contrary. If any of us goes anywhere abroad and plays in an orchestra, we will have to play with people from all over the world,” Djakovic says.
While the interaction within the members of the orchestra goes as smoothly as the sounds from their strings, they have not been spared regional politics.
The players from Kosovo will not be able to join the concert in Mostar as they have not been granted a visa by Bosnia, which does not recognize Kosovo’s independence.
“The visa for Bosnia has not been granted,” conductor Sulejmani told BIRN, blaming “bureaucratic issues”.
After receiving a negative response from Bosnia, the musicians from Kosovo also fear they might not be able to get to Germany, but Sulejmani is certain that the visa for the tour “in Germany is indisputable”.
Natasa Djakovic (R) and another members of the Western Balkan Youth Orchestra rehearse violins during the general rehearsal prior to the start of the regional tour at the Bogdani Polis center in Pristina, Kosovo, July 21, 2022. Photo: BIRN
The tuning of the instruments during the general rehearsal of the Western Balkan Youth Orchestra prior to the start of the regional tour at the Bogdani Polis center in Pristina, Kosovo, July 21, 2022. Photo: BIRN
The general rehearsal of the Western Balkan Youth Orchestra prior to the start of the regional tour at the Bogdani Polis center in Pristina, Kosovo, July 21, 2022. Photo: BIRN
The general rehearsal of the Western Balkan Youth Orchestra prior to the concert starting the regional tour at the Bogdani Polis center in Pristina, Kosovo, July 21, 2022. Photo: BIRN
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