President Gordana Siljanovska Davkova addressed yesterday evening the ceremonial opening of the 64th edition of the international “Ohrid Summer” festival, which is traditionally held under the auspices of the President of the country.
At the opening ceremony, the artistic message was delivered by the Macedonian violinist Vladimir Kostov, concert master in the Macedonian Philharmonic and professor of violin at the Faculty of Music.
The Minister of Culture, Zoran Ljutkov, also gave his address at the opening of the Festival.
This year’s edition of the “Ohrid Summer” Festival was opened with the performance of the world-famous violinist from Lithuania, Julian Rachlin, accompanied by the Macedonian Philharmonic.
Below is the full text of the address of President Siljanovska Davkova.
Esteemed Art Lovers,
The cultural event of all events, the “Ohrid Summer” Festival, is once again facing a great challenge: for the sixty-fourth time to show and prove that the young Nietzsche was right when he claimed that life without music would be a mistake. So, I ask you: Can you imagine life without art, without the “Ohrid Summer” Festival? Personally, I cannot!
Let me remind you: More than sixty years ago, at the height of the Cold War, here, in the city spread out on the lake, surrounded by the mountain peaks, walled and protected by the Samuel Fortress, the “Ohrid Summer” Festival was born. Hence, the natural monument turned into cultural monument as well.
And… artists from the West and the East, from the North and the South, sent the message from Ohrid: “Beauty will save the world”. Art transforms, reconciles, heals, gives birth to hope for a different, common future. We have witnessed a rich program history, plenty of top artists, numerous well-deserved posters for understanding and cooperation, fellowship with dedicated missionaries of culture. How many national art evenings have been held, how many musical and theater careers have been crowned? How many listeners and viewers have rejoiced? How many hearts have been broken? How much frenetic applause has echoed?
This year we are witnessing a strange symbiosis and synergy. We celebrate eighty years of Macedonian statehood, but also eighty years of Macedonian Philharmonic. The reconstruction of the destroyed homeland was not possible without spiritual food, emotion, creation, passion, love, as the motto says. Freedom fueled the thirst for beauty and happiness. The Philharmonic has made a great contribution to the release of the creative potential of generations of composers and musicians, whose work provided us with a well-deserved place on the European, but also on the world map of art. It has a miraculous power to bridge differences and erase boundaries. I deeply believe that cultural diplomacy is far more powerful than traditional diplomacy. Moreover, it does not rush to win, but nurtures and heals with music and words.
Art is the twin sister of spiritual freedom. Embedded in the music and play are our personal and collective sorrow and joy, our aspiration, our hope. Herein you can find the source and the reason for the passionate singing and dancing. Art is a treasury of individual and collective memory, a stake in the present, but also in the future.
How many times here and there, throughout the city, have the classic and the modern, the old and the new generations, teachers and students met?
It is with childlike curiosity that I look forward to this year’s Ohrid idyll. I imagined this evening, I admit, but also the events that will follow until 20th of August. Still, imagining is one thing, and experiencing the artistic magic is another.
I feel that tonight the virtuoso Julian Rachlin and the Macedonian Philharmonic will open the heavenly musical gate of Ohrid for us to step together towards the beautiful, the good and the sublime.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I have this great honor to declare the “Ohrid Summer” Festival open!
