33rd Interfest 02-11 October, 2024 Bitola, Republic of North Macedonia

The international festival of classical music Interfest – Bitola, which is traditionally held from 2nd to 12th October, originates from 1992. Its initiator and founder, as well as first manager was, Milica Shperovic - Ribarski, pianist and professor at Faculty of Musical Arts in Skopje. Cofounders were: Kiril Ribarski, world renowned trombonist and Blagoj Stefanovski, the manager of National Theater in Bitola. The project was supported by former Minister of Culture, Ismail Guner and sponsors – Zhito Bitola, with Petar Ilievski, CEO, Pelister Construction Company with Siljan Micevski, CEO and Uniprokom with Velija Ramkovski. From 1994 on, the festival director is Kiril Ribarski and Milica Shperovic – Ribarski is the artistic director.
The festival is being arranged under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Macedonia. The festival is also supported by municipality of Bitola and was occasionally supported by Ministries of Education, Defense and Internal Affairs run by Polozani, Tomislav Cokrevski and Blagoj Handziski.
From 2000 to 2005, the general sponsor of the festival was Kometal trade with Trifun Kostovski who, in 2002, donated to the city of Bitola, the concert piano “Boesendorfer Grand Concert 280”
The festival is ranked as an event of national significance.
The program is distributed on eleven festival evenings and is consisted of 13 -15 concerts and musical stage performances (opera, ballet), 2 – 3 theater plays and one night of poetry, where eminent Macedonian poets are presented.  The participating ensembles range from solo performers, through chamber orchestras, to symphonic orchestras and choirs. National Theater Bitola is participating every year with premiere play. A significant number of concerts and balet plays were broadcasted live or recorded by the Macedonian Radio and Television.
Some subsidiary activities at the festival include Master Musical Schools, painting and archeological exhibitions. The Master classes, which are run by remarkable artists – professors of the most distinguished world conservatories, instruct in various practices, such as piano, violin, violoncello, solo singing, trombone, trumpet, clarinet, guitar, etc. In the recent years the Master classes were of a regional character and besides the pupils, students and young artists from Macedonia, candidates from other Eastern European countries also took part.

In the last 18 productions of the festival, over 300 festival events have been performed, presenting artists from some fifty countries from Europe, Asia, North and South America, Africa and Australia, many of which are from the leading world music scene. The festival is held in the facilities of the Institute, Museum and Gallery, National Theatre, the Cultural Center and churches of St. Dimitrija, St. Bogorodica (spiritual music). Some of the concerts are dislocated at Skopje, Prilep, Kumanovo, Shtip, Strumica.
In 2001 Interfest Bitola initiated two significant projects: Regional Chamber Orchestra, with participants from 6 Eastern European countries, and (from 2001 to2005), concurrently with the Festival, the INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION, for performing pianists as well as young pianists, which was the first one of its kind in Macedonia.
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCES
Dang Thai Son, Chai Chou, Stefan Milenkovich, Liviu Prunaru, Marcella Crudeli, Emmy Verhey, Grigori Zhislin, Gabriel Koh Cameda, Per Skareng, Pierre Hommage, Jen-Jen Van, Ke Quing Liu, Maxwell Lee,  Aquiles Delle Vigne, Miny Dekkers, Lubov Timofeyeva,Teresa Trevisan, Filipo Trevisan, Pavel Egorov, Andrea Cardinale, Ayman Musakojayeva, Konstantin Bogino, Ingolf Olsen, Francesco Nicolosi, Massimo Mercelli, Miguel Proença , Guy Leclere, Sermet Huseyin, Marina Tarasova, Sergey Soudzilovsky, Luis Meireles, Diane Andersen, Giovanna Manci, Anatoliy Krstev, Dunja Vejzovic, Anton Nanut, Peter Schulmeister, Amir Tebenikhin, Stefano Bagliano, Andrei Diev, who promoted in 2002 the new Boesendorfer grand concert 280 piano, Anna Ferrer, Carl Ponten, Domna Evnouchidu, Pinar Celik, Boris Kraljevic, Krystian Tkaczewski, Danilo Novakovic, Eduard Kunz, Vitaliy Pisarenko  and many others.
Macedonian artists: Kiril Ribarski, Milica Shperovik-Ribarski, Vaska Bidjova- Gajdova, Blagoj Nikolovski, Simeon Gugulovski, Liljana Zendelska, Zoica Purovska, Zoran Velevski, Milka Eftimova, Boris Trajanov, Valeri Stefanovski, Zorica Milenkovich- Nahoum, Stojan Dimov, Rita Trpceva- Popovic, Sasho Nikolovski- Gjumar, Oliver Balaburski, Blagoj Nacoski, Vesna Ginovska, Ana Durlovska, Igor Durlovski, Duo Gelebesevi, Marija Muratovska, Biljana Jovanovska- Jakimovska, Jasminka Cakar, Meri Kavkaleska- Stoilkova, Marjan Nikolovski, Mihailo Kufojanakis, Todor Svetiev, Vasil Atanasov, Gordana Josifovska, Zoran Kazakov, Ana Veljanovska, Maja Stojanovska, Emil Ribarski and others.

• Opera ensemble of the Macedonian National Theater, ballet of the Macedonian National Theater, Macedonian Philharmonic.
•  CLASSICAL BALLET OF THE MOSCOW STATE THEATER and Male Ballet of Valeriy Mikhailovski from Russia, Ballet ensembles from France, Ballet ensemble from Venezuela.

CHAMBER ORCHESTRAS: Novosibirsk Philharmonic chamber orchestra, Russia, Antonio Lucio from Netherlands, Kamerata Romanika from Romania, Rotterdams Kamerorkest from Netherlands, Dushan Skovran, Jugoslavija, Chamber orchestra of MRT, Regional chamber orchestra of INTERFEST-BITOLA, Sophia soloists, Bulgaria.
CHAMBER ENSEMBLES: Brindisi quartet, England, Minguet quartet, Germany, Quintet Questa, Spain, Trio Jean Paul, Echnaton Trio, Arcis Trio, Atos Trio, Signum Quartet, Minguet Quartet Germany, Trio Tagore, Belgrade Wind Trio, Tempera barocca, Serbia, Trio Luvigan, Slovenia, Trio Academia, Turkey, Quartet Gajdov, Chamber studio Bahus, Wind quintet from Macedonia and others.
CHOIRS ENSEMBLES: Choir of MRT, “St. Zlata Megnenska”, “Choir of the cathedral St. Climent of Ohrid”, “Female Choir of Zaprov”, “Stiv Naumov”
ART EXHIBITIONS: “Macedonian Contemporary Painting”, “Exhibition of Bitola painters”, “XX century painting”, “From graphics to paintings” (Dragan Angjelkovic, Nikola Eftimov, Slobodan Vignjevic), solo exhibitions of: Franko Vechiet (Italy), Milivoje Novakovic- Kanjos (Serbia), Vangel Naumovski, Adem Kastrati, Gligor Cemerski, Sergej Andreevski, Slobodan Vignjevic (Macedonia)
Exhibition “Postal stamps and postal cards collection of Macedonia”, setting by Krasimir Trajkovski, “Icon on Silver”, CD-ROM exhibition
ARCHEOLOGICAL EXHIBITIONS: “Bronze Age”, setting by Dragica Simovska, “Apparition”, author Marija Vasileva, “Rocky Art on Macedonian soil” setting by Dusko Aleksovski
8 POETRY EVENINGS WITH: Radovan Pavlovski, Ante Popovski, Blaze Koneski, Petre M. Andreevski, Jordan Plevnes, Svetlana Jocik, Mihail Rendzov, “Macedonian revolutionary poetry evening”

M-r Kiril Ribarski, trombonist
Director

M-r Milica Sperovik- Ribarski, pianist
Artistic director

 

crp