How music connects with culture
October’s emerging artists concert featured two violinists with a shared Macedonian heritage, writes Holly Haisman
In partnership with Wollongong Art Gallery, Inspire Music Australia presents a monthly Emerging Artist Concert Series featuring leading young musicians.
Aptly titled Across the Seas: A Macedonian Duo, October’s concert featured two emerging violinists with a shared Macedonian heritage: Eva Bogoevska, a concert violinist from Skopje, North Macedonia, and Violeta Shopova, an Australian Macedonian concert and orchestral violinist from Sydney. They performed alongside Gracie Francis, a New Zealand collaborative pianist and a 2026 graduate of the C.V. Starr Doctoral Program at the Juilliard School in New York.
Music is a way of bringing people together. Across the Seas was a perfect example of this, with an audience of more than 200 in attendance.
Guests included his Excellency Stojanche Kitanoski, Ambassador for the Republic of North Macedonia, and his family. Two Shellharbour city councillors attended: Rob Petreski and Lou Stefanovski, vice president of the Macedonian Orthodox Community. Board president Peter Lozenkovski, committee leader Peter Dimoski and Father Tome Mladenovski also represented Wollongong’s Macedonian Orthodox Community.
The concert featured works by famous classical composers such as Mozart, and Tomislav Zografski, a Macedonian musician and composer. Zografski wrote pieces combining classical music with music from his past, incorporating complex folk rhythms contained within traditional songs.
L to R: Violeta Shopova and Eva Bogoevska. Photo: Ironbark Photography
I found listening to Zografski’s compositions particularly special, as it encouraged me to reflect on my own Eastern-European roots and the importance of remembering the places from which we come. As such, this concert was not only a celebration of music, it was a celebration of culture and connection.
In the 1960s, thousands of Macedonians were employed at Port Kembla Steelworks, settling in the nearby suburbs of Cringila, Warrawong, and Coniston. By 1972, the first Macedonian Orthodox church was built in Wollongong.
As well as running Sunday services, it offers a Macedonian language school and traditional dancing classes. The Illawarra also has Macedonian soccer teams, a Macedonian theatre, and even a Macedonian radio program every Sunday afternoon. According to the 2021 Census, the Illawarra has the third largest Macedonian community in Australia, with almost 7000 residents of Macedonian ancestry.
More than 200 people attended, including Republic of North Macedonia Ambassador Stojanche Kitanoski. Photos: Ironbark Photography
The community has shaped our city – a fact reflected in the ambassador’s closing speech:
“I really like the title Across the Seas. I think it’s a very fitting one. A few generations ago a lot of Macedonians crossed thousands of kilometres of seas to Australia to build a new home…
“They created new homes here, they raised families here, they helped build this city, they helped build this wonderful country and in doing that they became Australians.”
After the concert, audience members enjoyed an assortment of Macedonian biscuits and burek served with buttermilk (which I learned is a staple of Macedonian households). Thank you to Pece and Anita from Burek@Pece’s in Cringila.
The next concert, Through the Ages, will feature two pianists from the Southern Highlands on Thursday, November 5 at Wollongong City Central Presbyterian Church from 11am-12:30pm.
Inspire Music Australia is a non-for-profit organisation and entry to the emerging artist concerts is by donation.
Photo: Ironbark Photography
About the writer
Holly Haisman has recently finished an arts degree at UOW, where she majored in creative writing and sociology. She is now completing her honours year in sociology (and venturing down a lot of rabbit holes). In her spare time, she enjoys going on long walks and attempting to learn the violin.
