Apollonia Foundation

03.03.2009 No. 10

Synthesis in Vietnam

Macedonian ethno band 'Synthesis' went to Vietnam to give two concerts on February 18 and 28 in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, launching the first cultural promotion of Macedonia in this Far-East country. The concerts were organized in cooperation with Vietnamese conductor Le Fi Fi, who has been working in Macedonia for the last 16 years. This is the first time that a Balkan band goes to Vietnam. “The impressions from the first concert are

wonderful, every last seat was taken and the public shouted with excitement. We also per-formed a song in the Vietnam language; a very famous and traditional song “ says Marjan Jovanovski from Synthesis.

Synthesis combines the roots of Macedonian folk music heritage with contemporary arrange-ments, using full range of origi-nal Macedonian instruments, like kaval, gaida, zurla, tapan, ta-rabuka and tambura. Powerful and explosive, SYNTHESIS is the most exported Macedonian

world music project. The name “Synthesis” was chosen to express the concept of the group, which is to combine traditional sounds with contemporary arrangements to create a musical synthesis. In recognition of the great contribution Synthesis has made for the affirmation of Macedonian music and culture through its numerous concerts all over the world (Japan, Israel, The United States, Italy, France, and many others), in 2006 the Macedonian Chamber of Commerce pronounced the band its Honorary Ambassador of Macedonian Culture. For more info on the band: www.synthesis.com.mk.

Apollonia Foundation is proud to say that we also participated in this project, and helped the band with a donation of 2000€ to cover some part of the costs for their trip to Vietnam. It’s in our believes that cultural heritage forms our individual, local and national identities and that’s why we should respect, celebrate and help promote our cultural treasures, and Synthesis is definitely one of them.

OUR FRIENDS:

www.gevgelija.gov.mk

www.biblioteka.edu.mk

Inside this issue:

Thank you letter from

the Ministry of Foreign

Affairs

2

...International competi-

tion Davorin Jenko in

Belgrade

2

Tour.reg project 3

Association of Artists

from Gevgelija

3

Wine presentation on St. Tripfun’s Day

3

About us 4

Eco calender 4

Page 2 Apollonia Foundation INFO

At the request of the Embassy of Republic of Macedonia in Bucha-rest and in cooperation with Apollonia Foundation, a few select companies from Gevgelija participated in the fundraising Christmas bazaar which took place in Bucharest in December, last year. “Noel”, “Vipro” and “Jostela” gave their products for free and all the money collected from the sales were given to the charity fund for children with special needs. Part of the products were given as a Christmas present to 43 children from the village Urzikuca, near Krajova, who are attending schools where they learn the Macedonian lan-guage and represent the smallest generation of Macedonians in Romania. Here is the thank you letter that Apollonia Foundation recently received from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of the Republic of Macedonia in Bucharest, where they express special gratitude and appreciation for the support and the contribution that the Foundation showed for this event.

Young and talented musicians from Gevgelija win first prize at the International competition Davorin Jenko in Belgrade

Three children from Gevgelija, young and talented musicians, along with 600 other musicians from all over Europe, participated in the International competition Davorin Jenko in Belgrade, and came home with remarkable results. Andonov Gorge, who had been playing piano for only one year, won the second place in the category A of the piano solo discipline, even through he was the youngest in this category. The piano duo Ivan Gavrilovski and Jovanov Ice won the first place in the category B of the piano duo competition. All three children are extremely talented musicians with a very good sense of rhythm and melodic moves. They are students in the class of prof. Ljubica Ulisheva from the musical school Vaso Karajanov Gevgelija. We are glad to say that Apollonia Foundation supported these children with a donation of 22.000 denars, for covering the cost for their accommodations in Belgrade.

Their participation in this contest was also organized by the Association of Musical and Ballet Educators of Ma-cedonia, in Gevgelija. We hope that this achievement will be an inspiration for all the other talents, and for the people responsible for in-vesting in them.

See: www.msdjenko.edu.yu

Thank you letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

On the occasion of St. Tripun’s day on the 14th of February in Gev-gelija, and in the frames of the project “The route of the wine”, promotions and degustation of wine from Gevgelija was held. The wineries Rigo Im-peks, Jostela and Plodomaks presented their best products to the custom-ers in Gevgelija. The presentation was held in Motel Vardar, and organiz-ers of the event were the wineries, the Foundation for Local Development - Gevgelija, and Apollonia Foundation. “The route of the wine” started last year and this project has been realized with cooperation between the mu-nicipality of Gevgelija and partners from Greece.

Page 3 Apollonia Foundation INFO

Association of Artists from Gevgelija Tour.reg project

The professors from the High School Josif Josifovski from Gevgelija, who were part of the international Tour.Reg project, returned from the study visit in Bad Ishal - Austria with very good impressions of what they've seen and learned there. They visited classes on catering, hotels, marketing and tour-

ism in the best tour-ist school in Austria - Salzkammergut, and also made a presen-tation of Gevgelija and the tourism here to the students that learn there. The main goal of this visit was for our teachers to get familiar with how tourist schools

work in Austria, in particular the educational programs and materials, managing and administrating of the tourist schools, and also how tourism is organized in Austria.

Wine presentation on St. Trifun’s day

In the exhibitory par-lor of Apollonia Hotel there is continuous affirmative exhibitions that began four months ago, of art made by the artists from Gevgelija which is organized by the Association of Art-ists from Gevgelija and Apollonia Foundation.

The art attracted a lot of people in the hotel and many of the paintings were sold to guests staying in the hotel. For better achievement of the main goal of this exhibition - affirma-tion of Gevgelijan artists - a cata-logue with all the artists from the association was published.

Apollonia Foundation made a donation of 18.000 denars for this purpose.

This exhibition will continue throughout the whole year.

ECO CALENDAR

Preservation and resurrection of the cultural and historical heritage

With the contract for strategic cooperation that Apollonia Foundation has with the Museum of Gevgelija, we are involved in the projects for systematic exploration on the archeological place Vardarski Rid:

There is a special place in the facilities of Apollonia Group which is given to the museum for their needs, especially for the first phase of preservation of the arti-facts found on Vardar Hill;

* Participation in financing the project for dislocation of the monument of Liberty from Vardar Hill to a new loca-tion;

* Participation in financing proper literature about affirma-tion of Vardar Hill:

- One of them is the monograph “Antical coins from Vardar Hill” from Boban Husenovski

* Financing marketing projects - making copies of the artifacts found on Vardar Hill:

Copy of the figure Siren - integral part from the bronze dish Autepsa.

Copy of silver coin with the character of Aleksander the Great.

Financing the presentation of artifacts found on Vardar Hill in the exhibitory parlor of Apollonia Hotel.

Аdress: Gevgeliski Partizanski Odred 1 1480 Gevgelija R. Macedonia

Тelephone: 034/ 213-222 Fax: 034/213-223 E-mail: snezana.dimitrova@apollonia.com.mk fondacija@apollonia.com.mk

Apollonia Foundation

* If you want to add some interesting information for our next Eco calendar send us an e-mail. Thank you.

FUTURE EVENTS

* 5.03.2009, 7 pm Hotel Apollonia

Concert of classical music from the class of Ljubica

Ulisheva

* 5.03.2009, 10 am Day Center for children

with special needs Concert for the children -

on the occasion of Woman's day

* March, Apollonia Hotel Exhibition of

Toni Shulajkovski

Exhibition

Toni Sulajkovski

Classical concert for 8th March 19h Apollonia

Hotel

Lets all plant our future!