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| "Do you take Euros?" |
We played to a very enthusiastic crowd, and as with all of our concerts here in Macedonia, our programme featured a couple of original compositions by a contemporary Macedonian quartet (oboe, violin, viola & cello), backed by our orchestra-- as well as some of our other regular repertoire. The energy was great, and after the concert, we were invited out to a fantastic multi-course dinner hosted by the city's culture summer festival.
We got back to our hotel quite late, and were up early today for a rehearsal on the patio of our hotel. Then, most of us went into town (Skopje), where we explored the Turkish Bazaar-- many interesting shops (both touristy and more traditional), followed by a cold beer on the patio with a couple of members of the Macedonian quartet.
After a short rest back at our hotel, we drove out to the town of Kocani, for a performance at the park as part of their summer festival (Kocani is the City of Culture for Macedonia for 2012). It was an outdoor concert, and we had the double challenge of fending off hordes of mosquitoes, and also turning our music pages, which were clothes-pegged onto our stands to keep from blowing away in the wind. We actually cut our programme short (since we were being eaten alive by the time the concert started), but we played to a fantastic crowd. It was a fun gig, and definitely a memorable one. After the gig, we had another late dinner at a nearby restaurant. Not quite the feast of the previous night, but a good time nonetheless. We could hear the music from a gypsy wedding reception happening above the banquet hall where we were.
I am writing this from the hotel at 2:45 am-- at least it sounds like we can sleep in a bit tomorrow (today), before another long drive and evening concert in Bitola.
-Elizabeth