Their personal qualities have brought them great professional success. These are the stories of our successful people that we publish in the column “On the ladder of success”. Fakulteti.mk and the Educational Center of “Pivara Skopje” show you the way to the stars through the “Skills for Success” training.

Due to the fact that music was all around me, my focus was on it. I dreamed of being on stage, communicating with the audience, singing, but in what form, I still didn’t have a clear picture, says opera prima donna Vesna Gjinovska-Ilkova about her musical beginnings, which through hard work and sacrifice turned into a brilliant opera career.

Vesna Gjinovska-Ilkova is the leading dramatic soprano in the country. She is said to have a sophisticated piano, flawless vocal technique, enormous musicality, charisma and strong stage presence. Her debut on the stage of the Macedonian Opera and Ballet in 1996 was in the role of Michaela in “Carmen”.

In addition to her intense performing career, she has a significant teaching activity and top young singers are already graduating from her opera singing class at the FMU in Skopje. For her performing work so far, she has won a number of important awards and recognitions, such as “13^th November” (2002). , “Golden Lira” (2009), “Boris Hristov” (2001), “Hans Gabor Belvedere” (1996, 1998), Person of the Year (2005), Ambassador of the Chamber of Commerce (2006) and many others.

– Without work, there is no success. There are obstacles, there are people who will try to dissuade you from your ideas, intentions… But you always need a strong belief in yourself and a projection of work for the next few years. The plans I have now are also my challenges – says Djinovska-Ilkova.

Art has always been present in her family

Born and raised in the Skopje neighborhood Prolet, art was always present in Gjinovska-Ilkova’s family. As a child, she was very temperamental, full of energy and always positive. She traced her musical beginnings through children’s choirs, singing with the Ramadan Shukri mandolin orchestra and for a short time in the choir of Zapro Zaprov.

– My roots come from the Macedonian painter, ethnographer, folklorist and lexicographer Panaјot Gjinovski. As a child of parents with Galician roots, it is inevitable that I possess a sense of aesthetics, music and art in general. In addition, my mother had a beautiful voice, uneducated , but with a beautiful velvety color, and my father, although an economist by vocation, was a great lover of art. We visited exhibitions, we constantly went to cultural events. Nurturing my love for music, my parents enrolled me at the age of 7 in the lower music school in Skopje – adds Gjinovska-Ilkova.

The meeting with Milka Eftimova and the first school touch with the opera

Since the department of opera singing did not exist in the junior music school “Ilija Nikolovski-Luj”, Gjinovska-Ilkova, as a student with an absolute pitch, received a suggestion to start playing a certain stringed instrument, which was the cello. Although she was completely in love with this instrument, the meeting with the legendary teacher of solo singing Milka Eftimova opened her horizons for the first time about the potential of her vocals and the need for him to be educated.

-At a meeting with Simeon Guguloski in 1986, otherwise the champion of the Macedonian opera, when he heard me sing, he took me to Milka Eftimova, a professor of opera singing. That’s how I had my first school contact with opera. That was the transition from primary to secondary school. Then I had the biggest dilemma whether to continue with music. I decided to continue anyway. I gradually got into work. I got support from my parents, and also the freedom to decide independently – Gjinovska-Ilkova recalls.

Eftimova was my only mentor in my life

The influence of Milka Eftimova in the development of Gjinovska-Ilkova as a singer is crucial. She was her mentor for 8 years, precisely during the period when Gjinovska-Ilkova was “conquering” the singing craft and thanks to Eftimova, she came out of the academic waters as a built singing product and later a teacher.

– Regarding the faculty, I had no doubts that I would continue at the Music Academy in Skopje, where I had an excellent professor – Milka Eftimova. She was my only mentor in my life. I am grateful that she guided my voice correctly and there was no damage. In my work, the voice can be destroyed very easily. In such situations, there is no turning back. There is no replacement, as with another instrument. Together, the self-confidence in singing is also lost. In this way, many potential singing careers are extinguished – advises Gjinovska-Ilkova.

Debut on the MOB stage in 1996, in the role of Michaela in “Carmen”

A little later after graduation, Gjinovska-Ilkova got a job at the Macedonian Opera and Ballet (MOB), after previously working under contract in national theaters outside Macedonia. While studying, she traveled following countless concerts of world opera stars.

– In parallel with the performances here, I was a guest in almost all the theaters of the former Yugoslavia. Later I worked in theaters in Bulgaria, Turkey – Aspendos – Antalya, Tirana. I sang prima parts everywhere. I also worked in Denmark, Aalborg Center, Copenhagen. Those were long exhausting tours. I was away from home for two months. And always, in some small part of my brain, I had caution and discipline regarding my voice. Daily practice and work on yourself. All this through recommendations – adds Gjinovska-Ilkova.

That year 1996 and her debut performance as Michaela in “Carmen” are just the beginning of the wide treasury of roles that Gjinovska-Ilkova will play in her career and which she says she entered with maximum seriousness and preparation.

– I debuted with the role of Michaela in “Carmen” in 1996. The guests were Sergey Dubrovin in the role of Don Jose and Jelena Vlahovic in the role of Carmen. I was really in love with my boyfriend Ljubomir, who later became my husband. I went through all that euphoria very easily, without any particular worries. But, I note, I was in love. A year later I became a mother. I had to be organizationally prepared in order to succeed in the realization of the activities – concludes Gjinovska-Ilkova.

Prepared by: Nikola Petrovski