“Panče Pešev” award was somehow at the same time with your concern “Private Music” held in the Museum of the City of Skopje, within Days of Macedonian Music 2018 Festival. Now is looks as it had been planned.
DIMUŠEVSKI: Thighs sort out themselves. You know, if you are honest to what you work on, especially if you are honest in your soul, if you love the people regardless of what they have done to you… and I personally love people and I believe in them, the Universe, not to say God, receives this energy thought that you send and returns it with a smile. Usually, at SOKOM we make concerts for everybody when they round up some period of their work, or we mark anniversaries to those who are no longer with us, and this is how my performance happened. My colleagues asked me if I had old materials that have not been played. Yes, I have, I told them, but I also have new stuff. Why should I have a concert for something that was written some time ago. I don’t wan to go back to old materials, to re-chew them, re-make them, re-store them… I want to go forward. As long as I have music inside me and I am 18 in my mind, I will make new music. That’s how this concert which I called “Private Music” happened, because the music, sound is related to my internal, intimate life events.
BLESOK: Your fellow passenger along this “private music trip” of yours is Ljubiša Kirovski, the reproductive artist, violinist and in this case violist. How did this encounter happen?
DIMUŠEVSKI: Kirovski is a classical musician. He is not used to experiments, to performing free pieces. Ljubiša is the kind of educated people who do not like displacements. An extremely good violinist, whose “second girlfriend” is the viola. When I wrote those several pieces and told him that I would make new music, I asked him to listen to the demo and see the notes. I told him — if you like it, OK, if not we might see each other for some future project. I don’t want to force musicians at all and torture them with performances as some composers who present themselves as geniuses. They torture the musicians and they only work on effects with the instruments. Thus, there is no match. And Ljubiša liked this. He told me: this is what I want to play. He even asked me to write several pieces for piano and viola in this style for the concert on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his work with Maja Šutevska-Kirovska.
BLESOK: As an author, do you prefer to create as inspired or following the orders placed by some artists?
DIMUŠEVSKI: It is the best if you work as inspired, but it is difficult to fulfill this. To implement it. It costs a lot of money, there are not many orchestra, you have to choose musicians, pay those people that will rehearse a month or two… It is difficult to find money, and everybody feeds a family at home, pays the bills and other things. Therefore, it turns out that it is better to work by order since in most of the cases you could also collect money for your work, at least partially. Although, to be honest, almost everything that I do by order is done free of charge. This is some kind of an ignition to move me. I like it when somebody tells me to write him a piece. When I get a request to write a duo for bassoon and flue for somebody. It is a provocation for me to sit down and work. Three years ago we created a trio called AURA — piano, keyboards and bassoon. I wrote the complete music for them and there were four-five concerts around Macedonia. Whether you have the money or not, it is spent. The author, in his vanity, wants to hear his work being played in a hall… At least that is what I do — it happens that I hide in a dark corner as if I am gone and I look at the reactions of the people. Because, if they see me, hypocrisy is immediately visible — they either say secretly that it is no good, or they tell you “bravo”, while they don’t think so or they just laugh. It is good if they don’t know that you watch them to see the real reaction. When I see that there are smiling people, that they feel good, that everybody’s silent for at least five minutes after leaving the hall, it means that you have managed to take them to your world.