ENSEMBLE FOLKLORIQUE ALBANAIS
North Macedonia is a southern European country located in the central part of the Balkan peninsula. Without access to the sea, it shares borders with Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Kosovo and Albania. It occupies approximately the northern half of geographical Macedonia, which also extends into Bulgaria and Greece. The country is mainly mountainous and has about fifty lakes.
North Macedonia was one of the successor states to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, whose independence it declared in 1991 under the name "Republic of Macedonia". Due to a name dispute with Greece, it was not until an international agreement, reached on 12 June 2018, that the country was renamed the Republic of North Macedonia.
Due to its position in Europe, this territory has experienced numerous occupations and migrations, the most striking being the Byzantine age, the arrival of the Slavs in the 6th century, then a five-century long Ottoman domination. These presences have shaped a culture rich in influences. In addition to citizens belonging to the Macedonian people, the country has significant Albanian, Turkish and Roma minorities.
Albanians are the largest minority in North Macedonia, accounting for a quarter of the country’s total population behind Macedonians. Albanian-speaking Macedonians are constitutionally recognized as a minority and have specific rights. Albanian is one of the country’s official languages and is mainly concentrated in the northwest of the country, between Kumanovo, Tetovo and Struga.
The Albanian National Folk Ensemble, created on 6 March 2018, bears witness to this cultural richness and geographical location. He gave his first concert, in Tetovo on November 16, 2019, before thousands of spectators. The success was immediate. The group tells, in its show, the great moments of the life of the Albanians in Macedonia: the carnivals, the marriage of Galičnik, the festival of the grape harvest, the marriages or the departure under the flags.
The music offered to spectators, in support of the dances, is of exceptional quality. Polyphonies vary according to the ethnic groups that sing them. They are three or four-voice.
They are sometimes interspersed with instrumental improvisations. The clarinet plays the role of soloist and the lute that of drone. The violin or the accordion support them. Slow and sad at first, the music moves towards a fast dance tune.
In this Balkan region, located at the crossroads of Greece, Albania, Serbia, and Bulgaria, people have been mixing since ancient times. A "Babel in miniature" according to the writer-traveler Nicolas BOUVIER, who crossed it in the 1950s, telling in "the use of the world" that one raised his glass of raki there in turn to the health of Turks, Greeks, Albanians, Bulgarians and so on.
With the Albanian National Folk Ensemble, you will discover Europe with the flavors of the Orient and above all the immense richness generated by the mix of cultures. The whole gives an authentic and fascinating show that will remind you of the comics of your youth, that of the spectres of Tintin.
