Hristjan Jordanoski

Q: What are the most fulfilling and most challenging aspects of your job?
I love the moment when we teach youngsters a lot of useful things through non-formal education, but the challenging moment is the lack of motivation among youth to take active part in activities and society in general.

Q: Please describe some examples (things you have personally witnessed) that show how music can contribute to civic engagement among young people. For instance, how through music do young people become more involved in improving their community, or to be more socially engaged and politically active, or concerned about global challenges?

We were part of a Public Space Prilep project in 2018 and 2019 and the best thing was the boosting of self-confidence of young people who were performing in the cultural/musical events in that project. The young people wanted to help and become more socially engaged.

Q: Please describe examples from conversations among young people (things you have personally observed) that show some of the different ways they discuss music.

During our Erasmus+ project, usually we discuss the meaning and the context of 90's and 80's pop, rock and alternative and dance music.
Most of them were not even born back then and it’s interesting to see their curiosity.

Q: Based on what you have seen, how do such conversations change as young people mature (for instance, ages 15-17; 18-20; 21-25)?

The conversations differ in depth, nuance, meaning etc. The older the youngsters are, the deeper the conversations are.

Q: Based on your experience, have discussions of music and society among young people generally changed over time due to different historical conditions? If so, how and why?

For sure. I was born in 1984 and many things changed in the lyrics, context, sound, pop culture phenomena, etc.

Q: Do you sense that a shared knowledge of traditional (folk) songs and dances is changing among young people, and if so, how and why?

I think that nowadays, traditional music and dances are not part of formal education like previously. I graduated from high-school in 2002 and back then they were mandatory (for a grade) in music lessons and PE lessons. Nowadays, a very small percentage of young people know about traditional music, the background, how they were created and how to perform the traditional dances.

Q: What is the most interesting story you can share about how music impacts young people?

I think that young people nowadays form their cliques and friends’ circles according to music tastes. It’s easy for them especially in the transition period between primary and high-school (14/15 y.o). This is one of the most important things when forming circles of friends.

Q: In what ways do you see social media impacting how young people use and communicate about music?

Social media kinda dictates the popularity of certain genres and that affects young people. It makes the new music easily reachable. But the availability of music limits the moment of discussion, the message and technical analysis.

Q: What kinds of discussions have you witnessed stimulated through instrumental music? Can you imagine some new ways this could be achieved?

In some lessons in formal education, instrumental music is played as a background music to relax the students and to give them the feeling of a cosy atmosphere and not being in a classroom. We use it, too, in non-formal education, whenever there’s an evaluation, recap, etc.

Q: What kind of new methods in work with young people would be helpful in your work? What should be the purpose of these methods?

More music-based methods, because it gives the participants a sense of cosiness and not strictness (what we want to avoid).

Also, more team building and ice-breakers would be useful, because not everything that we read in manuals is applicable in reality.

July 2021