Vlatko Mileski

Q: What are the most fulfilling and most challenging aspects of your job?

The most fulfilling thing while facilitating lessons is bringing the young people to a point to master the material planned for their age, and the most challenging aspect is to work with not so talented children which means you need to invest more time and effort in order to bring them to the level required.

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 more socially engaged and politically active, or concerned about global challenges?
One example I’d like to share is a humanitarian concert for donations for a surgery of a young girl from our city, where a lot of young people who were in bands, together with more popular bands were performing in order to collect donations and to raise awareness about helping each other when it is really needed.

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

I noticed many conversations where, for example, two friends who are performers from different genres discuss music. I can point to one particular example, where two friends were discussing classical rock and turbo-folk music. The one who was performing rock music was pointing out that the turbo-folk performers are limited and stuck with the same repertoire and are limited to the Balkans and they (as rock performers) can perform everywhere. Their repertoire is more contemporary. The other one responded that they earn much more than the first band, because of the popularity of the genre and the different cultural context.

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)?

If we talk about the young people who study music, the conversations change for sure, how the young people grow, their conversations change in a more technical aspect. They tend to talk about mistakes, how they can change the performance to make it better, etc. In general young people tend to talk more about music, what they like and what they dislike in one song. Especially when they talk about covers of older songs. The older age group tends to talk more about music for sure.

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

The discussions now are more focused on the technology and the possibility of digital performance. Earlier, the people discussed music more, from different aspects. Nowadays it’s more about the equipment, its power, the result, the sound, 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?

The only young people who nowadays are aware and know the traditional music and dances are the ones who are members of folklore groups and I think that it’s just about 15-20% of the young population.

I think that the trend is becoming worse because the young people are just consumers of the music/dances and don’t engage in learning or performing.

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

I’d like to share one interesting story- this person, when he studies, he prefers to listen to classical music, even though that person doesn’t prefer nor performs classical music. The only time when he listens to this genre is while studying.

Another example- one of my professors, who’s a musicologist, created a method in which through music he’s helping young people to overcome stuttering. So far, he’s been quite successful with this.

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

Social media has a positive impact on young people nowadays, because it can provide a lot of material for discussion, to listen and to build your attitude and point of view. It can help people share music and learn about new things much more easily.

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

Instrumental music has a positive impact on music students. Instrumental music is discussed as an introduction to any music conversation. 40%-50% of the young people who study music discuss how to master the performance of a given work. The other percentage discuss their dislikes, because this is the percentage who want to perform in front of an audience in order to earn. This group usually performs turbo-folk music.

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?

Most of the methods that I’m using are typical ones used in extra-curricular activities for students who can’t master the material.

I think we need new interactive methods for testing the level of the student’s skills, talent, etc. at the beginning. The ones we use are a bit old-fashioned.

I’d like to suggest new methods for teachers regarding assessment and deciding which student is suitable for either individual or group work.

July 2021