Tale Ognenovski

Did You Know?

• Ognenovski inherited his talent from his great-grandfather Ognen and grandfather Risto, both reed pipe players, and his father Jovan, a bagpipe player.
• He began playing the reed pipe at age 7, and his first clarinet was bought with money from his grandmother Mara and mother Fanija, ordered from Celje, Slovenia with help from priest Spase.
• During a 1956 tour of Germany with Ensemble Tanec, he performed 72 concerts in towns including Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Bonn, Göttingen, Munich, and Wiesbaden, all sell-outs.

World War II (1941–1945)

Tale Ognenovski served as a Macedonian Partisan from 1941 to 1945, fighting in the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Macedonia. He was a member of several units, including the Bitola-Prespa detachment "Dame Gruev", the Bitola detachment "Goce Delchev", the "Mirche Acev Partisan Battalion", the "First Macedonian-Kosovo Partisan Assault brigade", the battalion "Strasho Pindzur", the "Second Macedonian Assault Brigade", and the "Seventh Macedonian Assault Brigade". From September 11 to November 4, 1944, he served as commander-in-chief of the first partisan prison in Democratic Federal Macedonia, initially located on the island of Golem Grad on Lake Prespa. Due to German forces concentrated in Bitola and its vicinity, the prison was moved to Resen and later to Bitola. The National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Macedonia were commanded by General Mihajlo Apostolski and were part of the People's Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia under Josip Broz Tito.

Career

Ognenovski won first award at the first regional Bitola Festival of Folk Dances and Songs in 1947, and first award as best clarinetist at the first Macedonia Festival of Folk Dances and Songs in Skopje in 1948. His clarinet playing was noted by the International Folk Music Journal. He received the "11 October" Award, the highest national award in the Republic of Macedonia, in 2003 for his contributions to Macedonian culture. In a 2003 interview, he stated that his CD album "Jazz, Macedonian Folk Dances and Classical Music" confirmed him as the greatest clarinetist of all time and one of the greatest composers in the world of music.

Tour of North America

Ognenovski toured North America from January to April 1956 as clarinet and recorder soloist with Ensemble Tanec, performing Macedonian folk dances such as "Bride's Dance", "Chupurlika", "Sopska Poskocica", "Kopachka", "Shepherd's Dance", and "Soborski Igri", as well as Macedonian songs, Serbian folk dances, and the Albanian folk dance "Shote". The ensemble arrived in New York City on January 20, 1956, and the tour began on January 22, 1956, finishing on April 12, 1956, with 65 concerts in 50 cities. A copy of the programme is available on videocassette at the Library of Congress.

Compositions and recordings

Ognenovski composed or arranged 300 instrumental compositions, which were recorded on 11 LPs, 11 cassettes, and 10 gramophone records by labels including PGP RTB (Serbia), Jugoton (Croatia), Macedonian Radio-Television, and Independent Records (US). His recording debut as a composer came in 1963 with the Galevski-Nanchevski Orchestra on EP 14700 by PGP RTB. In 1965 he formed his own orchestra, and PGP RTB released EP 14711. His debut for Jugoton was EPY-3851 in 1967. His first LP, "Tale Ognenovski Klarinet Svira Ora" (LPY-61143), was released by Jugoton in 1975, featuring twelve folk dances including "Resensko Oro" and "Mominsko Oro". In 1979 PGP-RTB released the LP "Makedonski Igraorni Ora Sviri Tale Ognenovski" (LP 1439), with twelve Macedonian folk dances including "Talevo Svadbarsko Oro" and "Caparsko Oro". The back cover included commentary by Gjoko Georgiev. Macedonian Radio-Television produced the cassette MP 2137 in 1989.