Boyana Fabel is the founder of Balkan Beats & Gypsy Madness Orchestra, now named “Balkan Collectif” and she remains the first ever Macedonian to represent Macedonian music & culture at the Singaporean National theatre on Water – The Esplanade.
More about it:
The first such concert with Macedonian music at The Esplanade theatre in Singapore happened during the Covid season, the year 2021 and on the 23rd of October under the title “A night of Macedonian Music”.
Boyana was asked by one of the senior show producers Mr Xianghui Tan to perform a Macedonian music night, (while becoming one of most demanded vocal coaches in Singapore back then in 2021)
She got approached by the crew as mentioned above and was being recommended by a musician friend Andayoma, who recommended Boyana as an exceptional vocalist and teacher residing and teaching in Singapore.
Boyana then officially became the first ever Macedonian musician & artist to perform traditional Macedonian music in Singapore at their National Theatre stage, located at the heart of Singapore, central Singapore (The Esplanade).
The concert was happening over two days both Friday & Saturday respectively, so to say during the weekend.
Some of the feedback of the audience that we gathered was truly exceptional and we are trying to get hold of those recordings & video testimonials as a proof and something to be shared in these blogs.
The performance and its impact:
This very first performance of Boyana left many speechless and highly emotional because her interpretation was truly exceptional.
Boyana has a way of singing very emotionally, making people highly moved and emotional and oftentimes with tears in their eyes.
Such was this concert.
She is an excellent performer, owning the stage and carrying a depth of emotion in her voice that very few have.
Many Macedonians, Singaporeans and people from former Yugoslavia came to support Boyana. Her colleagues from Singapore, Mexico, Cuba, Macedonia, Malaysia were there as well, including from other parts of the world too, people she worked with, making the night unique, exceptional and truly great.
The show went live as Boyana was recording some of the songs while performing and it went to hundreds of viewers connecting from all over the world congratulating her on this success, while she was singing a very known Macedonian song: “Jovano Jovanke” one that Boyana has an excellent way of performing as she is a born Macedonian knowing this song is very liked by foreigners and is considered exceptional and sung by foreigners all over the world, those who love Macedonian and Balkan music as well while spreading this song and its uniqueness all over Singapore:
While trying to gather some heartfelt testimonials and people’s reactions and impressions from the first ever Macedonian concert in Singapore, we are sharing a short performance from the event below:
The event became very popular even amongst her students from Singapore as they heard this music for the very first time and really liked and enjoyed it.
Her many years student Candice Loo, recorded one of her performances of the song “Eleno Kjrerko” which we share with you here:
You can hear the beautiful melody of the flute, Boyana’s tender voice performing one of most tender Macedonian songs sung from a mother to a daughter, the mother asking her lovely daughter who is she writing memoirs to, to which Elena responds that she writes her love letters to her newly found seeming husband trying to find and reach to him via a love letter at one of most beautiful towns: Edrene near Ohrid Macedonia.
Take note of how Boyana and the flute player are filling all the spaces of the huge stage & the ether (look above at the video) while the sounds so romantically powerfully spreads around floating over the water and echoing around the Esplanade 🙂
To be continued…
