Kostadin Bogdanoski showed promise as a violinist but his family could not afford to buy one, so his father Svetozar stepped in. Svetozar is now an award-winning violin maker, and his son a professional musician.
ADVERTISEMENTSelf-taught violin maker Svetozar Bogdanoski, from North Macedonia, made his first instrument for his son, Kostadin.
At the age of seven, Kostadin showed promise as a violinist but the family could not afford to buy the boy a violin. So trained painter Svetozar took matters into his own hands and crafted him one himself.
More than three decades later, Svetozar is an internationally renowned, award-winning violin maker, and Kostadin a professional musician.
Svetozar has twice been recognised by the prestigious Violin Society of America in their annual awards, with a Certificate of Merit for Tone. He hand crafts his masterpieces alongside his wife Marija, herself a violinist, and their colleague Tatjana Miseva, a fellow painter.
The trio source maple and spruce from Bosnian forests for their instruments, some of which are copies of instruments by famed violin makers such as Stradivarius or Guarneri.
Although Svetozar and his wife have made more than 700 instruments over the years, some costing tens of thousands of euros, he says no two instruments are exactly alike.
"Each violin has something specific and unique," he said. "They differ from each other just as people do."