Macedonian Philharmonic

The Macedonian Philharmonic was founded in Skopje on 24 November 1944, eleven days after the city's liberation. The first meeting of musicians took place in the home of composer Todor Skalovski, establishing a permanent institution for symphonic performance. The ensemble became a central part of the country's orchestral life. Its new concert building opened in 2017, providing a dedicated home more than seventy years after the orchestra's foundation. Established in 1944, the Macedonian Philharmonic is the national orchestra of North Macedonia and, for most of its existence, played wherever Skopje could house it. That changed in 2016, when the orchestra moved into a purpose-built concert hall of its own — a long-deferred ambition realised more than seventy years after the first players assembled.