On the 6th of June 2019 André performed for the first time a concert in Skopje, North Macedonia. In April 2019 he was interviewed by journalist Branka Kostic-Markovic from “Literatura.mk. Astrorum”, who visited him at his castle in Maastricht. Some parts of the program are in English. If you scroll forward to about 13 minutes, there is an 12 minute long interview with André in English, with Macedonian subtitles. Very interesting to see the Cyrillic alphabet of the Macedonian language. Skopje is the capital of the new country North Macedonia, which in early days, was part of the Yugoslavian Republic. Interesting too is the interview at about 27 minutes (almost at the end) with a sound technician in André's studio. He said that the biggest challenge ever had been the recordings for the Sydney Christmas concert in November 2018. Due to a technical failure the entire first half of the concert had to be recorded again!! Some Australian fans wrote about it on Facebook and they did not mind that the concert lasted much longer! “Astroroom” is a chat room where internationally successful individuals talk about literature, art and culture. These gatherings are held at the inspirational ambience of “Literatura.mk”, an exclusive book store settled at the most famous street in Skopje. The conversations are moderated by Branka Kostić-Marković, a prominent journalist and a musicologist. In this edition of “Astroroom” our guest is the world famous Dutch violinist and conductor André Rieu. Rieu is best known for creating the waltz-playing Johann Strauss Orchestra. He and his orchestra have turned classical and waltz music into a worldwide concert touring act, as successful as some of the biggest global pop and rock music acts.

Els Mercken wrote on Facebook: Skopje is the Las Vegas of the Balkans.

The first impressions of North Macedonia, and the capital Skopje. Photo credits: Els Mercken, Gary Bennett, Vincenzo Viola.