The accordion virtuoso and the great promoter of Macedonian original music, maestro Milan Zavkov died suddenly yesterday evening, at the age of 61. He left behind many top performances and anthological musical works. Colleagues lost an outstanding colleague, and the family lost a wonderful husband, brother and father.

The family is in disbelief and great sadness. For "Women's Store", Milan's brother, the musician Toshe Zavkov, discovers with disbelief that two hours before he died, they talked on the phone.

"I can't believe what happened. We were both on vacation and yesterday was our first day at work. We were together almost the whole day. We talked, made plans related to music. We went for lunch. He was in a very good mood. We were very close and hung out every day. He never complained about having health problems. He seemed healthy and had great energy. Although we were together all day, he called me around 19 pm. We talked for a long time, joked and laughed" - says Toshe and adds that Milan's wife called him two hours later.

"He told me that Toshe is not well and that I should come to them immediately. It was already late. The ambulance at their home declared death. It all happened at once. Milne was in his studio, which is within their house. He was working on his new songs that he wanted to submit to festivals. He came to the salon and just said that something was tightening in his chest. He had his first heart attack, and then the second followed" - Toshe told through tears "Women's Store".

Milan Zavkov started playing the accordion when he was 8 years old. He had his first attempt at the age of 14, when he was part of the orchestra of Gjorgi Dimchevski in the "Mlad Tanec" ensemble. In his early years, Zavkov played in KUD "Mirce Acev". At the time he enrolled in studies, there was no accordion section. Thus, he graduated from the music academy in Skopje, and his main instrument was the double bass. With the octet "Macedonia" he recorded his first record, in 1970 with four dances.

He worked together with the saxophonist Ferus Mustafov and was a long-time member of the group "Macedonian Merak", and later a part of the ensemble "Dance" as a symbol of Macedonian traditional folklore. He is the author of a large number of songs, performed by Violeta Tomovska, Gotse Arnaudov, Efto Pupinovski, Blagica Pavlovska, Aneta Micevska, Lence Kukic и Goran Kukic.

A commemoration will be held tomorrow in honor of maestro Milan Zavkov

Milan Zavkov, the Macedonian virtuoso accordion player and music creator, has died