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Artist
Pece Atanasovski Orchestra
10+ albums
balkanfolktraditionalethnoMacedonian
about
Petre Vasilev "Pece" Atanasovski was born on October 25, 1927, in the village of Dolneni (near Prilep), Macedonia, the son of Vasile Ananasov Todorovski. (It was the tradition until World War II for a male child to have his second name his father's, and his last name his grandfather's. Thus Pece is "Petre, son of Vasile, son of Atanas." Since the war, however, custom has changed and everone in a family has the same last name. Pece grew up in Dolnani, in a household with nine other children, and lived there until 1944. As a child, he was a shepherd and attended school only through the fourth grade. After that, he would have had to go to Prilep to continue his schooling and his parents would have had to pay. Even so, he was probably more fortunate than many other boys his age, who never learned to read and write. He began playing instruments at the age of 5 or 6. Many of the men in his family were good musicians on the gajde, kaval, or šupelka, and Pece learned to play all of these instruments, although at first he only played the surla (chanter) part of the gajda. From 1944 to 1947, Pece served in the army, then went to Skopje, where he worked as a salesman for a clothing factory. At this time, he also was able to complete his schooling through eighth grade and even begin study at a music high school. During this period, Pece was active as a dancer in various amateur ensembles around Skopje. He also led his own village's group at various festivals in 1947. At the end of the
