Matej Jovanovic is the founder of PianoWorldWide; an Instagram account that has clocked up almost 100,000 classical music-loving followers in just over a year
©Zoran Jovanovic Maccak/Rawсветлопос
The internet can be a nasty place.
Never has it been so easy to abuse others online as it is today.
All you have to do is visit the comments section of a popular account's latest post on social media and, interspersed with positive comments, you'll see a fair amount of derogatory, hateful, nasty comments. It's become the norm, unfortunately.
Thankfully, pianist Matej Jovanic has managed to create one of the most positive, warming, music-loving communities that we have seen on the internet: PianoWorldWide.
The Instagram page has amassed just over 85,500 followers in its first 15 months, and they’re fast approaching 100,000 with no sign of letting up.
With a feed full of inspiring stories, classical music jokes and brilliant performances from pianists past, present and future, it’s no wonder the page is drawing in new classical music fans every day.
“We are trying to present classical piano music as something that is interesting, something that contains every emotion. Sometimes we can laugh, sometimes we can just enjoy its pureness.“ That’s Matej’s view of the page he has founded. Scroll through the page’s feed and you’ll see he’s hit the nail on the head.
With more school music departments being cut or underfunded in recent years, Matej’s page is a welcome sight. And, thankfully, classical music is rising in popularity after it feared burning out completely during the end of the last decade. From August 2018-2019, Classic FM radio’s listening numbers rose by 760,000, with 50,000 of those new listeners being 15-24 year-olds. In addition, orchestral film music is now the fourth most popular genre in the world. The signs are looking good for our beloved genre. Matej wants to continue the trend. “My main goal is to promote classical music and quality music in general,” he explains. “I want to reach people who can start loving it!”
Matej himself is an up and coming pianist. He currently studies at the Paris Regional Conservatoire and is being taught by Jasmina Kulaglich.
Listen to his performance of Maurice Ravel's Jeux d'eau below.
”I began my education in my hometown of Pancevo, Serbia before working with Professor Janko Djokovic in Belgrade. Currently, I am studying at Paris Regional Conservatoire. Since last year, I have been focusing on piano recitals, which led me to my recent recital tour in Europe back in September. The tour started in my home town of Pancevo. A few days later, I gave concerts in Mola di Bari, Verona, and Vienna before finishing with a concert in Radovljica, Slovenia, near Lake Bled.
[My next recital will take place on] 18th April 2020 in the beautiful Fryderyk Hall in Warsaw, in collaboration with Presto Agency. Our next tours are planned for the beginning and the end of summer 2020.“
What’s next for PianoWorldWide?
”We are constantly thinking about new ideas on how to grow. The goal is to grow our reach to as many piano and music lovers as possible.
We already have 2 other Instagram accounts; @ClassicalMusicWorldWide (20k+ followers) and the newly created @WorldWideGuitar. Our vision is not only to stay on the web but also to create concerts and tours, share music with everyone – without genre borders.“
For piano music-related humour, videos and news, follow @PianoWorldWide on Instagram.