Dragan Dautovski is a musician who plays a most unusual musical instrument, the prehistoric, 6000 year old, globular ceramic flute – the Ocarina. This instrument, from the Neolithic period, has been discovered during the archaeological explorations carried out in the vicinity of the town of Veles. Dautovski (born in 1957) is a professor at the Faculty of Music Art of the University of St. Cyril and Methodius in Skopje.

“The Ocarina has preserved within itself a testimonial to the divine power of music as the oldest cosmic language", Dautovski told Southeast Europe: People and Culture with unconcealed admiration and devotion.

Dautovski says that the timbre of the Ocarina is almost shocking, knowing, in particular, its age and cultural value. “The audience, both at home and abroad, experiences in a similar way and with a similar intensity the music that comes out of that little hollow ball of clay, which has only three melodic holes. One of the holes is to blow into, and the other two to make music”, Dautovski says.

This musician has mastered more than twenty different instruments. He plays the zurla, tapan, and at the University he teaches kaval, gajda and tambura – all traditional instruments from the region. Dragan has used the tambura (kind of mandolin) to perform some of Mozart’s works. He tells us that the tambura can be used to play nearly all of Vivaldi's concertos, originally written for a mandolin, and that, in addition to Mozart and Vivaldi, he also plays fragments by Schubert.

With traditional music and folklore instruments being the essential mark of the three decades of his artistic pursuits, he performs with many groups and ensembles both on the domestic and international stage.

This artist and pedagogue has been recognised by UNESCO because of his work with traditional music. Dautovski performed at UNESCO'S 60th Anniversary concert in Havana – Cuba in 2007 and at UNESCO's concerts in Nigeria, Africa. He he has led musical groups such as the "Dragan Dautovski Quartet" and "DD Synthesis" and he has performed at a great number of world music festivals in Hungary, Slovenia, Austria, Italy, Germany, Japan, Russia, Australia, Israel, Belgium, the Netherlands, etc.

The “Dragan Dautovski Quartet” has enthused audiences with their exceptionally original reshaping and reformulation of traditional music from the country. They are the authors of the imposing world music record "The Path of the Sun”, which became a bestseller in his home country immediately upon its release in 2001. There is another gem among the quartet’s other albums, the record "Razboj" ("Loom"), where one may find traditional songs such as "Jasna Mesečina", "Uč me Majko, Karaj me".

In addition to all of these engagements, Professor Dautovski caught the attention of the public by his personal, intimate music performance – playing the Ocarina at sunrise, at the site of the prehistoric observatory in Kokino. This world renowned ancient observatory, which is located in the vicinity of the town Kumanovo, was ranked fourth by the North American Space Agency (NASA) on the list of 15 such observatories in the world, right after Abu Simbel (Egypt), Stonehenge (UK) and Angkor Wat (Cambodia).

His next project is titled “The Key”, which, in Dragan's words, will be his life work and is connected with the spherical Neolithic flute and its replica made of glass.