Eva Kelley
In 2008, Michal Fiľo received the title Master of folk art production in the field of music instruments making. He is a maker of musical instruments such as fujara, small pipes and flutes. Using a technique of carving, nitric acid etching or mordanting, he makes traditional fujara flutes from the Podpoľanie region. Published as part of the traditional productions edition in the ÚĽUV, he wrote a short book called Fujary, píšťalky (Fujara flutes, small pipes, 2004). Fiľo participates at notable folk national and international festivals as a maker and a musician and has been awarded several prizes for his workmanship.
As a boy, Fiľo admired makers of shepherds´ items. However, he began making such items as an adult. He started with wooden mugs and spoons and added small pipes later. Achieving a position of a skilled maker, Fiľo became a teacher at the Secondary Wood Industry School in Zvolen to teach students to make the fujara. Now, he is a lecturer at the School of Crafts of the ÚĽUV in Banská Bystrica. With his professional skills and love for the fujara, Fiľo has won recognition as one of the leading makers of the fujara in Slovakia. He has perfect knowledge of the instrument, studied its history and participated in the research of the fujara. Many prominent musicians have the fujara he made.