I was born in England half a century ago but had a musical education in Lviv in Ukraine, where we lived for a couple of years, as my mother is Ukranian. We moved to London in the early 60's and continued to be involved in Ukranian folk culture. In the 70's I started to play accordion for The Balalaika Dance Group and also for the Society for International Folk Dance. In the 80's I formed a professional group - Troika - which performed the folk music of East Europe. I became interested in many types of East European folk music especially Romanian, and was awarded a British Council grant to visit Romania in 1988. In the 90's I teamed up with John Holden, one of the few virtuoso Balalaika players in the west and we played a variety of venues including a residency at the Royal Savoy in Lausanne. I became involved more and more with jewish 'klezmer' music principally through Merlin Shepherd who was playing with Troika around 1990 and started a community band in Exeter called CITY STREETS which performs the music of East European Jews.

See the links for Troika and City Streets for more information