Music & Dance
RUMEN "SALI" SHOPOV & BALKANSKI ZVEZDI
San Francisco, California
Romani/Bulgarian
Master Romani musician Rumen “Sali” Shopov’s musical training took place in the homes and streets of his mahala (neighborhood) in the Turkish-Romani quarter of Goce Delchev, Bulgaria, in southwest Bulgaria's Pirin Mountain range, along the borders of Greece and Macedonia. As a small boy, Rumen began drumming for local traditional processions on instruments made from cans. Because Romani music is not taught formally and has no system of notation, it is passed on from musician to musician, generation to generation. Rumen’s primary mentor was his uncle, Mustafa Kobalishtaliev, the best drummer in the region and the first Romani instrumentalist in the Nevrokopski Ensemble, Bulgaria’s first national folk ensemble. Rumen also learned from his cousin Avdraman Teshovski and Kyril Traikov and Zaprju Ikonomov, the directors of the Nevrokopski Ensemble,.
With the ability to incorporate musical motifs from local and neighboring ethnic communities (i.e., Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian, Greek, Turkish, Kosovar, Albanian, etc.), the Roma create a unique musical synthesis that can please a variety of audiences in many different celebratory, performance, and ritual contexts. Romani music is often characterized as having specific makams (melodic modes), complex asymmetrical dance rhythms, intricate ornamentation and improvisation and spontaneous interaction among musicians and audiences, particularly audiences who participate in communal line dancing.
At age ten, Rumen joined his uncle's wedding band, playing the doumbek, tupan, and barabani, but he soon began playing tambura, a Bulgarian/Macedonian lute. At age 13, Rumen won an audition to join the Nevrokopski Ensemble, and at 18, became the Ensemble's concertmaster. He toured as an ambassador of Bulgarian culture with the group throughout eastern and western Europe, the Near East, and Canada for more than 20 years. During this time, Rumen was also a lead member of several of the Pirin region's best bands: Biljana, Shturo Make and Orkestar Orbita, and was an accompanist to a long list of Bulgaria's most popular folk singers. Now residing in the San Francisco Bay Area, Rumen performs regularly as a percussionist with Édessa and Anoush, and as an accompanist to the vocal ensemble Kitka and numerous West Coast folk dance ensembles. Rumen has also been on the teaching staff of the East European Folklife Center's Balkan Music and Dance Workshops, Stockton Folk Dance Camp, Balkanalia, and Kosmos World Music Camp.
Links
http://www.edessamusic.com/bio/Rumen.htm
http://www.actaonline.org/content/rumen-sali-shopov
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