Tunes just keep gettin' harder to find, you know, And tunes don't bring you no peace of mind, you know.
Prehistory: As an embryo (and a while thereafter) I studied classical piano under several teachers including Dr. Reginald Stewart (Academy of the West) and Easley Blackwood (University of Chicago). I reveled in Chopin & Beethoven (for emotional depth), J.S. Bach & Mozart (transcendent beauty), Debussy & Ravel (shimmering tone) and Rachmaninoff (crackling virtuosity).
College girls: In college I burned out on classical music, and turned to pursuing the beautiful women of International Folkdancing until discovering that I actually liked the dancing itself. Soon I was dancing six nights a week (no group on Saturday). A workshop with Mitko Manov (from the Koutev Ensemble) featured 4 solid hours of Boris Karlov's classic D minor gankino horo, after which I simply could not get the tune out of my head. I picked it out on the piano, and played it over and over and over (and over). Several weeks later, I mentioned my experiment to a friend and mused about perhaps trying it on an accordion some time. He replied that, when he moved into his apartment, he found an accordion the closet, and said I was welcome to try and see if it worked ...
What fates impose, that men must needs abide;
It boots not to resist both wind and tide.
Noob: I messed around on the instrument for a while, delighted with the tone color and elegant Stradella bass mechanism, before finding a classmate who also played. He showed me how to unstick a bass button - I had played for a week thinking that the continuous G# diminished chord drone was part of an accordion's basic workings. This development widened my musical vistas considerably. I ardently studied the recordings of Boris Karlov, eschewing all others, practicing as much as 11 hours a day. I figured that, with all my classical training, this folk music stuff would be a snap. I'd master it in two weeks max. Thirty years later, I'm still trying. Eventually, my tastes broadened to other Bulgarian accordionists, then other Bulgarian instruments, then to other Balkan countries, then to the world.
Go West! it's far away: I moved to the West coast in 1980, pursuing the love of my life, and was fortunate to meet, learn from and play with the many avid Balkan musicians there. The Mendocino Balkan Music camp (which became the EEFC) was a revelation and inspiration, although when I first went there accordions were highly discouraged, if not banned outright. I took this rebuff as an opportunity to discover just how incompetent I could be on other Balkan instruments - gaida, gadulka, zurna, prim (the answer: very). Eventually, some combination of my playing and Mark Levy's recently broadened mind (having witnessed accordion/bitov miscegenations on his latest Bulgaria trip) led to me becoming the first accordion teacher at a camp previously noted for its hostility to the instrument. We all grow, I guess. I did the gig several times, most recently in 1995.
The Kerkena Years: For four intense months 1982, I was, for the only time in my life, a full-time professional musician - with the Aman ensemble for their lucrative Epcot center opening gig. My father was a bit incredulous ("You're giving up your computer job to play accordion for Mickey Mouse?") but supportive ("Now that you play both bagpipe and accordion, I'm feeling better about you having moved to the West coast"). Aman's open, sincere and professional attitude toward a wide variety of interesting ethnic genres was another revelation. My attitude changed from simply trying to find music that fit my existing musical taste, to trying to find time to grok a dazzling universe of musical idioms. In particular, Stuart Brotman serves as my role model for how a world musician should approach his task. An inspiring image that comes to mind is watching Mardi Rollow (an exquisite oriental dancer) gamely striving to master the American clogging suite (definitely not her forte) when asked to fill in at the last minute. And, of course, who could forget the Kerkena suite "where the performers are equally accomplished as musicians and dancers" (thanks, Jerry)? Unfortunately, my fiance (now wife) nixed a move to Los Angeles ("ANY other city"), so I bade a fond adieu to the group when the Epcot gig ended. This was probably for the best, since the stress of that gig caused a major rift in the group soon afterward.
Maturity :{|} Since that time, I've attempted to master a variety of musical dialects (Greek, Macedonian, Romanian, Serbian, Texano, Irish), and experimented with many more, but Bulgarian music remains ever first in my heart. I've had the good fortune to play with many fine and inspiring American players of Balkan music, including long term collaborations with Marcus Moskoff, Hector Bezanis, Sonia (Tamar) Seeman, Mary Sherhart and Sandra Dean. I remain ever convinced that mastery of Bulgarian music is only a few short weeks (or months) away.