Roksonaki US Tour 2008: Participant Bios

Ruslan Karin

Musician/Composer/Sound Engineer. Founded Roksonaki in 1990. Ruslan was the first Kazakhstan artist to work in the style of world music, creating original music in which there was an organic synthesis of ethnic cultural roots and influences from rock and jazz. Winner of First Prize in the International Voice of Asia Annual Competition in 1990. Participant in several festivals, including Think Music, Winnipeg, Canada (1991), the Asian Festival, Berlin, Germany (1994), and the Smithsonian Institution Folklife Festival “The Silk Road: Connecting Cultures, Creating Trust,” Washington, DC, USA (2002).

Yerlan Sabitov

Musician. Gifted performer of the Kazakh traditional bowed instrument kyl-kobyz. Yerlan graduated from the Department of Folk Instruments at Kurmangazy Kazakh National Conservatory in 1983. He has played with various Kazakh ensembles, including Kulansaz, Adyrna, and Arai and worked with Roksonaki since 1994, traveling to Berlin for the Asia Festival in that year. Yerlan maintains an active performance schedule. In addition to traveling to Germany, he has played concerts in Austria, China, France, Italy, Lebanon, Mexico, Laos, Turkey, and Vietnam.

Galymjan Sekeev

Musician/Composer/Arranger/Sound Engineer. Master of the Kazakh traditional plucked instrument jetigen. Galymjan graduated from Kurmangazy Kazakh National Conservatory in Composition in 2002. He also has a degree (2006) in Sound Engineering from the St. Petersburg Humanitarian University of Trade Unions. Galymjan has been a member of Roksonaki since 2004.

Dr. Dina Amirova

Ethnomusicologist/Roksonaki’s Manager. Dina has a B.A. (1984) in Theoretical History from Kurmangazy Kazakh National Conservatory and a Ph.D. (1991) from the St. Petersburg Academy of Art History, where she wrote her dissertation on the art of traditional Kazakh song. She conducts research on traditional and contemporary Kazakh music and has published extensively on the topic. Dina has worked in music education, radio, and television, as a consultant for the Aga Khan Foundation for Culture and a Presenter at the 2002 Folklife Festival. She is the author of the liner notes for Roksonaki’s albums and publications about their work.

Dr. Helen M. Faller

Cultural Anthropologist/Project Creator. Helen has been involved in cultural exchange with Central Asia since 2002 when she worked with Roksonaki at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. She has worked with musicians, visual artists, handicrafts artisans, and religious leaders from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. Her committed belief that anthropological knowledge should be applicable compelled her to develop this series of Central Asian University Residencies in 2005. In 2007, Helen created Mosaiqa Records (www.mosaiqa.com) as a platform for promoting Central Eurasian music to western audiences. Helen recently finished a book manuscript on Kazan Tatars, based on her dissertation (Ph.D., University of Michigan 2003). She is also Development Director of Hotel Obligado Physical Theatre in Philadelphia and a freelance grant writer in community development and the arts.