ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Rumen "Sali" Shopov

Born in the Turkish/Muslim Romani ("Gypsy") mahala (neighborhood) of Gotse Delchev, Bulgaria, Rumen was the pride and joy of a Romani family that loved to have relatives and neighbors over to sing all night. Rumen thus learned many traditional songs by ear. Rumen was a working musician on doumbek (goblet-shaped drum) and guitar by the time he was in his teens, playing in the popular band "Biljana" for local Roma, regional ethnic groups, and visiting Greeks. In 1978, Rumen was invited to join Gotse Delchev's state folk ensemble, then the most respectable kind of employment for a musician. In this group, the "Nevrokopski Ensemble for Folk Songs and Dances" (the first state ensemble in Bulgaria, est. 1946), Rumen's talent and discipline earned him the advanced positions first of tambura (long necked folk lute) soloist and then of concertmaster while he was still a teenager. He collaborated with the ensemble's music director, Petar Avramov, and its artistic director, the respected composer Zapryu Ikonomov, on arrangements for the orchestra and on ethnomusicological research in the villages around Gotse Delchev. Rumen was able to travel abroad with the ensemble, a rare privilege during the Cold War, and he toured Western and Eastern Europe as well as Canada. At the same time, Rumen continued to play with the bands of the mahala, taking up the very important role of tapan (double-headed bass drum) player for three-day weddings. In Gotse Delchev's highly competitive multi-ethnic musical marketplace, Rumen became popular for his powerful playing, for his leadership, for his ability to negotiate both the Romani entertainment scene and the national Bulgarian music system, and for his facility with Romani, Bulgarian, Turkish, and Greek musics. As the founder of the bands "Biljana" and "Shturo Make" Rumen became well known throughout Bulgaria for performances with some of the country's most famous singers and instrumentalists.

In 2002, Rumen began to play and teach in the United States and Canada, where his career has flourished amid increasing demand for both traditional Balkan and traditional Romani music. He has served on the faculty of the East European Folklife Center's Balkan Music and Dance Workshops, Kosmos World Music Camp, World Folkdance Workshops, Arcata Folk Festival, Stockton Folk Dance Camp, the San Francisco Kolo Festival, Balkanalia, Sulhaila Salimpour's School of Dance, and the Jazz School of Berkeley, CA. He has also been a guest artist and teacher at UC Berkeley, Stanford University, The College of Santa Fe, and the University of University of Oregon, Eugene. He has performed and toured with the Yuri Yunakov Romani Wedding Band, the Rumen Shopov-Ismail Lumanovski-Chris Bajmakovic Trio, Ivan Milev, Kolevera Folk Ensemble, Eugene Hutz (of Gogol Bordello), Kitka, Edessa, Anoush, Ziyia, Trio Slavej, Frank London, and his own band Orkestar Sali. In addition, Rumen has won numerous awards in regional and national competitions for his musical accompaniment to Greek folkdance ensembles. In March, 2006 Rumen celebrated the release of "Soul of the Mahala" a disc of traditional and original music featuring performances by Rumen, his son Angel "Acho" Shopov, and Romani musicians from Gotse Delchev, Bulgaria on the Voice of Roma/Romani Routes label. Profits from sales of this CD will benefit Voice of Roma's humanitarian aid work in the Balkans.

Rumen is the recipient of grants from the Creative Work Fund, the Alliance for California Traditional Arts, Creative Capital MAP Fund, and The National Endowment for the Arts, and the Fund for Folk Culture.

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