She’Koyokh is London’s “klezmer sensation” performing Eastern European and Balkan
folk music at international festivals and concert halls, on BBC television and radio
while keeping it real at weddings and on the streets.
Established with the support of a Millennium Award through the Jewish Music Institute
in London, this popular band is now at the forefront of the revival of Eastern European
roots music in the UK, bringing a fresh, energy to an extensive repertoire ranging
from exhilarating Bulgarian and Turkish music to soulful Ashkenazi melodies from
the villages in Poland, Romania and the Ukraine.
Since their Southbank debut at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall when She’Koyokh premiered
a klezmer concerto by Jewish composer Rohan kriwaczek, the ensemble has toured the
UK and internationally. Highlights include the Jewish Cultural Festivals in Krakow
and Munich, Glastonbury and the Edinburgh Festival, Buskers’ Bern and the Concertgebouw
in Amsterdam.
She’Koyokh was awarded first prize at Amsterdam’s International Jewish Music Festival
competition in 2008. Their first album, Sandanski’s chicken is released on the ARC
label. The second album, Buskers’ Ballroom, launched in 2009, is dedicated to the
founding member and accordionist, Jim Marcovitch (1974 –2008).
Susi Evans
“I have never heard any other clarinettist pull so many notes out clean and clear
at such a breakneck pace, or with such infectious enthusiasm.”
Oxford Times.
Susi is a founder member of She’koyokh. It was while studying in Hungary at a clarinet
summer school that she first became inspired by klezmer and gypsy music, and in
2001 attended London’s first ‘Klezfest’ at SOAS University. She has travelled to
Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey and the Czech Republic, and in Istanbul she studied with
the acclaimed clarinettist, Selim Sesler.
At the age of 16 Susi attended the Purcell School, one of Britain’s few specialist
music schools. She won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music where she studied
the clarinet intensively with London’s top orchestral musicians. She graduated with
a first class degree in 2004. Susi plays regularly at the New London Theatre in
the National Theatre’s production of Warhorse. She also plays with FDT Klezmorim
and Bucimis.
Matt Bacon
Guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, Matt Bacon, has been a working musician since
the age of twenty, playing practically all jazz and pop styles and performing all
over the UK and Europe.
After completing a music degree at Goldsmiths University where he focussed on composition
and arrangement, Matt turned to acoustic music and joined She’koyokh in 2002. He
has travelled extensively in Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Greece, Turkey and India
researching the variety of musical cultures.
Meg Hamilton
Millennium Award winning, classically trained violinist and violist, Meg Hamilton,
has played with She’Koyokh since she met the band at Klezfest in 2002. Intensive
studies of Greek, Turkish, Arabic and flamenco music have led Meg also to co-found
the Kosmos Ensemble
www.kosmosensemble.com
collaborate with musicians such as Nitin Sawhney at the Southbank, star with the
Bombay Dub Orchestra at the Big Chill Festival, play the fiddler’s music in the
Fiddler On The Roof production that got picked for the recent West End run, make
her debut with Joglaresa on the mediaeval fiddle, tour Europe and record with Oi
Va Voi, jam with Roma musicians in Istanbul restaurants and bazouki players on the
Greek island of Hydra while performing occasionally in London with the SOAS Rebetiko
band, and play with Turkish classical music ensemble Nihavent, as well as with Arabic
music ensembles and the new contemporary flamenco dance group, La Tipica.
Vasilis Sarikis
Vasilis Sarikis is a frame drummer and multi-percussionist, born in Athens, Greece.
He is passionate about percussion instruments and rhythms from a wide variety of
the world's cultures, especially styles and sounds that transcend religious and
national boundaries. He studied jazz drumming with Nikos Sidirokastritis and hand
percussion with Vangelis Karipis and Giorgos Gevgelis. He currently lives in London
where he works with other Eastern Mediterranean, Central Asian, You Locate It oriented
projects, notably the Attab Haddad Ensemble, Bucimis, top Azerbaijani violinist
Sabina Rakcheyeva and singer, and neyzen Kalia Baklitzanaki. He has also collaborated
with musicians from jazz and other backgrounds including Gilad Atzmon, Stuart Hall,
Kit Downes, Amanda Drummond and Alua Nascimento.
Cigdem Aslan
Cigdem Aslan sings in Turkish, Kurdish, Greek, Ladino and several other Balkan languages.
She has always loved singing, as it was integral to her family life in Turkey. While
studying English literature at Istanbul University, she performed Rebetiko, Sephardic
and other Turkish ethnic music with the Istanbul University Music Club Band. She
moved to London in 2003 and joined Dunav, Britain’s first ever Balkan ensemble.
She is currently studying Music at Goldsmith’s University, and has broadened her
repertoire with guidance from Bulgarian singer Dessislava Stefanova. She is in high
demand for collaborations, European tours and cultural TV appearances with Balkan
musicians including members of London’s SOAS Rebetiko band. She also has a passion
for English traditional music and has recorded with English folk singer, Boo Scher.
She joined She’Koyokh in 2008.
Ben Samuels
Ben Samuels is a theatre artist and musician. Originally from San Francisco, he
studied Theatre Creation at the London International School of Performing Arts,
and now works as a performer, writer and director, in the UK and Europe. Recent
work includes writing and performing in The Gravity Project with Counterweight Theatre,
assistant directing The Idiot Colony with Redcape, and directing The Second Wife
for Kudu Arts. A self-taught mandolinist, with roots in the Irish-Jewish community,
he found Jim busking in London’s Covent Garden and joined up soon afterwards.
Oliver Baldwin
Oliver was a member of Dunav, London’s first band of British musicians to perform
Eastern European music. Dunav was founded by his father, who plays the Bulgarian
tambura (an instrument similar to the bouzouki). In 1986, Oliver won a scholarship
to study ethnomusicology in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. As well as playing the bass with
She’koyokh, Oliver plays North African, Eastern European and Balkan music with Mukka,
gypsy music with ŽiG and jazz with Professor No Hair & The Wig Lifters. He also
moonlights as an accordionist with the Oscar Pavel Trio.
Robin Harris
Robin Harris trained as a jazz trombonist at the Guildhall School of Music, London.
He is now an extremely versatile freelance musician performing in many styles: jazz,
ska, funk, soul, samba, salsa, Balkan, klezmer and more. He is a multi-instrumentalist
playing the trombone, piano, bass trumpet, sousaphone and double bass. He also composes
and arranges music for films and theatre, such as Benya Krik and The Masque of the
Red Death. He produced Scrubs Sessions, an album of music made by the inmates of
London’s Wormwood Scrubs prison.
Frazer Watson
Frazer is She’Koyokh’s versatile percussionist currently based in Scotland, specializing
in Balkan, Macedonian and Middle Eastern music. He has travelled extensively in
the Balkans and was awarded a Churchill Grant to study Gaida (Bulgarian bagpipes)
and tapan ( Bulgarian drum) traditions. His performing experience has ranged from
Jazz bands on cruise ships to punk and new wave groups, folk ensembles (Yash Bash
and Mukka) as well as to playing with Mohammed Nafea and his Babylon Band, bagpipes
with Innerleithan Pipe Band, the Matt Seattle Band and the Stobo Village Ceilidh
Band; He has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe and at Celtic Connections in Glasgow.