Vadim Kolpakov

About me:

VADIM KOLPAKOV is one of the most prominent and renowned Russian Roma (Gypsy) 7-string guitarists in the world. He was a lead musician of the Moscow Roma (Gypsy) Theatre Romen, where he performed as a guitarist, composer, vocalist, dancer and dramatic actor. To this day, his original guitar compositions are performed in many prominent plays at the theatre as part of the vibrant oral tradition of the Russian Roma culture. Hailing from Saratov, Russia, Vadim graduated from the Roma performing arts school Gilori and studied guitar with his uncle Alexander Kolpakov, the virtuoso Russian 7-string guitarist who served as the musical director of the Romen Gypsy Theatre for over a quarter of a century. At the age of 15, Vadim began work at the Romen Gypsy Theatre, where he worked for 8 years and was the leading guitarist for 7 years. Vadim has performed extensively in Russia and abroad. He has given concerts in Carnegie Hall (New York City), as well as in the Kremlin (Moscow) for the Russian president Putin, the Kazakhstan president Nazarbaev, and for both the Finnish and Portuguese presidents and parliaments. Vadim has also performed in Europe with the Russian Gypsy group Gelem as lead guitarist, and performed in the famous Roma festival Khamoro in the Czech capital, Prague. He has performed in innumerable other musical projects on Russian, Canadian and American television and radio and was invited to record his own compositions for the soundtrack of the Finnish motion picture Mire Bala Kale Hin. He has recorded several CDs with Alexander Kolpakov and the group Gelem. In 1999, Vadim participated in the major concert tour 'Gypsy Caravan' as part of the famous Romany group The Kolpakov Trio. Selected as leading representatives of the Russian Romany musical tradition, The Kolpakov Trio gave several unforgettable concerts in America and Canada together with premier Gypsy musical groups from 5 other countries: Taraf de Haiduks (Romania), Antonio El Pipa Ensemble (Spain), Musafir (India), Kaly jag (Hungary) and Yuri Yunakov Ensemble (Bulgaria/USA). The New York Times singled out Vadim's virtuoso guitar playing while playing on that tour, which was organized by World Music Institute and included over 15 major American and Canadian cities, including an appearance at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts (Washington D.C.) and Sanders Theatre at Harvard University. In 2003, the Russian American ensemble TALISMAN invited him to reconstruct and record music of the Russian Roma of the 1820s. The resulting recording, A Tribute to Stesha, was released by NAXOS in 2005, and the program was featured at the Boston Early Music Festival 2005. In that performance, Vadim repeatedly brought the audience to their feet with his expert guitar skills, his passionate dancing and also his singing. Since then, he has recorded several other collaborative projects with the group to be released in 2007, including Dostoevsky’s Jews and Gypsies (music and dance vignettes drawn from The Brothers Karamazov) and Mikhail Vysotskiy and the Gypsies (an examination of the musical sharing of vocabulary between the early Russian and Roma guitar and vocal traditions. With TALISMAN, he has taken part in performances and lecture/demonstrations at Harvard University, Boston University, Oberlin College, University of Iowa and Grinnell College, and interviews on NPR, teaching audiences about the Roma nationality and cultural tradition through music and dance. Vadim has also performed and recorded Romany activist songs with Eugene Hutz (the lead singer of Gogol Bordello), which he hopes will promote understanding of the Roma nationality and human rights. In 2004, Vadim assembled his own group VIA Romen, which has performed at venues such as the New York Gypsy Festival (Roxy Club, NYC), The Festival of International Cultural Exchange (Portland, Maine), at the clubs such as the Avalon and the Middle East (Boston), Club Pearl (Miami), Signet Club at Harvard University, Royalty Theatre (Clearwater, FL), Regent Theatre (Boston) among others. Music by VIA Romen was featured at the Sydney Theatre (Australia) for the production of The Cherry Orchard by A. Chekhov as well as in the documentary movies by Mundi Romani (Romedia) production. Vadim’s musical repertoire includes Russian- and Roma-style compositions by Alexander Kolpakov, music by Sergey Orekhov, 19th-century Russian 7-string guitar repertoire and his own compositions and improvisations on Romani, Russian, classical, jazz, rap and world music. He works exclusively in the oral tradition and have been teaching traditional Roma guitar, dance and vocal repertoire as an Artist-In-Residence at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and to students in his private studio. In 2008 and 2009 Vadim went on Madonna's world tour "Sticky&Sweet" as part of the Kolpakov Trio.