Fond memories, dozens of rehearsals and many very successful shows will always connect us to the people presented below. For one reason or another, they are no longer performing with us but their influence, hard work and resolve have most certainly left a mark in the history of this group. For that, we dedicate this corner to them.
(The names do not appear in any particular order.)

Monty Montgomery is originally from Macon, Georgia. He grew up in a family steeped in Southern Appalachian Gospel and country, mostly in the Sacred Harp tradition in Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee and Louisiana. A predominantly self taught musician, he learned to play in pentacostal churches as a kid. This led to a lifelong interest in sacred trance music — from the Charismatic religious songs of his youth to Chassidic Nigums to studies in Lukumi music of Cuba.
In 1990 Monty moved to New Orleans to study Jazz at UNO — and there discovered he had neither the talent nor the wardrobe to look or sound like a Wynton clone. Continually curious about hard groove based music, he got into Secondlining with Brass Bands and enjoying the Mardis Gras Indian music. These sounds have continually influenced his ear. In 1991, he co-founded the Panorama Jazz band — a group playing Jazz, Klezmer and Balkan music with a Nola accent. The group still performs in New Orleans.

While on tour in France in 96, Monty serendipitously discovered the wonders of Balkan wedding band music and traveled to Turkey and Bulgaria to check it out — the combination of exuberance and melancholy coupled with the infectious groove reminded him at once of all of the types of music he loves. Since there was absolutely no scene for this in New Orleans he continued playing in Jazz, Latin, Zydeco, Reggae and Funk bands until moving to D.C. and discovering the Balkanics in their basement. He particularly enjoys musical dialogue across separate musical cultures (a philosophy which serves as a convinient excuse for playing wrong notes) and loves to infuse his interpretation of Balkan music with his other influences. If there is a Heaven (a question he rarely ponders), it will be replete with Hillbilly soneros singing Arabic Takims over a Rumba band with a funky secondline Sousaphone line pumping out the eternal Zydeco groove… in 7/8.
Awards: Best Soundtrack for Play (with Sean Garmon), Offbeat Magazine 93; Best Folk and Ethnic Album (with Mike West) 94, 95; Allains Francais Creole Music Award (with Panorama) 96;

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Davidione Pearl is originally from Cleveland, OH. A job opportunity brought him to the Washington, D.C. area in 2005. He wasted no time and immediately started looking for a gig playing his horn. A Craig’s List ad by the Balkanics peaked his interest and he started showing up to rehearsals regularly in February of 2005. In his own words, he loves all styles of music and was not afraid of trying something new. Davidione played only a couple gigs with us before unexpected circumstances made it necessary for him to relocate back to Cleveland in late 2005. Davidione’s persistance, his fun personality and those wicked F# accidentals will always make us smile.

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Andria plays saxophone, flute, xylophone, and other things. She practiced and performed with us for a couple months in early 2005. Before joining the Balkanics, Andria played in a band in Oakland called the Lemon Lime Lights that did an eastern-european-blow-torch-meets-Tom-Waits kind of thing. She was the lead saxophone, often harmonizing with the clarinet and on more melodic tunes, she played xylophone. Andria has previously played in various kinds of bands — jazz, traditional Irish, so she adapted to weird keys and modes pretty quickly.

Richard Nunno is a local guy who played accordion with the Balkanics during the summer of 2005. He had only recently started taking accordion lessons playing Italian music when Monty mentioned to him about this new Balkan group in the area. Accordion was one of the instruments needed so Rick decided to give it a try. Those weird modes and rhythms did prove challenging for the beginning accordion player but he did not cave in. Hard work and persistence helped Rick stay on track until he realized that the Balkanics are aiming for a much bigger sound than he was comfortable with.

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