   
Balalaika Stooges. Russian music ensemble. New York-Pennsylvania
Russian music ensemble "Balalaika Stooges" musicians: Sasha Ressetar (balalaika), Michael L. Sensor (balalaika), Andy Koslow (balalaika contrabass), Serge Rogozin (balalaika), and Riccardo Heald, playing Balalaika with pick, balalaika
with finger and domra. We trained with Steve Wolownik, the Lady who ran
the St. Andrews Balalaika group. We also trained with ourselves, (like all
real worthwhile enterprises if you catch my drift.)
We like playing the deep in the heart Pennsylvania sound. Serge plays at a higher level and will be insulted by this so you should write to him for how he likes to play. 
Riccardo Heald (with domra) We got our start years ago when somebody asked for balalaika music and all the other musicians had snuck out to the bar and we were the only ones left holding instruments. We are at the bottom of the darwin evolution tree, yet like cockroaches, when all the other fancy musicians have died out we will be around playing our rote, repetitive, neuron burned in russian music for mall shoppers who believe we are the venice manadolin choir. 
Serge Rogozin (with balalaika) We will work for lodging, eats and booze and late night party sing-a-long and dance-a-longs. Some of us will work for access to Russian musicological PhD thesis. One of us will work for GI Joe dolls. Giving us a map to where you want us to play your gigue gaurantees we show up otherwise we get lost a lot. We like our vodka neat, our shoes unpolished, and all sheet music shredded.  13 seconds videoclip (MPG format) Report of the 68th Novogodniy Ball, near PennDel, PA 16 Jan 04
Sasha Ressetar, Serge Rogozin and Riccardo Heald attended the 68th Novogodny ball near the decrepit town of
PennDel, PA. Sasha (moe), the organizer and musical leader contacted The PennBO balalaika force pool to see if they wanted to play the job,
Larry (rick) and Curly (Serge) answered the call for an informal PennBO cluster-jam performance.
Balalaika player Sasha Ressetar
Upon arrival we discovered the "official" swing band knew how to play
"the good stuff." The dancing was a joy to behold. A whole ballroom
of dancers doing polkas, line dances, waltzes, chicken dance,
hopaks......AND troika, konoithcka...etc these guys know their old
style russian folk ballroom dances. This sophisticated,
spelling-challenged, erudite, boulivadier of a New York City dweller
got his badly needed "deep Pennsylvania" shmengy brothers polka fix.
While we were not "an official part" of the festivities, we did crash
the main dining hall, "for a nominal fee" and played at one of the
tables while the swing band was taking a break....much to the delight
of the ball attendees who took a gadjillion photos and movies of us.
With the showman-like-precision of trained circus poodles we performed
brilliantly and also delighted the band on break. They even paid the
"Three Stooges" the compliment of thanking us for our wonderful
"mandolin playing". The fact that it was heartfelt made it all the
more poignant.
RELATED LINKS PennBO · Penn Balalaika Orchestra Alumni Assoc. |
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Afterwards the Three Stooges repaired to an upstairs hotel party room
were we serenaded guests with all the tunes that we were able to
"remember-that-we-know" as opposed to the much larger set of all
"the-tunes-that-we-know", if you get the reporters drift. We wowed the
late night hard core revelers until the early hours of the morning.
The audience got a chuckle when Larry (Rick) said to the audience,
"You should all be more drunk and be singing!", one person in the
audience bemoaned the fact that "nobody drinks like they used to any
more"......touching indeed. The crowd all remembered Steve Wolownik
and somebody suggested lovingly that we go to Steve's cemetery and dig
him up. Yes, I wish we could have.
