Jazz pianist Mikhail Alperin was born in the Ukraine in 1956 and raised in rural Moldavia, completing his classical studies in 1976 and going on to a career as a freelance composer and arranger. In 1980 he formed one of the first Moldavian jazz groups, over time increasingly incorporating elements of traditional Russian music into his work; Alperin later teamed with Bolshoi Theatre/Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra hornist Arkady Shilkloper, and in 1989 the duo earned international acclaim for the ECM release Waves of Sorrow. The following year the twosome formed the Moscow Art Trio with vocalist/clarinetist Sergeij Starostin, issuing Folk Dreams in 1995; that same year, Alperin also arranged performances uniting the Bulgarian women's choir Angelite with the Tuvan vocal group Huun Huur-Tu. ~ Jason Ankeny