Maxim Kaixin

The Wolfgang Press was an English post-punk band, active from 1983 to 1995, recording for the 4AD label. The core of the band was Michael Allen (vocals, bass), Mark Cox (keyboards), and Andrew Gray (guitar). The group is best known for its 1992 international hit single "A Girl Like You (Born to Be Kissed)".

In his early childhood, Starostin started to sing in a boys choir led by Vadim Sudakov. He started to play clarinet in school, and later graduated from Merzlyakov college of music, and then from the Moscow Conservatory. After graduation, he abandoned academic music for a while, completely switching to traditional folk instruments, tunes and non-tempered scales. By mid-90s, however, he started to collaborate with jazz musicians Mikhail Alperin and Arkady Shilkloper, forming a Moscow Art Trio group, and mixing together jazz and ethnic (Russian and Balkan) music. In his ethno-jazz compositions Starostin avoids harmonizations, staying within certain scales rather than sticking to chord patterns, which makes jazz played this way more "compatible" with traditional folk music. As of year 2011, however, Starostin is gradually moving from jazz and rock compositions back to more authentic folk traditional performance.

Works of Sergey Starostin are rooted in various folk traditions of nations inhabiting modern Russia. He participated in folk music research expeditions, and recorded several thousands tracks of authentic songs and instrumental compositions. In 1991 Starostin produced a series of TV programs called "World Village", and as of 2008 runs a different program named "Wanderings of a musician" at the Russian TV channel "Kultura". In 2006 he worked as a musical producer for the animated feature film "Prince Vladimir". Sergey Starostin also collects, and makes himself, traditional musical instruments; reads lectures, and gives master classes on history and theory of Russian traditional musical culture.

While many CDs and concert programs feature Starostin playing "Rozhok", it worth mentioning that actually he plays not the folk wooden trumpet, known as (Vladimirsky rozhok), but a "Tverskoy Rozhok", which is a reed instrument, also known as zhaleyka.

Yuri Mikhailovich Antonov was born into the family of an officer of the Soviet Army, Mikhail Vasilievich Antonov, who after World War II stayed to serve in the military administration of Berlin. Yuri's sister, Zhanna (Jane) was born there. His mother, Natalya Mikhailovna (Litovchenko), who was from Kremenchuk (Poltava Region), died in 2008 at age 85.

Antonov is one of the most popular and successful artists on Soviet 70's-80's pop scene despite the fact that some of his songs (especially in early period) were banned by Soviet censorship. He appeared to an international television audience as a performer in the opening ceremony of the Moscow 1986 Goodwill Games.

He has composed music for the films Take Care of the Women! (1981), Before We Part (1984), Beauty Salon (1985) and Fools Die on Friday (1990). He has released 30 albums, including a 19-track CD in 1992 on Mezhdunarodnaya Kniga, entitled Mirror.

Awards:

- Antonov was named a Distinguished Artist of Chechnya-Ingushetia (1983) and a People's Artist of Russia in 1997.

- He is the recipient of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" (4th class), Order of Honour (Russia), Order of Friendship (Russia), and Order of Francysk Skaryna.

- In 1997 Yuri Antonov received a star on the Star Square in Moscow.

- He also received the Living Legend Award at the Ovation Awards in 2000.

DakhaBrakha is a Ukrainian folk quartet which combines the musical styles of several ethnic groups. It was a winner of the Sergey Kuryokhin Prize [ru] in 2009 and Shevchenko National Prize in 2020.

DakhaBrakha is a project of the Dakh Contemporary Arts Center, led by Vladyslav Troitskyi and born as a live theater music crew. Troitskyi continues to be the band's producer. Members of DakhaBrakha participate in the centre's other projects, notably in the all-female cabaret project Dakh Daughters, as well as in the annual Gogolfest festival.

Grazhdanskaya Oborona (Russian: Гражданская Оборона, [ɡrɐʐˈdanskəjə ɐbɐˈronə]), Russian for Civil Defense, or ГО, often referred to as ГрОб, Russian for coffin) were a Soviet and Russian rock band formed by Yegor Letov and Konstantin Ryabinov in Omsk, USSR, in 1984. They were one of the earliest Soviet and Russian psychedelic/punk rock bands. They influenced many Soviet and, subsequently, Russian bands. From the early 1990s, the band's music began to evolve in the direction of psychedelic rock and shoegaze, and band leader Yegor Letov's lyrics became more metaphysical than political.

5'nizza (slang spelling of Ukrainian: п'ятниця [ˈpjɑtnɪtsʲɐ] (audio speaker iconlisten), meaning "Friday") is an acoustic group formed in 2000 in Kharkiv, Ukraine that disbanded in 2007 and reunited in 2015. It is made up of friends Serhii Babkin (Сергій Бабкін, guitar), and Andrii "Sun" Zaporozhets (Андрій Запорожець, vocals).

The band's music has a combination of influences: reggae, Latin, rock and hip hop, which is performed in a minimalistic folk style limited to vocals, beatboxing, and acoustic guitar. Despite lack of support from large labels, the group attracted cult following in much of Central and Eastern Europe, notably Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Poland and Germany.

5'nizza's song "Натяни" ("Natyani") was featured on American Idol, Season 16 Episode 2, on March 12, 2018 in the USA on ABC Television, when sung by Idol contestant Misha Gontar. Although the judges were intrigued by his Ukrainian rap, he was not invited to continue in the competition.