Person attributes
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.
