About myself:
I was born in the country of mountains, rivers and dzhigits near the Caspian Sea. There I graduated from the music school with bayan and spesialized school with domra. There I decided that domra is an instrument of the future and I still stick to this illusion. Then a train brought me to Kharkov and I entered the HII Kharkov Institute of Arts. After that I spent a couple of years in Moscow in “Russia” ensemble under the tactful direction of Lyudmila Zykina. When I got tired of this tactful direction of “the golden voice of Russia”, in a railway carriage # 13 I left for Kharkov again, where successfully worked for three years in the same Institute of Arts as a teacher. The success was so great that in 1997 I left for the “decaying Europe” as a free-lance musician. Far from my motherland, in sunny Holland, I recorded my first four discs and met the aborigins: Y. Bashmet, V. Slobodyanik, V.Spivakov, V. Gergiev. The aborigins were satisfied with the acquaintance and still boast of this fact. Then I spent three years in Prague, where I started conquering jazz and where my first disc with jazz elements was recorded. In 2004 I made my own jazz project SOLOMINBAND which still keeps making the Ukrainian listener happy.

About music:
We’ve made friends with music so long ago that I don’t even know what to say… Oh, well, I’ve remembered! Not so long ago I tried to play with one quite famous musician and at our first rehearsal he claimed that he ‘has no time for creative work’ and the first rehearsal turned out to be the last one. I’m sure, that music mostly is creative work, otherwise it loses its sense.

Favourite Composers:
Last infatuation – H. Murakami, also fond of S. Lukyanenko.

About literature:
Last infatuation – H. Murakami, also fond of S. Lukyanenko.

About cinema:
“The Terminal” really struck me in 2006. I was moved both by the idea and the way it was expressed. But in general I’ve always been impressed by true art and true artists, no matter whether they make movies, conduct the orchestra or paint (I realize I’m fully subjective!).

About cities:
I love Cologne. It’s somehow absolutely not German, sometimes I fees as if it’s from the other planet. For me this city is filled with gothic romance, with spirit of the history of civilization. I love Kiev very much… for different reasons. One of them – the Russian writer Michail Bulgakov lived here.

Dream:
I wish people indifferent to literature, loved it; I wish people never spoke of music as classical or pop, but as good and bad; I wish people could really think more often; I wish we could resist herd instinct.

Plans for future:
To live (a good life!).