BORIS SICHON Boris was born in 1954 in Dnepropetrovsk , Ukraine, where in 1973 he finished Musical High School, in the study of percussion instruments. He left his home town for St.Petesburg to continue his musical education in the Academy of Music. During his studies he started working in the St.Petesburg Symphony Orchestra, where he worked with well known Russian conductors such as Yevgeny Mravinsky, Shostakovich, Badchan, Karapetian and many others. After graduation form the Academy, Boris was invited to join the Jewish chamber musical theatre in Moscow as a stage musician and actor. After six years Boris left the theatre for a five year period of work as stage musician, dance and singer in the main Russian National Folkloric Band. During this period he had an opportunity to visit and perform in 25 different countries, on 5 different continents, where he started to collect traditional local instruments and learned to play from well known native musicians. From 1990 onwards Boris worked with the Footsbarn traveling Theatre (France) as a musician and actor. He went traveling , collecting instruments, and rare and valuable musical information with the Theatre Company. He then spent 5 years in Israel, working with Habima National Theatre, teaching at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, writing music for films and plays, as well as performing a great deal. When Boris came to Canada in 2004 he began performing right away, leading workshops, creating music for theatre, participating in most Folk Festivals in the country (Vancouver Folk Fest, Comox Music Fest, Edmonton Folk Fest and etc..) Boris is the owner of a unique collection of ethnic musical instruments that he compiled traveling around the globe. His collection now comprises over 200 rare and unique musical instruments. A comprehensive list of the items in the collection can be found at Boris' website at www.sichon.com.