Stoyan Yankulov - Stundzhi

STOYAN YANKOULOV-STUNDJI (Percussion) graduated from the Musical School in Sofia and the Prof. Pancho Vladigerov National Academy of Music, majoring in percussion. For seven years, he was a member of the Bulgarian National Radio Big Band. He has performed with rock, pop, and jazz bands, as well as with folk ensembles in Bulgaria and abroad. He has appeared at folk and jazz festivals in Europe, the U.S., and Japan. He has participated in projects with Bobby McFerrin, Mike Stern, Juan Garcia Herreros, Okay Temiz, Kornel Horvath, Carlo Rizzo, Enver Izmailov, as well as with Theodosii Spassov, Ivo Papazov, Milcho Leviev, Simeon Shterev, Yıldız İbrahimova, Anatoly Vapirov, and Petar Ralchev. He has numerous recordings of jazz, pop, and ethno music. This has strongly influenced his unique playing style. Yankоulov manages to make percussion instruments sound like an orchestra, so that listeners are sometimes left with the impression that more than one percussionist is playing. He breaks away from and enriches the traditional way of playing drums, the tapan, and other percussion instruments by applying new techniques and unconventional musical ideas. By combining authentic folklore with new expressive means in percussion, he showcases the diversity and uniqueness of Bulgarian musical culture. His discography includes dozens of albums featuring jazz, folk, rock, fusion, and Latin artists. He has participated three times in the Eurovision Song Contest with his own projects, earning prestigious placements for Bulgaria.