In Bulgaria's communist period government efforts to suppress the form proved futile as it rapidly established itself as the musical and performance yardstick by which folk musicians in Bulgaria were measured, and still are today.

Yuri Yunakov was born in 1958 of Turkish Rom ancestry in the city of Haskovo, in the region of Thrace (Bulgaria). His first instrument was the Bulgarian kaval (end-blown wooden flute) which he began playing at the age of eight. He soon switched to tupan (two-headed drum) so he could accompany his father's and brother's clarinet playing at weddings. Yuri is a self-taught musician, learning by ear from family members and colleagues. As he puts it, "The neighborhood was my school."

After a professional career in boxing, he returned to music and took up the clarinet himself with his brother's wedding band, which played Turkish and Rom music. In the early 1980s Yuri was approached by Ivan Milev, the Bulgarian accordion virtuoso, who encouraged him to learn saxophone and join his acclaimed wedding band, Miadost. With guidance from Milev, Yunakov mastered the Slavic Bulgarian repertoire and developed into a mature musician. In 1985 Yuri, with Mladost, won third prize in the Second National Festival of Bulgarian Instrumental Music in Stambolovo.

In 1985 Yuri's dazzling musicianship came to the attention of Ivo Papasov, the legendary clarinet player and guru of the wedding band movement in Bulgaria, Ivo Papasov invited Yuri to join his band Trakija, a true phenomenon in Bulgaria at this time. During the following years Yuri and Ivo achieved the fame which rock stars achieve in the West. But despite his reputation, Yuri was repeatedly harassed, fined, and twice sent to prison, all for playing Rom and Turkish music, which were then prohibited as part of the Bulgarian socialist government's program to eliminate "foreign" elements in Bulgarian music. Yuri Yunakov emigrated to the United States of America in 1994 and was immediately welcomed into the Turkish and Rom communities in New York as an musician of unending energy and power. One year later he founded his present ensemble, The Yuri Yunakov Ensemble in the image of the Trakija orchestra.

Yunakov is in great demand among the Macedonian, Bulgarian, Albanian, Turkish, Armenian, Arab, and Rom communities in the New York City area. Since 1994 he has taught at the Balkan Music and Dance Workshops in Maryland.

New Colors in Bulgarian Wedding Music (Traditional Crossroads 4283, 1997)

Balada: Bulgarian Wedding Music (Traditional Crossroads 4291, 1999)

Roma Variations (Traditional Crossroads 4306, 2001)