bandbio=In the spring of 1982 while attending Ukrainian School in Oshawa Alex Fesiak (vocals, accordion), Steve Uriadka (saxophone) and Yar Haluk (drums) got together and formed the band Dunai. Over the next year we added Myron Haluk (trumpet, vocals), Steve Hrywnak (guitar) and Taras Dzikiewicz (trumpet, vocals). Yar came over one day with 3 cassettes in his hands. Hey Al, (Yar calls me Al) I just got back from Toronto and bought these new albums. You've got to hear these Ukrainian bands! He had Burya, Solovey and Veselka. Now at this point in our lives we were feeling pretty good about our music, which was nothing more than ten songs learned from that little yellow book. You know "Let's Sing Out in Ukrainian" the book every Ukrainian kid gets sent to camp with. We sat and listened to the tapes endlessly. We loved the different styles each band offered. Ron Cahute's singing and playing made me want to throw my accordion off the Bloor St. Bridge (Tato would have had issues). We wanted to find out more about these bands. Our chance came when CYM in Oshawa got Veselka from Montreal to play the 1984 New Years Eve dance. Veselka was incredible! My jaw hurt from dragging it across the dance floor. We met Ihor Zowtonizka (lead singer, guitar) and Bill Kinal (bass, backing vocals) from Veselka for the first time. Yar and I have the autographed album to prove it. Ok, now I've never told this to Ihor but Steve Uriadka brought his pocket tape recorder that night to record the band. Two weeks later it was Solovey's turn at Odessa Hall playing for Malanka. Once again we were amazed by the sound of the band. One week later we saw Burya at Lviv Hall. Everything changed after this! This was 7 piece Burya (not 3 or 4, but 7), and when they played every part of your being needed and had to dance. (Ron's not paying me to say that). We all sat down during one of the breaks and just looked at each other without saying a word. We gathered some courage, walked up to Ron Cahute and Bill Hawryschuk (drums) and humbly introduced ourselves. These guys actually cared to listen and speak with us! Ron sincerely offered to help us in any way he could. "I think you guys need a demo tape!" After seeing these three bands over a four week period Dunai had just gone through a sort of religious experience. Each one of us took back something different from seeing these performances. I right away went into "I'm going to learn every damn pieces of Burya music there is." And I did! If I got stuck, I would call up Ron and he would either send me the charts or invite me over for a lesson. After a few months Dunai really started to change from within. Each of us as musicians had accelerated our musical abilities and knowledge of Ukrainian music. It was time to make the demo tape. Ron and Bill showed up to Odessa Hall in Oshawa with their entire recording gear one fine Saturday. It took us about three hours. The results were great! I still have that tape. Over the years our friendship with Ron, Bill and the rest of the guys in Burya became stronger and many times they invited us on stage to perform with them. Over the next 4 years we started to really make a name for ourselves due to the amount of performances we had done. Bill Hawryschuk called me one day and told me that the Burya we all new was breaking up. Ron had decided to reorganize the group into a three piece band. Bill asked me if I would be interested in playing a Malanka with Burya. I think I waited about .000001 seconds to answer him. The deal was this, since I new most of the Burya repertoire I would play and sing the songs and the rest of Burya would back me up. There were another couple of surprises. Ihor Zowtonizka had recently moved from Montreal and wanted to start performing in Toronto. Bill got Ihor to join us for that night. He also called Steve Sherman (I knew Steve for years as a manager at Kalua Music where I rented and purchased much of our gear) an incredible guitar player. On January 10th, 1987 I performed with Burya, Ihor and Steve at St. Anne's Church Hall in Scarborough. To say the least the night was incredible! For me it was truly an experience I will never forget. Bill Hawryschuk booked a couple more gigs with just Ihor, Steve and me. The band was called "Bill Hawryschuk and the Melody Rockets" (don't look at me it was Bills idea). At this time I invited Ihor and Steve to play with Dunai. Well if you've followed the story Dunai right about now has eight members. We started to make some big changes in the Dunai lineup over the next few years. The new lineup was Ihor, myself, Steve Sherman and Yar. Yes, everyone else got a nice parting gift! (We actually made the changes with out any issues; we're still all good friends). &txt2=Steve Sherman - Born October 25 1959, Steve Sherman was raised in a musical family. His father Sol Sherman, a prominent Toronto trumpet player and jingle producer and his mother Aileen, a jazz vocalist and lyricist exposed Steve to melodies and tunes as early as 2 days home from the maternity ward. It was at age 8 when Steve had decided that music was in his sights, and namely, the guitar was his instrument of intrigue. Heeding "professional" advice from his father, Steve studied formal guitar privately for 4 years, striving to maintain a balance between weekly hockey practice, social interaction which included biking and go-kart racing, and daily guitar studies. Once again, father Sol though it best to have "the talk" with Steve emphasizing the importance of putting your instrument on the top of the priority list. The following week, Steve gave in his team jersey, hung up his helmet and began music theory classes in conjunction with formal classical guitar studies once a week. Playing throughout grades 5 and 7, Steve was often involved with a couple of combo ensembles, 4 and 5 piece bands rehearsing and performing contemporary standards and pop tunes around Toronto. He attended Malvern Collegiate Institute in 1973 where, along with the mandatory list of academic subjects, he studied trumpet and played with the Stage Orchestra for 4 consecutive years. While still studying guitar privately and playing concerts around town, he completed his high school years, earning his diploma as well as honor credits in music performance. It was in 1979 when Steve Sherman attended York University that his interest in jazz composition and performance became apparent. Steve studied Musicology, as well as Composition and South Indian music still continuing his private guitar studies with his jazz teacher, Brian Katz. His involvement with Brian led to numerous contacts with other jazz students well skilled in ensemble work. Today, in fact, Steve continues to perform with many of these fine players. Currently, Steve owns and operates "Steve Sherman Productions", a fully digital recording production facility, available for musicians, groups and producers to record, mix and master their works and projects. Steve has 3 cd's to his credit; 2 with the Steve Sherman Project, a fusion jazz collection of Steve's compositions, and most recently with the Steve Sherman Trio, entitled "5 Speed Standard", a collection of jazz classics and contemporary compositions. &txt3=Ihor Zowtonizka - Born in Montreal Quebec, Ihor's musical appetite began quite early. Growing up in the Ukrainian community namely St. Mary's Orthodox Church, the church choir intrigued Ihor. Under the direction of Mr. Ivan Kozaczok the church choir had quite the dynamic; they sang their hearts out every Sunday. Both of Ihor's parents were part of this choir. Ivan Kozaczok was also the director of the Ukraina choir which had the opportunity to tour somewhat around Quebec and Ontario, Ihor's parents and sister were also active participants of this choir. Ihor's musical desires were already well embedded by this time. The live music scene in Montreal was growing rapidly with the likes of Rushnychok, Syny Stepiv and a myriad of other bands. This was the beginning of a long time passion for Ihor. Growing up Ihor studied classical piano. His most memorable teacher was Ms.Marianna Paunova, An accomplished musician; she pursued a career in opera leaving Montreal for Moscow. During this period there were many other activities Ihor participated in such as the Ukrainian soccer team, Rosemount high school soccer and most every other sports team. A lot of time was spent playing hockey as well. Speaking of Rosemount High, The auditorium was a very popular hang out. Ihor participated in the performing band playing trumpet, baritone and bass guitar, and singing in the choir for the duration of high school.It was during this period that Veselka was born. Let's go back a little bit; Andy Czerny had an accordion. He was actually very good at the instrument, which prompted Ihor to play along on the drums. Oleh Kobyleckyj decided to play bass guitar, Roman Wusaty played guitar. The drums took a lot of convincing of Ihor's parents but somehow it worked out. We had many rehearsals, mostly at the church hall, most likely because the parents neither could not take the Ukrainian wedding march and Smoke on the Water over an over and over... Then, there was a gig, the first one, at the church hall, in front of people. Everything went as well as expected, and at 15-16 years old this was a big thrill. After some personnel changes and a little maturing, now called Veselka, the band went on to be on of the most prominent bands in Montreal with Ihor, Andy Czerny, Ronnie Kolanitch and Bill Kinal. This band existed for twelve years with this line up and went on for many more with some different players, quite an accomplishment. Already living in Toronto, Veselka was playing in the US for a festival along with Burya, a very popular band in Toronto. Bill Hawryschuk was the drummer at the time. Bill introduced Alex to Ihor and Steve and the rest as they say is history. Now playing with Dunai, For 15 years or so, the journey seems like it just began. Ihor still resides in Toronto with his co-vivant Maria and four children, two of his and two of hers. &txt4=Alex Fesiak - born in Toronto, Alex grew up in a home where Ukrainian music was always being listen to and enjoyed. He was exposed to many different genres of music at an early age by his uncle Karl who lived close by and always seamed to have something new. His most vivid memories were that of traveling in the car with his family on long trips during the summer and singing along to all the Rushnychok albums. On one of those trips, with help from his father, Alex learned how to play the harmonica. Seeing that Alex had a passion for music, his father Michael, a self taught accordion player, started teaching him to play the instrument at the age of 10. For the next 5 years Alex would study with his father to learn the basics of the instrument and then took private lessons from Eugene Zahrebelny a local accordion teacher. During this time his parents also enrolled him into a music program run by the Ontario Conservatory of Music where he studied mostly music theory. During grade 7&8 Alex joined the school band and learns to play the clarinet. While attending Ukrainian School in Oshawa in 1982, Alex asked his fiends Yar Haluk and Steve Uriadka to join him on stage to perform a few Ukrainian songs at an upcoming school concert. Based on the success of their performance the trio decided to form a band and call themselves Dunai. With the formation of Dunai Alex became much more focused on practicing and learning his instrument. During his high school years the band started to develop their repertoire, performed at many functions and started to gain a following throughout the Ukrainian community. By the end of high school Alex had decided to pursue a career in engineering and today works as a global account manager for Freescale Semiconductors. In the years to come Alex and the band start developing their own sound and stage presence and with the addition of new members Ihor Zowtonizka and Steve Sherman they record their first CD "I Search the World" in 1991. Dunai’s 2nd CD "Soundscape" launched in 2000 and was a defining moment in Alex’s musical career. Today Alex and the group are busy performing and are starting to prepare for a new recording. Stay hungry, stay foolish! &txt5=Jeremy Haluk - Yar began playing drums at the age of twelve in junior high school. He was lucky enough to have a music teacher who was also a drummer and introduced Yar to the basic drum rudiments. His musical highlight at this time was playing a drum solo during the school band's rendition of the Peter Gunn theme, a police show from the 1950’s. At the age of fifteen, Yar’s father bought him his first drum kit and he took to practicing on it daily for hours at a time. He continued studying music and playing percussion throughout his high school years. By this time Yar felt that in order to further his playing technique, it was necessary to study privately and so he took lessons with David Monis, better know to those in the Ukrainian community as the fantastic drummer for the Burya band, for two years. After graduation from high school, Yar auditioned and was accepted into the Humber College Jazz Program. Here he spent two years, studying with drummers such as Toronto jazz legend, Don Vickery, as well as fusion and studio great Paul DeLong (Kim Mitchell, Tom Scott). After Humber, Yar took Paul’s advice and studied privately for two years with Rick Gratton, another great Toronto based drummer well know for his live and session work (The Boomers, Ian Thomas), as well as for his incredibly popular instructional books "the Rick’s Licks series" which have earned him endorsements from well know drummers throughout North America. Throughout all these years, Yar has enjoyed learning as much as possible about the art of drumming from all these great drummers, and at the same time, has progressed as a fine drummer in his own right with the Dunai band. Playing live and in the recording studio is as much of a passion now as it was when he started playing with Dunai some twenty years ago.