The Sierra Nevada
Balalaika Society

 

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SNB Orchestra, Feb. 2009

Zeny N. Ocean

  • President, Sierra Nevada Balalaika Society
  • Prima Balalaika, Kontrabass Balalaika
  • Member since 1992

Dr. Zeny Ocean is the founder of the Sierra Nevada Balalaika Society, and a past president of the Balalaika and Domra Association of America. He has performed with various balalaika orchestras in the USA and in Russia, as well as at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. He plays domra, piano, guitar, accordion, and saxophone. Dr. Ocean has over 20 years of experience in traditional, biological, mercury safe and biocompatible dentistry; he pursues a holistic/biological dentistry philosophy in his practice at Zeny Ocean Dental. He is an avid mushroom hunter and the father of four children.


Jim Buehler

  • Alto Domra
  • Mandolin
  • Guitar
  • Member since 2003

Jim plays a wide variety of stringed instruments; when he's not strumming and pickin', he's vocalizing. Jim also helps provide the high-end sound on the banjo, fiddle, guitar and mandolin in a blue grass group, Homemade Jam, in the Reno area.

Rich Bremenour

  • Accordion
  • Member since 2001

Rich, an avid accordionist for many years, has been playing with the Sierra Balalaika Orchestra since early 2001. While he is of Polish heritage and enjoys and plays many genres of music, his favorite has always been the Cleveland-style Slovenian polkas/waltzes; however, after playing alongside balalaikas and domras he's tapping his foot to a different beat now and enjoying it tremendously. When he's not playing music, he works as Technical Services Director for a private newspaper corporation.

Margaret Dalrymple

  • Gusli
  • Piano
  • Flute
  • Member since 2008

Margaret is a press editor for the Univ. of Nevada Press. She has worked in the publishing industry for over 25 years as a freelance fact-checker and translator; as a manuscript editor, acquisitions editor, editor-in-chief, and assistant director at Louisiana State Univ. Press; and as editor-in-chief, acting director, and assistant director at the Univ. of Nevada Press. In addition to her work with the Univ. of Nevada Press, she serves as a freelance publishing consultant for university presses, trade publishers, and private clients.

Ketevan Dvali Konko

  • Vocalist
  • Member since 2006

Ketevan, a contralto, earned her Bachelor's Degree in Piano and Voice  from  Tbilisi Music College (Republic of Georgia) and a Master's in Music and Voice performance from  Pedagogical  University (Republic of Georgia). She holds a second  Master’s Degree in Music and Voice performance from Univ. of Nevada, Reno. She trained in the classics and performs in seven languages.  She has performed in six countries of the former USSR, National Opera House of Tbilisi and in Nevada, with  various orchestras as a soloist. She taught piano and voice at the music school in Georgia, in Reno and in the Lake Tahoe area.

R. Steven Murdoch

  • Vocalist
  • Member since 2004

Steven, a tenor, is the Controller for Fitzgeralds Casino/Hotel. He graduated from the Univ. of Utah with a BS in Accounting. At the University, he appeared in Fiddler on the Roof and Once Upon a Mattress. Steven has sung with the Sierra Nevada Master Chorale for more than 14 years as a soloist and as a chorus member. He has sung with the Nevada Opera chorus in many productions. He was Counsel for the Plaintiff in Trial by Jury with the Nevada Opera for Artown. He played the role of Sam Polk in the opera Susannah, with the Lyric Opera Theatre at UNR. He performed the role of Jinx in Forever Plaid with the Western Nevada Musical Theatre Co. He performed as Gaston in La Traviata with the Nevada Opera.
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Janis Ocean

  • Secretary & Treasurer, Sierra Nevada Balalaika Society
  • Bass Balalaika
  • Member since 1992

Janis brings some sensibility to our practice and our performance programs. She's our behind-the-scenes-leader, even though our founder, and her husband, Zeny, thinks he's in charge.