Beginners Balalaika Workshop Series

We are excited to share with you an incredible 

COMPLETELY FREE opportunity to learn something new!

LEARN THE BALALAIKA...

in just 4 weeks!

You may remember the Manchester Balalaika Society's Kalina Balalaika Ensemble playing in the Cosmo in March. Well now, they are offering to give us the chance to get involved!

• Sign up for a series of four beginners Balalaika workshops, free of charge. These will be weekly, starting on Wednesday 11 November, 1.30-2.30pm in the Danel room in the MHC; and will continue for the three consecutive weeks after that. (Workshops take place on 11 Nov, 18 Nov, 25 Nov and 2 Dec 2026 - you must attend all four. Please note that 18 Nov will be in SU14 not the Danel room) 

• Open to UoM Music students or UoM students and MUMS members who already play another instrument or have a musical background. (Please only sign up if you are available 1.30-2.30pm on each of the dates i.e. 11, 18, 25 Nov and 2 Dec. You are not permitted to miss any classes, seminars or lectures to attend.)

• Led by an experienced teacher. This Kalina member, is as seen on BBC, ITV and on paramount+ in "A Gentleman in Moscow" with Ewan McGregor!   

• Focus on basic playing techniques, a simple repertoire, ensemble playing, and public performance skills.

• Instruments loaned to participants for the duration of sessions.

• Workshop participants will have the chance to show what they've learnt, performing together in a short informal concert, held at the Martin Harris Centre on Weds 9 December, 1.10pm (with a morning rehearsal, subject to availability).

If you want to try a new instrument and learn a new skill, don't miss out...sign up now!

Want to see the professionals in action? 

Members of the Kalina Ensemble will perform in a free pre-concert performance at the MHC, before the Danels, on Fri 11 Dec 2026, 6.30pm-7.15pm. Open to all and no booking required.

Find out more about Manchester Balalaika Society, the Kalina Ensemble and the Balalaika below:

Link to some of Kalina's recordings on bandcamp: 

A recording of a rehearsal of “The Cossack Rode Across the Danube/ Iхав Козак за Дунай”

Manchester Balalaika Society is a community group for adults and young people (7 years upwards) who meet weekly in South Manchester. The group plays instruments from Russia and Eastern Europe, predominantly balalaika and domra (prima to contrabass size). We welcome new players including beginners. We also have a singing group who perform with the players. The group was founded by Manchester Music Service in 1984 as a youth orchestra drawing largely on players who were receiving tuition on balalaika and domra in local schools.

The Kalina Ensemble is a group of Manchester-based musicians specialising in a repertoire played on Eastern European traditional instruments.

The principal instruments belong to the lute family of plucked stringed instruments. The domra – round-bodied, and played with a plectrum – has an ancient lineage; the balalaika – with a triangular body, and with strings plucked or struck with the fingers - seems to be a more recent development (first mentioned in 1648 in connection with the arrest of two players causing a nuisance outside the walls of the Moscow Kremlin). All the main sizes of these instruments –from prima to balalaika contrabass – are featured in the ensemble. The line-up is augmented by other specialist musicians, e.g. players of Eastern European wind instruments and bayan; Kalina also features singers in a repertoire ranging from popular Russian ballads and composed pieces to traditional folk songs performed in a unique characteristic style.