Stephen M. Wolownik

Stephen M. "Steve" Wolownik (July 22, 1946 – May 18, 2000) was a pioneer in the Russian and Eastern European music community in the United States.

Wolownik is buried in Lawn Croft Cemetery in Linwood, Pennsylvania, in the shadow of his boyhood home.

Popular in the 1910s and 1920s, the cabaret-style ensemble usually had no more than 10 members and played in small, intimate settings, often performing pieces which were not precisely Russian in appellation, but perhaps more Gypsy, Jewish, or Ukrainian in origin.

In keeping with the cabaret tradition, Wolownik did not limit himself strictly to Russian music, but also arranged Romanian, Hungarian, Moldavian, Gypsy, and klezmer tunes, some of which had never been played on anything other than the native instruments for which they were composed.

Despite his commitment to serious musicianship, some have claimed that Wolownik, who had an irreverent sense of humor, was a living embodiment of the skomorokhi of old Russia, street musicians who actively poked fun at both the Tsars and the Church.