"Songs My Father Taught Me" is an enticing anthology of music of Eastern European origin. Marko Dreher, a conservatory trained violinist, recently recorded this spirited CD that includes traditional melodies on tamburitza, as well as classically-inspired arrangements on violin of Romanian (Georges Enesco) and Hungarian music. Dreher achieves amazing virtuosity particularly in the numbers that feature him on violin. He plays with astonishing dexterity, fluency, and most importantly...soul! This cd is a MUST-HAVE for all music-lovers!

Marko Dreher was born into a family of Croatian musicians in Chicago in 1983. He began classical violin studies and started sitting in with his father’s tamburica band at the age of four and has played tamburica professionally since age seven. Marko has toured with I Solisti Di Zagreb, as well as with such greats as Zvonko Bogdan and Miro Skoro. He performs regularly with  Otrov and Harmonia.

In 1998 Marko was the youngest person to ever receive the TAA (Tamburitza Association of America) founder’s award. Marko has degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and The Cleveland Institute of Music and is on the faculty of the Music Institute of Chicago.

He has served on the staff at the Eastern European Folklife Center (EEFC), which runs internationally acclaimed summer school programs to train Balkan musicians, singers and dancers.