Peter Bonos is a San Francisco Bay Area musician, bandleader and event producer based in Piedmont, California. He plays trumpet, oud and euphonium in klezmer, Balkan brass, Turkish and related Eastern European and Mediterranean traditions. He leads Orchestra Euphonos, is a founding member of Fanfare Zambaleta, and co-founded Duygu & Friends. Peter also produces the Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal at The Starry Plough in Berkeley, bringing musicians and audiences together for concerts, dancing and community celebration.
Peter Bonos plays trumpet, oud and euphonium in a variety of musical styles, including klezmer, balkan brass, and Turkish music. He produces The Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal, a monthly concert series at the Starry Plough. He is a founding member of Balkan brass band Fanfare Zambaleta and is the bandleader of Orchestra Euphonos, an instrumental Eastern European folk ensemble specializing in Moldovan music and Klezmer. He has also performed and collaborated with Alaturca Connection, Zirzuvi, Kali Orkestar, Duygu Gün and many more artists in the Bay Area Balkan and Klezmer and Turkish music scene.
Peter is a musician, audio engineer, and event producer from Santa Rosa, CA, currently based in Oakland. He earned his Undergraduate Degree in Liberal Arts at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, from 2004-2008, concentrating in music, while mentored by jazz saxophonist Marty Ehrlich. Peter studied German at Amherst College and studied abroad with Hampshire College in Berlin and Eastern Europe. In his final year of undergraduate studies, Peter formed a klezmer ensemble with Hankus Netsky at the Yiddish Book Center.
Upon relocating to the East Bay in 2010, Peter began his work with the Jewish Music Festival, serving as assistant director, technical coordinator, audio engineer and festival committee member for the production of over 30 concerts and cultural events throughout the Bay Area. From 2012-2017, Peter worked at the Jewish Community Center of the East Bay, providing operational support for a variety of intergenerational community activities and events. He served on the board of KlezCalifornia, where he produced festivals and contributed to strategic planning 2014-2016. He is currently employed by Congregation Sherith Israel as program manager where he has worked since 2017. In 2023, Peter produced the Sephardic Music Festival at Sherith Israel in collaboration with Anatolian Arts Institute.
Peter Bonos plays trumpet, oud and euphonium in a variety of musical styles, including klezmer, balkan brass, and Turkish music. He produces The Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal, a monthly concert series at the Starry Plough. He is a founding member of Balkan brass band Fanfare Zambaleta and is the bandleader of Orchestra Euphonos, an instrumental Eastern European folk ensemble specializing in Moldovan music and Klezmer. He has also performed and collaborated with Alaturca Connection, Zirzuvi, Kali Orkestar, Duygu Gün and many more artists in the Bay Area Balkan and Klezmer and Turkish music scene.
Peter is a musician, audio engineer, and event producer from Santa Rosa, CA, currently based in Oakland. He earned his Undergraduate Degree in Liberal Arts at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, from 2004-2008, concentrating in music, while mentored by jazz saxophonist Marty Ehrlich. Peter studied German at Amherst College and studied abroad with Hampshire College in Berlin and Eastern Europe. In his final year of undergraduate studies, Peter formed a klezmer ensemble with Hankus Netsky at the Yiddish Book Center.
Upon relocating to the East Bay in 2010, Peter began his work with the Jewish Music Festival, serving as assistant director, technical coordinator, audio engineer and festival committee member for the production of over 30 concerts and cultural events throughout the Bay Area. From 2012-2017, Peter worked at the Jewish Community Center of the East Bay, providing operational support for a variety of intergenerational community activities and events. He served on the board of KlezCalifornia, where he produced festivals and contributed to strategic planning 2014-2016. He is currently employed by Congregation Sherith Israel as program manager where he has worked since 2017. In 2023, Peter produced the Sephardic Music Festival at Sherith Israel in collaboration with Anatolian Arts Institute.
Peter began studying trumpet as an adolescent in Santa Rosa, receiving private instruction from David Fichera and Pete Estabrook. At Santa Rosa High School, he performed with Chamber Winds and Symphonic Band. He also composed and played electric guitar with his first band, the Set-Up, which later became Polar Bears after Peter’s departure. He played trumpet with the local eclectic funk/rock band Sexually Transmitted People and the new music chamber ensemble Triste Sin Richard, formed by cellist Chris Votek.
At Hampshire College, Peter was mentored by jazz saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Marty Ehrlich. His studies ranged from modern jazz and improvisation to electroacoustic music and sound design. He developed experimental approaches to a resonating steel plate using Max/MSP, later concentrating on acoustic solo trumpet and small ensemble performance. He also performed with Hampshire’s Jazz Improvisation Orchestra and the Smith College Gamelan Ensemble, and participated in a community performance of Terry Riley’s In C in Brattleboro, Vermont.
Peter discovered a passion for Eastern European music while studying klezmer with trombonist Brian Bender and flutist Adrianne Greenbaum. He went on to form a student ensemble under the mentorship of Hankus Netsky and founded the Frelekh Valley Orkestar, which performed at the Yiddish Book Center. He continued his study of klezmer and Yiddish music on scholarship at KlezKanada in Quebec, working with artists including Frank London and Susan Hoffman Watts. He has also served on the board of KlezCalifornia and performed at its Yiddish Culture Festival.
Study abroad in Berlin in 2007 brought Peter into contact with community brass bands and experimental musicians. Later travels took him through Eastern Europe and Turkey. In 2017, he studied at a Roma music camp in Skopje with Sani Rifati and saxophonist and clarinetist Ferus Mustafov, and visited the Guča brass festival in Serbia. In Turkey in 2022, he studied with Salih Korkut Peker and Christina Gkika at Music Köyu in Fethiye. During a return visit to Berlin in 2017, he performed with Big Beats Big Times in the inaugural Spiecher concert series, staged in a historic underground water cistern.
After relocating to the East Bay in 2010, Peter taught himself euphonium and became an auxiliary member of Inspector Gadje. He subsequently focused on Balkan trumpet playing with Fanfare Zambaleta, of which he is a founding member. The band has studied and performed with Nizo Alimov and Demiran Ćerimović, appeared at festivals around the Pacific Northwest, and performed regularly at Ashkenaz and Kafana Balkan. Fanfare Zambaleta was featured in the documentary Balkancisco and performed at its San Francisco premiere in 2024.
Peter formed Orchestra Euphonos in 2011. The ensemble’s klezmer and Eastern European folk repertoire developed through sustained mentorship and collaboration with Moldovan Roma accordionist Sergiu Popa and Romanian and Moldovan artists including Ionela Guzic, Marian Milița and Viorica Onuț. Performance highlights include the Oakland Athletics’ Jewish Heritage Night, Balkan Night Northwest and Balkan Fest San Diego. Peter also co-founded Duygu & Friends, performing Turkish, Anatolian and Mediterranean repertoire on oud and trumpet.
His collaborations span traditional music, experimental performance and recording. He has worked with Alaturca Connection, Saul Goodman’s Klezmer Brass Band, Zirzuví, Kali Orkestar, Ali Yagiz Sen, Shireen Nabatian, Dror Sinai and the Feldthouse Family Band. From 2011 to 2015, he performed trumpet and newly invented instruments with David Samas. Earlier collaborations include Tyler Green of the Lumerians and Jonas Golland of the Tiger Lillies. His recording work has included Tipsy, Fat Worm of Error, Two Prong, Justine Lucas and Jonah Uttal (Madame X). He has also performed with Bob Marsh, Jack Callahan, Michelle Alany and the Mystics, Taluna, Zebu, Jeremy Starpoli and Neil A. Young, known as Cloaca and Bromp Treb.
Alongside performing, Peter has built a career in concert production and community programming. At the Jewish Music Festival, he worked as Assistant Director and Technical Coordinator, helping produce concerts with artists including Yemen Blues, the Klezmatics, David Krakauer, Jewlia Eisenberg, Daniel Kahn and the Painted Bird, Diwan Saz and the Bustan Quartet. In 2011, he helped establish and manage the Ger Mandolin Ensemble, a musical revival project led by Mike Marshall, Eric Stein and Jeff Warshavsky and commissioned by Avner Yonai.
Since 2020, Peter has produced the Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal at The Starry Plough in Berkeley. His work also includes Voice of Roma’s Herdeljezi festival, the SF Sephardic Music Festival, and many years as Kafana manager and Dance Hall stage manager at the EEFC Balkan Music Workshop. Today, he continues to perform, produce community music events, teach trumpet and provide live audio and event support.