BAYMELE
Matthew Stein - violin
Dmitri Gaskin - accordion
Misha Khalikulov - cello
Founded in 2018, Baymele — "little tree" in Yiddish — is a klezmer and Eastern European folk trio rooted in the San Francisco Bay Area on unceded Ohlone land. Avid ethnographic researchers, they perform newly rediscovered gems from Ashkenazi Jewish, Polish, Romanian, Ukrainian, and Hungarian folk music traditions, alongside original compositions.
The members of Baymele have performed and recorded with many noted artists, including Tsvey Brider, Rupa and the April Fishes, Vadalma, StringQuake, Saul Goodman’s Klezmer Band, and Mahala.
ALBUMS
SAPLING (2025)
Baymele's debut instrumental album embodies the idea of new growth from old roots. It’s a celebration of diasporic Jewish folk music, Polish folk music, and the band’s attempts to blend the two styles.
KOSMOPOLITN (2022)
Tsvey Brider’s genre-bending, lushly expressive original compositions to Yiddish poetry from the first half of the 20th century evoke a world of humor, beauty, oddity and wistfulness.
PERFORMANCES
UPCOMING
JULY 19, 2025: Embassy of Traditional Music (Warsaw, Poland)
JULY 20, 2025: Zmiana Klimatu (Białystok, Poland)
JULY 22, 2025: Klaus (Halberstadt, Germany)
PAST
JULY 31, 2023: Passage 13 (Halle, Germany)
JULY 19, 2023: Embassy of Traditional Music (Warsaw, Poland)
JULY 16, 2023: Sherlocked (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
JULY 13, 2023: Muzikantenhuis vzw (Ghent, Belgium)
APR 30, 2023: North Bay Jewish Music Festival (Petaluma, CA)
DEC 18, 2022: Calliope East Bay Music & Arts (Albany, CA)
AUG 13, 2022: Fun Stuff @ Raining Chainsaws (San Francisco, CA)
JULY 12, 2022: Jalopy Theatre (Brooklyn, NY)
JULY 10, 2022: Yidstock (Amherst, MA)
JULY 5, 2022: Boston Festival of New Jewish Music (Boston, MA)
JULY 3, 2022: The Back Room (Berkeley, CA)
JULY 3, 2022: Maybeck Studios (Berkeley, CA)
MAR 31, 2022: UCLA (Los Angeles, CA)
MUSIC
MUSICIANS
Matthew Stein (he/him) is a violinist, violist, and composer. He studied ethnomusicology and computer science at Wesleyan University, where he founded klezmer, Balkan, Irish, and classical music ensembles. In the Bay Area, Matthew has performed and recorded with Baymele, Romanian band Mahala, and Eastern European band Orchestra Euphonos. Matthew was the violinist in the critically acclaimed 2022 production of Indecent at the San Francisco Playhouse.
Outside of music, Matthew is a puzzle, escape room, and immersive experience designer.
Dmitri Gaskin (he/him) is an accordion player, composer, and arranger specializing in klezmer and Romanian folk music. He performs with several klezmer bands throughout the Bay Area, including Baymele, Tsvey Brider, and Saul Goodman's Klezmer Band, and has taught at KlezKalifornia. Dmitri was the accordionist and music director of the 2022 production of Indecent at the San Francisco Playhouse.
Outside of klezmer music, Dmitri won the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award for contemporary classical composition. He also formed Harmonikos, a performing collective of young composers and musicians. Dmitri has studied accordion with Josh Horowitz and Alan Bern.
Misha Khalikulov (he/him) is a cellist and music educator based in the Bay Area. He holds a degree in Classical Cello Performance from UCLA under the tutelage of Antonio Lysy. Misha is a member of Rupa and the April Fishes, contemporary chamber/world music group StringQuake, Hungarian folk/crossover group Vadalma, and klezmer trio Baymele. He performs and records as a solo cellist, electric bassist, guitarist, in classical chamber music ensembles, and with musicians and artists covering many musical genres and disciplines.
CONTACT
Baymele is available for concerts, weddings, b’nai mitzvahs, and other special events.
We’d love to hear from you at baymeleklezmer@gmail.com, on Instagram, or Facebook.