Edward Kagansky was born in a small village near Kishinev, Moldova (formerly known as Bessarabia) in 1952. As a child, Kagansky longed to play the piano, but his father couldn’t afford one. Instead, he came home one day with a small suitcase containing a beautiful miniature accordion. Soon Edward was playing with local Roma musicians. By the time he reached his early twenties he was learning the klezmer (Jewish party) repertoire while traversing the Moldavian countryside with an octogenarian badkhn (folk poet and wedding entertainer) who went by the name of “Nakhes” (fulfillment).
In 1990, Kagansky left Kishenev, moving his family first to Cuba, and then three years later to Burlington, Ontario, but he never forgot his klezmer roots.
