User:Aberkok/sandbox

Early life
Berkok was born December, 1978. He grew up in Pointe-Claire, Quebec; Peacehaven and Lewes, East Sussex; and Kingston, Ontario where he completed a Bachelor of Music degree at Queen's University.

Later life and career
Shortly after moving to Toronto in 1999, Berkok took to playing jazz gigs, forming collaborations with colleagues attending Humber College including saxophonist Peter Van Huffel, later occupying the piano chair in the Toronto Jazz Orchestra which consisted of students and alumni of the Humber and University of Toronto jazz programs. In 2005, Berkok attended the Banff Centre Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music where he first truly encountered free improvisation, and the idea of composing for jazz ensemble. Shortly thereafter, these ideas coalesced into compositions for his first group, Arkana Music, who released two albums.

In 2007 Berkok began a long-standing collaboration with Mike Smith and Pete Johnston as he entered the ranks of the critically acclaimed band Muskox with their third album 'Gallantries'. During his tenure with the band, Berkok

Work
Berkok co-leads the band Aurochs, an electro-acoustic quartet that emerged after the dissolution of Muskox.

Discography
An asterisk (*) indicates that the year is that of release.